I agree with Art--tough wood, not the best performer in a selfbow, probably the best to wet your feet with. I'm going from information I've gotten from talking to some very good, and a couple well-known selfbowyers--never made one myself.

Backing with bamboo will help, but it's not quite that simple. Bow design, how much wood/how much bamboo, etc. makes a big difference. You can just slap a backing on a doggy bow, and you may still wind up with a doggy bow. I've shot bb bows that were not impressive at all, and non-backed bows that were suprisingly fast.

Chad