Backing for maple?

[psychmonky]

Im going to try and see how an 85 year old maple floor board out of a gymnasium works as a bow and wanted to glue a bit of reflex into it.

Any suggestions on backing materials and thickness? I hear hickory can overpower maple. Is that true?

Scott

[wood carver 2]

Bamboo might be good. Now where to find a big piece of used bamboo......    
Dave.

[psychmonky]

Lol im working on it....

[soopernate]

I used bamboo on a maple bow... My son is shooting it some five years after its birth.  The key, I believe, is to get the bamboo trapped narrower than the full bow width.  My first attemp with bamboo and maple resulted in some frets but has also held together for a number of years.

[razorback]

Raid the local tiki bar for the bamboo. Do it late and no one will notice.  

[30coupe]

If you use hickory, it has to be THIN! I found that out. I got a hickory backing strip from 3Rivers and left it full thickness. The maple fretted like crazy before I even got the bow tillered to full draw.

From what I have heard, bamboo can do the same thing. soopernate may have the solution though.

[okie64]

You could just rip a piece off of it and glue it back together in reflex. Hard maple is used as backing all the time.

[wood carver 2]

Originally posted by razorback:
Raid the local tiki bar for the bamboo. Do it late and no one will notice.    

Lol!If you can't find a tiki bar maybe a garden centre. Yank out a part of a display to qualify it for the recycle competion!    
Dave.

[Living_waters]

Hickory or white oak, make the backings thin less than an 1/8. maple backed maple also a good choice.
Make it long and make it wide.

[psychmonky]

How wide? 1 1/2? 2?

[Pat B]

If you decide to cut off a piece of the maple to use for a backing flip it around so the grain opposes each other when you glue it back together.

[Living_waters]

For anything over 35lbs I would go 2inches. Maple is close to the same sg as the white oak and hickory, even with the improved tension by backing you still have to deal with a marginal compression strength.

[psychmonky]

Would it be better to use the maple as a backing and build the main bow from something else?

[dmikeyj]

Might be, Scott.  Depends on what wood you got laying around, and how straight grained that maple is.  Maple will back many woods well.

How is that maple?  Have any pics?  What are the dimensions?  Might help to get you going in the right direction.

Mike

[psychmonky]

I wont be able to pick it up for a week due to my work schedule but he is going to let me pick through the whole pile and find what I want. It was a 4000sqft gym so im sure I can find 15 boards that have straight grain.

The boards are 3/4" thick and 2 1/4" wide so by the time I cut the tongue and grooves, prolly a bit less than 2"

[dmikeyj]

Well, with the pick of the litter, you should have no problem finding some good boards.  I would definitely set some aside for ripping out 1/8" backing strips.  Theoretically, you could see 6 backings per board (if you had a molecular saw from the future), but 4 backings per board is realistic, even if you rip on a table saw.
Wish I was near there, I'd try to tag along.

For just making a bow out of it, I'd do a pyramid from 2" to 1/2" tips initially.  Add a handle, cut a shelf...

[psychmonky]

I was thinking that too. By laying them on edge and ripping them into three 1/4" thick pieces, I would SAVE the tongue and grooves. Then if I got really greedy I could rip those in half for a total of six boards that are 1/4x1 1/8... with a molecular future saw.