Recurve Build #9 "The Moose"

This is another bow that I built for a friend of mine in Alaska.  She wanted me to just surprise her with any design I felt like creating.  So, with the wide-open possibilities, I thought about some woods that I had not used in the limbs before, but that I wanted to see beneath the bow glass.  One of those is woods is the beautiful and highly figured Central America Zebrawood.  I have used this hardwood in the riser of a R/D longbow, in my first build of that pattern, and it turned out really nice. I still want to try to use it in the riser of one of these 65" recurves, but I'm afraid it might be really expensive. However, using it the limbs is a different story. These wide-limb bows show a lot of grain, plus it costs no more than other exotic woods. So I decided on a color/wood scheme that would be a combination of beautiful native american hardwoods and exotic woods. It's a mix of tough and wild, perfect for Alaska.

(click any picture for a larger view)

The Zebrawood, like all woods I have put under clear glass, came out a bit darker than I expected, though it still looks wonderful. I wanted it to blend with the Curly Maple in the riser window if possible, to enhance it's super beautiful  grain and excellent figure.  It's great to look at.

The riser in an I-beam of figured walnut and curly maple.  It is extremely strong yet easy to work with. Both of these woods had great figure and produced really nice grain patterns.

I decided that I wanted to see a bit more detail in the riser, so I put a curve through the middle using 2 layers of black phenolic, sandwiching a nice strip of bamboo (another wood on the "wild" side).

The bamboo brings out a nice light tone with a hint of yellow. It blends quite well with the other woods.

The tips also incorporate a layer of bamboo between the black glass and the black phenolic. The tip is a bit dirty in this picture.

I like to have a thin layer of real wood between the string and the clear glass. I don't know why, but I think it looks better. I used a slice of Moradillo wood on this one.

Here are the stats for this bow:

• target stats: 65" AMO, 45# @28", 2" wide limbs
• achieved stats:  45#
• .040"  ULS black glass for the back
• .043"  UL clear black glass for the belly
• .070"  hard maple parallel lam for back 
• .100"  Zebrawood tapered lam for belly (taper: .002/1") (visible)
• .252"  total stack height:
• riser: 2 x 3 x 26" [walnut|maple|walnut]