ERC is a actually a type of juniper, hence why it does make a very good bow. It’s tough to find a good piece though. I have been actively looking and not found another that I wanted to try and work with. That particular piece has many knots in it, but they don’t go all the way through to the back. I just smoothed them off on the belly side. ERC typically needs to be backed with something such as rawhide or sinew. A very thin hickory backing can work, but if it’s very thick the back will overpower the belly and cause compression issues.
There is a guy over on the Primitive forum who drilled out the knots and filed them with osage orange pins. That gave his bow a really neat touch and prevented the problem of the knots crumbling and causing a weak spot over time.
If you do try ERC, make it fairly long and fairly wide. It’s a great wood, but is relatively tension weak, so needs to be long/wide, and usually backed with something. It is a great wood though. It’s very light in physical weight itself, so it shoots harder per pound of draw weight than you might expect. That bow pulls around 50 pounds, but shoots faster than my other 50 pound bows of red oak, elm, hackberry, etc. (Of course, that could be due to something I did wrong on the others that I managed to escape on this one. I dunno for sure.)
