Alpha Capo

hey guys....whats your favorite wood thats used by bowyer's???

i like osage and cocobolo....
also i dont see ebony used very often in risers, is there a reason for that?

another wood i really like that ihave never seenin bows but more frequently in pool cues is snakewood...i think it might be a good wood for accents and veneers in bows.

JimPic

Cocobolo and osage is one of my favorite wood combo's,too.Norm Johnson of Blacktail Bow's uses snakebit wood on a line of his bows--one of the prettiest out there.

Alpha Capo

does blacktail have a website?

snakewood is very pretty if its not overused...its also hard to workwith so alot of times wordworkers end up scrapping peices if they aren't familiar with the wood...Snakewood looks great as inlays in pool cues i do know that for a fact.

i found it never mind....ive seen the site befor but never noticed the snakebit line....thanks...i really like the looks of that one piece....cocobol and ebony....nice

Alpha Capo

id be afraid to to take one of those snakebit line of bows out into the woods tho...1400+$$ and 700+for a set of limbs....maybee ill hit the lotto

LBR

That's a really hard question for me--I get to see lots of woods and wood combos, and some of the plainer woods look really nice when matched right with another wood. The accents and how the riser is put together in general makes a difference too.

Some of my favorite riser woods (in no certain order) are cocobolo, bocote, Bolivian rosewood, chechen. Some of the nicer combos to me are osage/greybark, bubinga/autumn camo, bubinga/purpleheart, andbocote/Bolivian rosewood.

For limbs, especially in a longbow, I love yew for the smooth draw and performance, but for looks/veneers I like the figured maples, bocote, Tamo ash, and beeswing eucalyptus.

True snakewood is expensive. What I've seen is nice, but not nice enough to justify the price (to me anyway). Ebony (Gaboon ebony--the solid black type) is expensive, and can be tricky. Large pieces can have cracks inside, and it can be a pain to work with. It's drab looking to me. A nice piece of Macassar ebony has a lot more color and figure, not quite as expensive, but I haven't seen a piece large enough for a riser.

If I had to choose right now, I'd say cocobolo for the riser and Japanese Tamo Ash for limb veneerwould be my picks--classy, fancy, and beautiful--even in a simple design. Oh yeah--affordable too--at least moreso than more rare woods.

Chad

Sagittarius

I'm biased but Snakewood is my favorite and, to my eyes, more beautiful than any other.
It ranks second on the Janka hardness scale only to Lignum Vitae.
It's very heavy and adds weight to your bow which I like for stability.
Here's a pic of my Snakewood bow Dale Dye built for me.
The last Snakewood bowhe will ever build as it's hard to work with.


Sag.

Sagittarius

Here's a pic of Pat L's Blacktail Snakebit bow.
The single most beautiful Blacktail recurve ever made and possibly most beautiful recurve ever made anywhere, jmo.
The Snakewood riserin this bow is awesome.


Sag.

BobCo19-65

Wow that Blacktail is beautiful.

Personally, I like Bocote. And yes, Ebony is used in risers. I have two bows with Ebony risers. Another really nice combo which really surprises me is Purple Heart and Ossage. Let me know if you want pics.

Whitehair

Like BobCo, I like Bocote and Ebony...

bigcountry

Curly maple for risers. Hickory for longbows.