1 Topic by Mule (edited by Mule 2013-08-04 13:09:33)

  • Mule
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Topic: Birch bark v artificial bark covering

Hi everyone, I'm looking to buy a bow and been doing some research and I have some questions.

Reading these forums you get the impression that YMG bows use natural birch bark and SMG uses artificial bark but having done some googling, I'm not sure that's true anymore.

First I saw this SMG bamboo bow with natural birch bark: http://www.koreanarchery.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=339 and wondered if it was a custom order, while reading on the SMG message board I read they offer servicing/replacement of artificial bark for $30 and natural bark for ~$50.

So this raises two questions:

1. How durable are these coatings? Has anyone had to repair the covering on their korean bows? Which is more durable, artificial or natural bark?

2. Does SMG offer all their bows with the option of paying extra for natural birch covering? On http://www.archers.co.kr/goods/view.php?seq=17 they offer the SMG bamboo bow for $270 with natural and $250 for artificial bark, no mention of similar offerings on the other models, does anyone know if this sort of thing is available for all the bows?

I'm curious what the differences are and what they look like, this is a photo of a YMG bow:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/12212152/P090618005.jpg
and it looks more like a birch pattern has been printed on some canvas, is this what natural birch bark looks like or is it artificial?

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  • Registered: 2010-10-15
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Re: Birch bark v artificial bark covering

Mule wrote:

Hi everyone, I'm looking to buy a bow and been doing some research and I have some questions.

Reading these forums you get the impression that YMG bows use natural birch bark and SMG uses artificial bark but having done some googling, I'm not sure that's true anymore.

First I saw this SMG bamboo bow with natural birch bark: http://www.koreanarchery.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=339 and wondered if it was a custom order, while reading on the SMG message board I read they offer servicing/replacement of artificial bark for $30 and natural bark for ~$50.

So this raises two questions:

1. How durable are these coatings? Has anyone had to repair the covering on their korean bows? Which is more durable, artificial or natural bark?

2. Does SMG offer all their bows with the option of paying extra for natural birch covering? On http://www.archers.co.kr/goods/view.php?seq=17 they offer the SMG bamboo bow for $270 with natural and $250 for artificial bark, no mention of similar offerings on the other models, does anyone know if this sort of thing is available for all the bows?

I'm curious what the differences are and what they look like, this is a photo of a YMG bow:
and it looks more like a birch pattern has been printed on some canvas, is this what natural birch bark looks like or is it artificial?

The YMG has always used natural birch bark on their bows (that's natural bark in the pic you showed).  While the artificial backing may last longer than the natural bark (it's plastic), it isn't very appealing.  I probably have a pic of the artificial backing somewhere, as I have a few of those bows (back in Korea), but I'd have to look.

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  • Mule
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Re: Birch bark v artificial bark covering

bluelake wrote:

I probably have a pic of the artificial backing somewhere, as I have a few of those bows (back in Korea), but I'd have to look.

That would be great, I'm really curious what they look like/what the difference is.

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  • Registered: 2010-10-15
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Re: Birch bark v artificial bark covering

I can't seem to find any here (in the States).  I'll be back to Korea in a week and a half and I can check then.  Maybe, in the meantime, someone else might have some to share.

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