Carbon Fiber?

[GreyGhost83]

Ok so I know its not traditional. But, carbon fiber being as strong as it is, would it work as backing and help keep a self bow from splintering? Also I think it looks kind of cool.

[bjansen]

I think a carbon fiber laminate would overpower the wood belly as it would be significantly higher in tension strength than the wood belly's compression strength.

[fujimo]

carbons advantage lies in high compressive strength, the spectra's/dyneema, kevlaar and nylons have a higher tensile strength.
so my approach would be carbon/ graphite on the belly and one of the other fibers on the back.
thats if you really needed to go that hi-tech!!!!!

[John Scifres]

No.  Because when you back it, it becomes a backed or composite bow and not a selfbow    

But I bet it would work just fine if you can figure out all the specifics on glue and such.  Is it in fabric like fiberglass or more like sheets of laminates?  Try it.  Show us the results.

Many moons ago in a website galaxy far far away, there was a 3M or Dupont engineer named Cooter who developed some secret fabric and distributed some of it to his bowmaking friends.  He called it Cooter Skin aka Alien TP.  It was said to be grand stuff but he couldn't talk the aliens into allowing him to sell it  

[GreyGhost83]

Originally posted by John Scifres:
No.  Because when you back it, it becomes a backed or composite bow and not a selfbow      

But I bet it would work just fine if you can figure out all the specifics on glue and such.  Is it in fabric like fiberglass or more like sheets of laminates?  Try it.  Show us the results.

Many moons ago in a website galaxy far far away, there was a 3M or Dupont engineer named Cooter who developed some secret fabric and distributed some of it to his bowmaking friends.  He called it Cooter Skin aka Alien TP.  It was said to be grand stuff but he couldn't talk the aliens into allowing him to sell it    

It is carbon fiber cloth. I found some 2.2" x 68" strips of it for a really good price

[John Scifres]

It should do fine as a lightweight backing to protect from splinters but unless you can get it to work in tension, it won't do much for efficiency increase.  Try it.  report back to us