Last week i finally got to pick up my new custom built longbow. This bow was number 142 built by a a bowyer who is a very good friend of mine. I had him build it with red elm limbs, zebra wood and black locust riser, and he laminated bocote strips over the red elm limbs- a beautiful bow indeed. But after shooting it for a while there was some blemishes on the lower outside limb which began to show up. I took it back to him and he said whille working with the bocote it was somewhat oily wood and it looked as though it did not bond together in some area of the limbs, on the outside of the limbs where it gets the most stress form shooting. I continued to shoot for a couple of days, finally on one of my shots i pulled the bow back and there was a loud crack, i looked at the bottom limb and the bocote veneer separated from the red elm, she was done for. He is now building me another bow-- just sticking with red elm limbs-what he prefers to use, pau ferro riser, and cherry wood for the cap--should be a real beauty of a bow.

Sounds good. Post some pictures when it is done.

lamainates on limbs is tricky with exotic woods for sure

Out of 142 bows he built, mine had to be the one to end up in the crapper, go figure,--when i told him to laminate the bow with bocote, i had no idea it can be oily wood at the time. Tough lesson to learn from, but boy that bocote wood is sure an eye catcher, with such unique grain, i guess beauty can be a downfall sometimes...I will post some pic. of my new custom bow when she comes home...
RobinHood36>>>=============<>

You could always ask him to veneer the limbs in Bocote.

Too bad about the first bow. I've seen some beautiful bows with bocote veneers under the glass. But I like red elm too.

I used bocote for the riser on the longbow I made and it definitely is an oily wood. It took a lot of cleaning with acetone before I stopped getting a lot of yellow color out of gluing surfaces of the riser.

Bobco19-65, thats exactly what he did is used a thin piece of bocote veneer and laminated on each side of the limbs over the red elm.
Arthur, he did use acetone to clean the oily wood, the belly side of the limbs were just fine, but the outside of the bottom and top limbsis where the white blemishes started showing up, it got worst the more i shot the bow, i guess i should of just had the belly side of the limbs done and everything would of just been dandy,... i also like the looks of red elm too, RobinHood36>>>=============<>

Only one goof out of 142 is a pretty good record, I think. I'm no bowyer, but I know bocote does require some knowledge to make it work, as do some of the other woods. Pretty bows don't shoot any better, but.......well, they are pretty!

Chad

LBR, I am gonna have to disagree with you on that statement, Put a pretty bow in my hand and to me,....well it just gives me that extra confidence booster to shoot a true arrow!