Well....just thinking out loud. Yes, nature designed it one way, but maybe that way is not the best when it it not a tree bending in the wind. Edge grain just might be stiffer, hence returns to 0 faster. Having multiple laminations might, as Orion questioned, allow for a blend of abilities, such that the likelihood of one side of the lamination being of different characteristics than the other side being diminished. Edge lam plywood ( actionwood) is probably easier to make in bulk and more available than perfectly formed and layered natural wood.

As a hobby self bow maker, I am in total agreement with Steve, and Hill.

I’d been shooting Bruin recurves for a number of years; all with actionboo cores, all wonderful shooting bows. Mike Steliga told me he had the bow form of the last recurve model developed by Staghorn Archery before compound designs took over the market in the 70’s and Staghorn closed their doors. He called it the “Mag II”. Of course I had to have one of these, and had Mike build it with hard maple cores as Bill Pyle of Staghorn would have used. Those Bruins are great but this old Staghorn design with maple cores gives up nothing in terms of shooting characteristics or speed to those Bruins. I‘m no bowyer, but I think the bow design rather than the core wood is the key to performance. I also think actionboo is a tough, light weight product available everywhere in the country, and being a man-made product the quality and consistency of performance is likely to be the same as well. High quality, slow growth hard maple is a common product in north-central States but not necessarily so in other parts of the country. Actionboo is likely easier to source and more consistent to build quality.

Funny how good fortune follows good deeds.

A friend of an elder friend died. He had a farm, cut and milled numerous trees. Rough boards stacked in several barn lofts. Family said "Bill ( elder friend) get them boards outta there and keep em....he woulda wanted that. I helped. 10' and less went into my truck, big boards on a big trailer. After loading all, then unloading the trailer, Bill essentially said " Chuck...keep those damned things" there was more discussion, but in the end, I unloaded an accidental PU full of boards into my garage.

Hoping to build a proper wood workers bench out of some / of them.

According to the movie, Bear Archery used rock maple for risers and limb laminations. I am making some kids bows and will be using rock maple...in large part because I accidentally acquired a whole pick up load of it.

Steve:

You are correct about Howard Hill, in fact there is a bow in the collection at H, Hill Archery that has an edge grain cane lamination made sometime in the latter part of the 1920's. However they were just beginning to understand spine at that time, and I think that had more to do with "the arrow to flirt left and right." than how the growth rings effected it.

Bob

Steve, I like your explanation.

Shick

I don't disagree with the properties you ascribe to edge grain, but in actionwood, don't the many laminations cancel out weaknesses (or overstiffness) in any one lamination/area?

It sounds to me like they are talking about what we now call "actionwood" or "actionboo", which is vertically stacked plywood. If using a piece of wood, it would be called edge grain.

I think the V stands for vertical. We call it edge now. No patent required.

I think the ad mentions it can be made from softer woods because that's what most plywood is made from. Woods like birch, which is what the modern laminated edge grain cores are made from.

I read something H. Hill wrote (I can't for the life of me find it again to my unending frustration) about making bows. He said that he played with edge grain bows but found that they caused the arrow to flirt left and right.

So I started making flat grain core bows and found that they seemed to shoot on line more easily for me. Since then I haven't made another edge grain bow.

Then I started thinking about it...

When a tree grows, each growth ring experiences the same "year". But each year can be different. So if you make a bow with edge grain, one side of that limb might have been grown during a drought while the other side was grown during a wet season. The two sides of the limb will therefore display different amounts of elasticity and thus relax rate. This will cause the arrows to flirt.

When built with flat grain, the yearly differences are locked in the limb from back to belly and are uniform side to side. This means that the elasticity of the limbs from side to side is the same. Thus the arrows will not flirt.

Additionally, trees have evolved to bend in the wind "flat grain", not "edge grain". Why not recognize this already beautiful design of mother nature as we build our bows? I have found that the lessons learned from making a good selfbow should be applied to laminated bows too.

A good dose of humility and respect for the trees we live with, depend on for our life, and make our bows from, helps us make better bows. IMO anyway.

I agree with you, an early form of stabilized wood. Maybe it was patented under another name? A cross over from another industry?