2 vs 3 laminates

[swoop]

Is there any reason why a 2 laminate bow - ELB that is - should be avoided in preference to a 3 laminate one ?
I'm looking at getting my first ELB and have been doing some research and found I can get a nice "starter" bow of lemonwood/purpleheart/hickory from YewTree Archery for £179 which sounds pretty good but I've just found a seller (maker I presume) on Ebay advertising a new osage bow backed with bamboo for £149 made to spec. Now this seems to be a very tempting deal as osage and bamboo are often touted within this forum as the "best" woods.
Would I be better off with the 3 laminate one or the 2 ???

[alanesq]

I believe the idea of the 3rd laminate is just to have a lighter weight wood in the centre of the bow (where the stresses are less)
so a 3 laminate bow may be a bit faster than a comparable 2 laminate

[Et tu brute]

From what I've heard 3 laminate bows are less prone to bad string-follow than 2 laminates as well. I'd be careful buying longbows from e-bay unless you know who the bowyer is, I'd probably go for the Hickory/Purpleheart/Lemonwood myself, Yew Tree archery have a very good reputation.

[not dead yet]

the e bay route isn't brill unless you know what your doing. saying that i have a 65lb longbow and aim on the gold at 100yds or slightly above.

i shot with someone with a 2 lam. l/b backed with bamboo. 42lb aiming on the gold at 100yds.

you must also remember both these bows were using fast flight string.

becareful out there.
pete

[HOTHOUSEDOG]

If you are going down the ebay route make sure the bowyer offers a reasonable guarantee of some kind. All wood is not equal even wood from the same tree!
A bamboo back will yeild a fast bow ( But i have found it a bit prone to splinters raising in my own experiments.) The glue lines in a laminate also store energy ( when bent they will want to return to their natural at rest position) so the more glue lines you have the more stable ( and safe) becomes. I presume this is why the number of laminates in ELBs in limited to 6 for some styles of shooting. ( They want the wood doing the work not a modern epoxy)
The above is my observation, not proven by extensive scientific testing and i am willing to be corrected by any more learned than I.

[swoop]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

I'm also a bit wary of Ebay and have no doubts that a good bowyer more than compensates for what wood cocktail is best. I've checked the seller out and he has good feedback with a lot of positive comments about his bows. I'm thinking go for this Ebay £149 one and if its half decent then its a bargain and will see me into the new world of longbow shooting. Then once I've settled on draw weight, length etc then get one made up with long term in mind and pay for a well recognised bowyer like yew tree or bickerstaffe to make up a multi laminate bow.

So with this in mind I've ordered it and it should be here in a couple of weeks.