Any one make bows from IPE any pics

[Cody Roiter]

G-day mates, I been making some bows from IPE and wanted to know how many of u guys have made or make bows from this wood.... I also back it with bamboo....

Take Care Mate's,

Cody

[pdccr]

I'm no expert but i dont know if alot of IPE grows in australia, i have read about it on TBB but i havnt heard of someone actually using it. They could import it of course. Maybe there is a different name over here and we use it alot... im clueless actually

[pdccr]

I think we might call it Ironbark, not sure. Search it on the forum, ichi and otis look like they know a bit.

[ichiban]

i dont belive ipe is grows in aus, and if you where going to import timber for me persoanly ipe wouldnt be on the list how ever i understand it makes a nice bow but so do some aussie trees

[Cody Roiter]

Thank Mate's.....

I just wanted to know if any one makes bows from it what kinds of woods do u all use for bowmaking...

G-day Mate's,

Cody

[TomMcDonald]

I know someone in America making Ipe-backed Osage longbows. He reckons they're goddamned fast (in his words).

[longbowinfected]

Ipe is mainly grown in Southern and Central America as well as in the Caribbean.
There are a number of species.
Quite often it is commonly called ironwood and even greenheart but it is not true greenheart.

Kevin

[Glenn]

Cody, I always thought that Ipe was just and industry name for a few different timber species. Over here we have a similar thing with Asian timber like merbau and balau. They are used for decking and internal stairs. They make servicable light poundage selfbows.
We have lots of timbers here for selfbows such as ironbark, there are several species of them, spotted gum and blackbutt just to name a couple, there are lots of scrubwoods and rain forest timbers as well. I have been using some bloodwood from North Queensland which is deep purple in colour and it has been a very good bow timber so far...Glenn...

[clinton miller]

i've seen that bloodwood when i meet glenn at his place. it is PURPLE! looks very pretty.

[otis.drum]

clinton,
i would prefer you not to refer to my bow wood as PRETTY!

[rodlonq]

Cody, I always thought that Ipe was just and industry name for a few different timber species. Over here we have a similar thing with Asian timber like merbau and balau. They are used for decking and internal stairs. They make servicable light poundage selfbows.
We have lots of timbers here for selfbows such as ironbark, there are several species of them, spotted gum and blackbutt just to name a couple, there are lots of scrubwoods and rain forest timbers as well. I have been using some bloodwood from North Queensland which is deep purple in colour and it has been a very good bow timber so far...Glenn...

Glenn, is the blackbutt you refer to AKA Moreton Bay Ash? Cheers, Rod

[Dennis La Varenne]

Cody,

Ipe is sold in Australia as a decking timber in boards. I have never seen it advertised under any other name. It is a Central American hardwood of the Tabebuia species. The Wood Handbook of the US Dept of Agriculture Forest Service lists a subspecies T. lapacho as having the following properties at 12% moisture content -

Specific gravity 0.92
Modulus of rupture 175,100 kPa
Modulus of Elasticity 21,600 MPa
Side hardness 16,400 N

Compared to Pignut Hickory (the strongest of the true Hickories), for instance, whose bowmaking properties you are probably fairly familiar with, you have the following -

Specific gravity 0.75
Modulus of rupture 139,000 kPa
Modulus of Elasticity 16,600 MPa
Side hardness 14,800 N

Here are the numbers for Yew (Taxus brevifola) -

Specific gravity 0.62
Modulus of rupture 105,000 kPa
Modulus of Elasticity 9,300 MPa
Side hardness 7,120 N

and Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera) (from Bootle's 'Wood in Australia", 1982) because I cannot find a US source for mechanical properties.

Specific gravity 0.85
Modulus of rupture 177,000 kPa
Modulus of Elasticity 13,000 MPa
Side hardness ? N (Osage is very resistant to knocks and blows from my experience, probably similar to Ipe)

So, you can see that Ipe is significantly stronger in all respects applying to those properties which are desirable in bowmaking. Its MoR shows that Ipe is much more resistant to breakage when bent than Hickory by 25%, and its MoE shows that it is more resistant to bending than Hickory by 30% which means that its limb speed will be much higher when the string is loosed. Surprisingly for me, it is much higher also than Osage. It is also more resistant to knocks and bumps (Side Hardness) than Hickory by 10%. Its specific gravity indicates that on average, you could make a smaller bow for the same draw weight than using Hickory, or you could make a lighter draw full sized bow for the same cast. In all respects Ipe has better mechanical properties than US Yew* (from which I have made 6 ELBs).

I have an Ipe bow here at home which I bought from 3-Rivers as a blank for an ELB which was backed with bamboo. I have also made 2 other bows from 3-rivers supplied blanks of Bamboo backed Hickory. I converted the Bamboo/Ipe blank into a narrow flatbow with a built up handle and it has very little string follow compared to the bamboo/hickory combinations and consequently it is much faster for the same draw weight of 45lbs at my 26 inches. Two bows are of the same length of 70" n-n. One bamboo/hickory bow is shorter (64") at the same draw weight.

Ipe seems better able to withstand the tension strength of bamboo - having only 15mm of string follow, but the Hickory does not withstand it nearly as well in my examples - the longer having over 20mm, and the shorter having over 30mm.

My own judgement is that there is no benefit in backing any wood bow with bamboo despite the current fashion. Hickory certainly does not need it and I seriously doubt if Ipe does either. I have never found it to add anything to any bow except unnecessary string follow.

Unless your stave shows signs of the back failing, forget about any kind of backing and certainly forget about bamboo. It is vastly over-rated in my opinion. Hickory almost never needs any kind of backing and the Central American Indians used Ipe quite successfully with no backing of any kind.

Ipe is known as Greenheart if it comes from Suriname in northern South America, but is not a true Greenheart (Chlorocardium rodiei) and more rarely it is known as Flor Amarillo.

*Compared to Australian grown Osage and some of our local hardwoods, I did not find Yew had any special properties superior to any other wood I have used in the ELB format.

Dennis La Varenne

[Glenn]

Rod, Blackbutt is a different species to Moreton Bay Ash. Blackbutt is a highly sort after building timber for house frames and makes a beautiful floor. Moreton Bay Ash as far as I know is not used for any building applications, I have never run across it over the years and there is certinally lots of it around South East Queensland...Glenn...