What are bowyers using instead of Dymondwood since Rutland is gone.....I'd like to find something to use in place of Charcoal Dymondwood....any thoughts or suggestions

Charcoal action wood.

It looks like plastic or acrylic or real wood for now. I read there is experimenting taking place to find a replacement, but...

Oh yeah...actionwood.

So what happened to Rutland? I'm guessing they are the only manufacturer.

Metal?

Rutland burned several months ago and have no plans to rebuild.

Check out Dymalux and Spectraply

DDave

What is dymondsood?

I had an ACS CX riser that was made with Dymalux...apparently the downside of that laminate is that it does not smell particularly appealing when being worked...not sure about Spectraply

DDave

I got Maddog's last piece of dymondwood on my bow. I've seen actionwoood done up identically, but not sure if it's the same strength. If you're looking for strength, you can go with Cocobolo. It's one of the toughest out there and looks as pretty as fine wood furniture.

Billy,

I think impregnated maple (aka futurewood) is probably going to be the best alternative for Dymondwood.

That process adds color, weight, and dimensional stability to the wood, plus it's not brittle like Dymondwood is.

And it's a better material than plain old actionwood IMO.

The cool thing about it is that most guys can do it themselves on a small scale if they want to put a little effort into getting set up.

Mike Miller (aka CrookedStic) is the best example that I've witnessed of that. He's posted all kinds of stuff about the process on TradArchers.

I've also heard (but can't confirm) that the guys at Hunter's Niche/Predator bows sell futurewood to other bowyers.

Those guys have a lot of experience making impregnated maple and they're probably set up to do it on a larger scale than most of us "garage bowyers".

I'm pretty sure that they currently produce all of Bear's futurewood. That's saying something right there!

If your design requires something that is exceptionally tough/sturdy, your living on the edge anyway. I understand the color thing though and have used impregnated and dyed maple burl with great results.

I could never get myself wrapped around the whole manufactured wood thing though. I could see how it was easier getting the sizes necessary and knowing it was dry is certainly a benefit.

I still have quite a bit of actionwood purchased strictly for resale...get it while you can.

Bigjim

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I was just wondering what folks were using in place of Dymondwood.

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