In this thread, post a photo of a riser and we have to name the wood or woods. I'll post my three bows beginning with the Deathmaster.

Here's my Howatt Hunter.

It's a brown wood! lol

This one is toughest. It has three or four species in the riser. Can you name them?

Brown is not close enough. I'll give a hint- it's reddish brown.

If its yellow, let it mellow.

Brown, well, you know what you have to do about brown.

The deathmaster looks like stained ply wood or chip board. the Howatt looks like purple heart. Number 3 Looks like cork and stained balsa.

The first is Bubinga. The second looks like Purple Heart. The third, I don't know.

deathmaster- shedua. (except there is no such wood) amazaque is more proper. howatt hunter- purple heart. last one looks like cocobolo, maple, bubinga,and one that would be a guess. actuall all of those for the last bow are guesses!

The reddish ones with faint grain may be bubinga. On the last one the well grained part looks like cocobolo and the light wood parts may be maple. - lbg

Right on the first two. However, it will take an expert in woods to get the third.

Joe

Larry- Bubinga on the first one and of course purple heart on the Hunter. Looks like one of our top experts might be stumped on the third or might be right! Let's see some more risers.

Joe

Schmidthouse door off a tuna boat. No wait, sorry, that's a punch line I heard once. No clue what kinda wood but it sure looks good.

I'll take a shot on the last one. Imbuia, maple ebony, purpleheart?

I agree with Larry. X2!

Number three has bubinga.

Maybe.

Maple.

Maybe.

Some type of brown wood.

Absolutely!

Number 3: Brazilian rosewood... birdseye maple.. purpleheart. And I have no idea on the last one. Walnut maybe.

Go ahead and post your risers. I'll post a pic of the other side of the third bow's riser. First, here's a closeup of some of the riser wood.

Here's the back of the riser.

#3 birds eye maple, bubinga, Brazilian rose wood

robert- you might be right! However:

"The deathmaster looks like stained ply wood or chip board. the Howatt looks like purple heart. Number 3 Looks like cork and stained balsa."

The above gets me mad! Just plain MAD!!!!!! Plywood, chipboard, balsa--BLASPHAMY!

Well, since nobody else wants to post a riser, here are my three together. Bottom bow is purpleheart. Center bow is bubinga. Top bow is a mystery, but a very wise source believes it is birdeye maple, East Indian rosewood and Brazilian rosewood. However, my wise old source said he'd have to view the bow in hand to know for certain.

I'm far from an expert, but I'm seeing some bubinga in there. The reddish wood. The brown wood to the right of the birdseye maple wedge looks like East Indian rosewood to me and not Brazilian rosewood. The wavy grain wood in the grip almost looks like cocobolo to me.

If I could run a saw through #3 would have a better idea, somewhat of a connoisseur of fine dust both smell and taste ;^)

Granadillo in back half of riser, Barba Jolote front, Birdseye Maple, window. I'm going with the Central American exotics theme.

I'll look those up. I've changed my mind and decided my original source is right about the wood toward the back of the grip that has the wavy, dark pattern. It's not cocobolo. It is East Indian rosewood as he told me. In some lighting, it almost gives off a purple cast. According to the wood encyclopedia, East Indian rosewood can show a purplish- brown with dark streaks.

Joe

Granadillo and Barba Jolote look very close, but I don't think Drake used them. He would have gone with the rosewoods, as they were popular at the time. What is neat about the Drake riser is the two sides are composed of different pieces of wood.

Joe

I'd like to see more risers for us to guess at.

Here is a nice place to look; www.hearnehardwoods.com/hardwoods/exotic_hardwoods/wood_pictures.html

The most extensive pictured list of woods that I have ever come across is here ;www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/

If you click on a picture there may just be 100's of examples of each species.

Bookmark this one for myself.

Thank you! I'll check them right now. I enjoy learning about woods.

Here is another gimme for Larry.

1964 Diablo.

I think one of the woods in the drake is walnut.

