hope to finish my build along in the next week or two, and im not sure what to finish the bow with, I have been looking for deft lacquer because i heard it works good for ipe, what have you guys had success with for ipe? its oily i guess and doesn't accept most finishes

I used the minwax spray laquer ... I was looking for deft, but only found minwax .... it worked perfectly ... i can only imageine its the same as the Deft stuff. It dries in 30min or less, and you can get a real nice finish.

I found that the spray laquer also looked really good on Bocote. Did not look nearly as good as linseed or tung oil on maple though ... so for other woods than Ipe I would test it out first.

Damn that's twice this week that ole Vanillaboy has been right..  

haha i use that one about a blind squirrel just about every day. shellac and true oil sounds like a plan. thanks vanillabear and Roy!

have been wondering.... how would you apply the shellac?, spray? hand rub? apply to just the ipe or whole bow? if ipe only, mask the rest of the wood? yeah i know, im not nearly there yet, but i got this ADHD thing goin on!  Ha ha i feel like if i ask any more questions i won't be able to take any credit for building this bow! you guys are great!

Any of the lacquer based finishes will work on the oily woods. You can put poly over lacquer but not lacquer over poly. Poly wont dry on oily woods without sealing them first with a CA glue or a lacquer based finish.