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TKS guys - any time, Birdhunter50.

If you do not already have the 4 Bowyer's Bible's (I, II, III, IV) I strongly suggest you add them to your library. I found these books indispensable in making my bows. So much knowledge in those volumes.
After obtaining and reading the first one, I build my first bow - an Ash board that met the requirements in grain/growth-rings/early/late growth separation - structure was chosen. In just mulling that over, I've found I've forgotten much of it and need to re-read them.
I shot that little flat bow for a time, my first bow, a success due to the information in just that first Volume. Amazing, one usually starts by building 10 to a dozen to get a first satisfactory bow. It's an amazing hobby.
Birdunter, your available wood selection is amazing. Here, I was stuck with maple, ash, red oak, purple hart, walnut, pine and spruce. Hickory was only available in the axe, adze, pitong and shovel handles in the hardware stores. Now, the local hardwood dealer had hickory planks, but none at any time that was suitable, I felt. Hickory will allow some bad grain structure, but the better it is, the less it will follow the string.

I converted the light little flat ash bow to a cable backed bow, as in some Eskimo bows used with antlers and drift wood found along the shores in the summer time. I did this to test the increase in poundage and cast relationships. It went through a lot. Originally a 'plinking' bow at 45#, I backed it with a stretchy nylon (poor choice) wound cable to increase it's 'weight' to 55pounds - not bad for a 50" stick bow, but due to the weight of the binding and cable, it's cast was about the same. Pre-stretching the cable back to almost breaking, increased poundage again, quite considerably iirc - due to the short length of the bow - and it shot like a 60 pound stick bow - until it broke - oh but what fun it was experimenting with these concepts.

I have only made 20 or 30 bows - no actual count - maybe more - many I built while on stress leave - it was good. When I found some 'good' wood at the hardwood dealer, I'd crank out 2, sometimes 3 bows in a day - 9 to 12 hours work - lots of shavings, but once you get on a roll, it was fast fun.

These usually brought $200.00 to $350.00 depending on the bow.

I still have one, an oak, shallow "D" section (bit wider than an English Yew bow) with thinner belly, but still 'D' shaped - back of one growth ring - bit convoluted above the grip. It 'works' through the handle - I like that feeling, like my double handed Spey rods, working through the handles - the bow becomes alive - man - I'm typing fast - love this stuff. Whew! now - to correct the spelling mistakes - lol.

Tom - vine maple makes some of the most interesting snake bows - beautiful! Some absolutely require a snake skin back cover. I remember a few really snaky ones at the Longbow Safari.

I've attempted a bow from bamboo but it was not successful - wrong bamboo - wrong design for THAT particular piece of bamboo, probably - don't know and did not pursue that species enough to be successful at it.

The best laminates I built, were 1/8" maple lam on a maple core, glued with either Titebond II or one of the polyethylene (expanding) Gorilla or LePage's Glues and clamped nicely (not too hard) every 3" while the glue cured or dried, as the case might be.

One of those was a maple lam bow, 72" between the nocks and 53# has not lost a pound draw in 25 years - still have tremendous string tension at brace height and good cast. this bow had 1" string follow after being made and still has only 1". It is amazing & so easy to shoot well - traded it for a Model 96 Marlin 12 bore pump Jail Guard shotgun. I've not shot the pump-gun due to the propensity for them spitting the bolt into your face- so I've read.

sorry for rambling.

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Daryl

"a gun without hammers is like a Spaniel without ears" King George V