I have never seen a bow from the 50's or 60's made with Cocobolo, Brizalian and East Indian were available and relatively affordable.

Here ya go, Frisky..One of the Grumley-Bear statics I designed-made years ago..The bow has 52 different pieces of wood( and two pieces of fiberglas) in it..:)Jim

And the overlays-underlays..:)..Jim

and none will guess what wood this one I made was used...:)Jim

I think the Drake is mostly maple and walnut...nicely laminated.

I pretty sure the Drake's dark wood is African Crapwood and the light wood is rare Snow Ebony from the Tropics of Point Barrow.

I think the 64' Diablo is Brazilian rosewood.

Dire wolf- That first bow of yours has purpleheart in it. Maybe elm and maple too. Also the wood incorrectly known as shedua. I see osage in there too.

The second one is made of lemonwood. Looks lemomy to me.

Skookum- How you can do this to me, even if I didn't have full confidence in your original assessment, is sadder than sad, lol!

Joe

I'm also thinking elkhunter and George are correct concerning walnut in the riser of the Drake. Fisher Cat bought a Hunter-flite about the same age as mine, and the shop owner called the chocolate brown wood in it walnut.

OK. I'll admit the reason for this thread. It wasn't to look at your crappy bows and determine wood types. It was to figure out what is in the Holy Grail bow, the only bow that matters. Skookum told me what he thought, and he did make Hunter-flites, but I figured his vision might not be that good, lol! Plus, I guess we just can't trust these older gentlemen. I do think it's important we get what info we can out of them before they go to the great lumber yard in the sky, lol!

Joe

Frisky, the last bow is a longbow I made from a WWll surplus octagonal tent pole..:)

Yellow pine..well seasoned..:) I nemd it 'MEBBE'..)

NOT lemonwood ..Lemonwood/Dagame has no such distinctive grain to the eye.. It's 73" ntn..and scales on the higher end...

Didn't take any set to the string...but ..as longbows go..it's a slug..:)..by my own personal standards..

The static has maple, osage, purpleheart...walnut.. Lams are curly maple..:) Jim

This is no kidding- I looked at that last bow of yours and thought it was yellow pine but didn't think anyone would make a bow out of it so I guessed lemonwood. I also thought it might be some sort of cypress.

Joe

American Archery Cheetah Supreme.

Mike, that's a beauty!..I recognize the bubinga..the Brazilian rosewood, the maple..but can't place the other two..What's the fawn colored wood ..larger lamination..in the riser?..Reminds me of persimmon..:)Jim

That Cheetah Supreme looks to be scrapwood.

Joe

One more.

Jim, Thanks. I'm not sure, I've always thought it was imbuia, the other I believe is East Indian Rosewood.

Frisky- most likely, that's merchandising.

LOL! It's very nice! I see some sort of rosewood, bubinga, maple and possibly osage.

Joe

Frisky, Pretty amazing that that old yellow pine..really full of pitch and tough..will make a decent bow..:)..Not my personal choice in bow woods..but good Yew and Osage have spoiled me a bit..:) Another pic of the yaller pine tent pole bow..braced..Jim

It looks a lot better in that pic. Tiller looks off and those big, heavy tips will slow all your bows down to well under 150fps, not to mention all that fluttering, but it sure is nice anyway, lol!

Joe

Still trying to ID the light colored wood in my riser.

Anyone have an idea on Woody's bow?

Friky.. The yellow pine longbow IS a slugbow..:).. BUT it's stayed together for over a 1000 arrows to the mark..even at 165fps..:)

Couldn't pass up such a clean looking straight-grained piece of seasoned wood at Sgt Gator's Army surplus store back when..:)

Beats the he## out of red oak boardbows..:)Jim

I'd like to make a boardbow, lol!

Nice try Frisky. Appreciate it. Love my Hi-Speed.

Woody that looks like plain old black cherry to me :/ is it heavy, light?

Light for sure. Early 60's production. Cherry would darken over the years to a nice dark amber. This is different. It's makin me crazy! Help!

Who can name it!

