>>446819>At first I was going to tell you you're wrong and that a higher density will mean a lower tensile strength and therefore make the bow more brittleNot sure in how far your link applies to wood, as far as I know compression wood HAS weaker tensile strengh than regular wood. However, it also resists compression better than regular wood.
Personally I would'nt use compression wood for the back of bow, but using it in on the belly side - e.g. in laminated bows such as the norwegian ones - it makes perfect sense to me.
When using a branch, I'ed try to achive just that: compression wood on the belly side, regular wood or a backing on the backside.
>pic related shows compression wood in larch 