Okay guys, I'm ready to learn something new. It's the offseason, and I need something to distract me for a while.

Tell me the down & dirty on bow manufacturing. I wanna know where the various manufacturers buy their limbs from, what they're made of, what grade options are available, what the differences are between them. Feel free to show your bias, and tell me why A is better than B and C. (If anyone even knows...)

After a few minutes of googling, I learned the following:

Hoyt, Matthews and Martin all make their own (or at least they DID), using materials purchased from Gordon Glass Composites. They also sell base materials to ski, snowboard manufacturers. Interesting stuff, really. www.gordoncomposites.com But, I'm sure there are nuiances to their respective assembly processes (materials, tolerances, processes, etc..).

HCA and Elite buy them pre-fabbed at Barnsdale Archery. http://www.barnsdalearchery.com/ I have no clue how Dave Barnsdale puts limbs together, but people always say he's the top dog in limb building. I wouldn't mind learning why his limbs are so great, and everybody else is playing catch-up.

I read somewhere that gordon's pre-fab limbs run around $10 per set (manufacturer cost), but I'm not sure of anyone actually using them. Like I noted earlier - most companies are buying the components from Gordon and building them themselves.

I also found out that PSE, Bear and Jennings (at least used to - not sure if they still do) use Compression Molding, where the components are placed in a mold and then pressed in high heat and presure to let the epoxy cure and squeeze the air bubbles out. Neat stuff.

I think Bowtech is compression molded as well - not sure.

And - what the heck is Magnaglass?

Also - since we will probably have a lot of visual learners in the audience for this little discussion - if you can dig up pictures, please do.

So for those keeping score at home, I notice that there are a whole lot less limb manufacturers than there are bow companies. That says a lot.


[/align]I know, I know... This is another one of my conversations that is really "out there," but it is what it is... I figure that somebody might learn something new, or I might pick up a neat piece of info to store in the databank.


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Quick, i'm guessing your google search brought you to archerytalk, correct?

edit: I ask because thats all i could come up with in my search

I worked at a Fiberglass plant after college for a short time. I was told there that they produced the materials for Mathews limbs. They sold the materials to another company that actually made the limbs. Supposedly they can be made dirt cheap.

First of all, for the most part there are 2 seperate types of limbs out there, laminated limbs and solid glass limbs. It has been shown that laminated style limbs typically can endure more stress and preload than other types of limbs.

Let's now define preload. Preload is the amount of static load on a limb, before the bow is drawn. If you want to make a bow really really fast, then lets take your 60lb brand X bow, increase load on limbs by shortening cables and string, now you have a 70lb bow that is slightly shorter in ATA, slightly more brace height, same cam position if proportionally the string/cam were shortened the same, and a 70lb bow that is significantly faster than other bows that match that draw weight, brace height, ATA, and cam profile. You also have a limb that has a LOT more stress applied to it, and statistically will usually fail faster than other designs with similar specs, and lower load or higher quality limbs. Some manufacturers choose to apply this preload for speed and upgrade to a higher quality limb to offset failure rates, and some manufacturers choose to apply this preload and push the line keeping the same limbs used on bows with less preload with what may potentially create a higher failure rate.

Many bow companies these days have extremely fast bows, and people think it is becuase they are genious when designing cams (some are good cam designs). Truth of it is some of those gains are coming from the cam profile, but a lot of them it is a combination of increased limb preload, and cam profile as well. Making a fast bow really isn't rocket science, it's a fine balance of good cam design, limb preload, acceptable brace height, and acceptable failure rate. Increase the preload on limbs, and the bow is faster than other bows with less preload, same cam profile, same ATA and brace height.

Make sense?

All of the manufacturers you listed have or use to have bows that featured limbs from Gordon. Typically (and I could be wrong here) Gordon has only manufactured solid glass limb blanks that are then further refined by the individual manufacturers to specific dimensions and tolerances. Typically these limbs that start from a solid glass blank aren't as durable and can't handle the same preload that say a laminated limb from Barnsdale may have. Keep in mind as well that some of these companies may have certain bows with solid glass limbs, and others models with higher quality laminated limbs as well. Martin is a good example, I believe they are all laminated limbs now even on the low end Bengals, but used to have models with the solid glass limbs. I believe Hoyt is now using an all laminated limb, High Country and Elite are also using an all laminated limb made by Dave Barnsdale.

Bump

I'm interested in learning more, don't want the thread to disappear yet.

Get a stick bow and dont worry about the hype. When you get down and dirty with trad gear, you will reach a new level of excitement. I cant help you with the latest manufactures. The last compound bow I built was over 7 years ago.