Unless it was cherry sapwood... could be red alder but I can't imagine anyone making risers out of it. I'm just as stumped as you.

Papa doc that's psychadelic rosewood :)

Fox your right!

I'll post two more photos of the riser of my Drake bow. The first pic shows the grip close to true color. The second shows the site window with color that's closer than in previous pics.

Joe

That Drake must be the most photographed bow on the planet! Be careful Frisky, you'll fade the wood with all those flashbulbs;-)

1 rosewood 2 Purple Heart 3 zebra

There's no zebrawood and no purpleheart. Ok. Here's what my expert told me originally. He said the wavy grain wood in the grip looks like East Indian rosewood. He said the brown wood to the right of the birdseye maple wedge in the sight window is Brazilian rosewood. However, my expert did not I.D. the reddish brown wood near the ends of the fadeouts. That same wood also runs near the belly side of the grip. I have a feeling my expert is correct on the three he identified. I've decided to turn to THE EXPERT"S EXPERT, Larry Hatfield, to help define these woods. I realize this bow is fast becoming the most photographed bow in history, but it is important due to its stature as the Holy Grail of Bows.

Joe

I'm stumped. I do see Bubinga at the top of the sight window

I'm going to compare that reddish wood to known bubinga on my Deathmaster. I'm not 100% convinced it is bubinga.

Joe

The last two photos of the Drake put me in mind of strand board (exterior grade), however I could be wrong I know in some of the lower quality bows from the same era they used a lot of scrap material from old building projects, Yours could be the higher quality, ponderosa pine or dead and down juniper. It is however a fine looking bow and a fine example of what can be done with scrap material from building sites. You just don't see bows of that quality these days. It my have some collector value and I'll bet its a real shooter moving 600 spine carbon around 120 to 130 fps. I am however just kidding, I'm sure it a great bow as are the others.

Woody, some Howatt Ultras around 1959-1960 looked like yours & they were Walnut with Rosewood caps.

For instance, this one. . .

I hate to admit it, but Fred Bear never produced a bow that was the equal of that Drake. Not even close.

Joe

Drakes are kind of like Deathmasters. People don't easily give them up. Bears are a dime a dozen.

Joe

Frisky, there is good advice here on refinishing. You can make yours look a lot better. Dire can tell you.

I can refinish to a presentation grade high polish or apply a satin finish. I'm an experienced hand at finishing. I decided not to refinish this year, as the bow will be used in the woods, covered with face paint. No sense in refinishing just to go cover it up.

Here's a fun one...but rather easy to guess the four types of wood.

Firewater= I'm thinking bubinga and maple for the wide sections.

Joe

Frisky - you are correct on the bubinga and maple, and the bowyer told me that the small sections are bubinga, walnut and an oak species.

I would like to know the main riser wood in this '74 Howatt Hi-Speed.

I recognized the bubinga in the smaller sections. Not sure what kind of oak.

Larry Hatfield can tell you what woods are in the Hi-Speed, right down to the riser stripe.

Joe

Hey Firewater, I almost posted a pic of my stepson's Tarbell; glad to see you put one up first! I had some nice exchanges with Neil via email when we bought the bow; it's pretty fun to see an old bowyer keep crankin' 'em out like he does. . . and man are they sweet to pull!

I would like to know the main riser wood in this '74 Howatt Hi-Speed

Bubinga

Here's my Spitfire-- anyone know the wood(s) in the riser? I'm tempted to guess that it's walnut, but I'm no authority.

And for inexpensive bows, it's hard to beat those mid-60's Pearsons for pretty risers: a '67 Mustang in Freijo wood on the left, and a similar vintage Colt in Olla wood on the right. Some of the prettiest pieces of wood I've ever seen in any bows went into some of those old Colts-- and Cougars too, for that matter.

After extensive study, I decided that Fred was right about the woods used in the Grail. So, I labeled them and decided to post so we can move on with our lives, knowing just what woods were used in the greatest bow. They are East Indian rosewood, Brazilian rosewood and birdseye maple.

Joe

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