Choosing wood for first self bow

[alteredbeast]

Hi Gang. well I decided to take the plunge and build a self bow went to the store to look for wood and could not find any good hickory boards how found some real nice 1x2x6' maple. Has anybody here made a bow from maple? I know alot of the glass bows use maple cores.

[Black Mockingbird]

Sure it'll work as long as the grain is properly chosen,designed correctly for your intended draw weight and length,and tillered right. Why not just go cut some hickory,elm,oak,ash saplings etc...or trees, and use the best wood available to you...there's osage in illinois too...just cut,reduce your staves down to a floor tiller n let sit for a month in a dry place..meanwhile while those are drying go cut some more and maybe play with a board to learn some basics but don't expect it to be the bow you want it to be,and don't fall in love with it.

[John Scifres]

I have been very disappointed in the 4 or so maple board bows I have tried.  Red oak has been better for me.  But, maple species and even trees vary wildly in their characteristics so it really depends.  The best are hard rock or sugar.  I have had no luck finding sugar or hard rock maple at the big boxers but have found it at specialty suppliers...but it's more expensive than an osage stave  

Good luck with whatever you try.

[alteredbeast]

I wondered about the red oak they have some nice boards there. also thought about mohogony with a maple handle...

[George Tsoukalas]

I like red oak. Check my site. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/index.html

[Bowjunkie]

You live in Illinois and you're gonna use a maple board? That's crazy talk. Just stop it. Now go cut yourself a truckload of big ol' fat-ringed osage and get on with it  

[Pat B]

Check out George's site. It is chocked full of useful info and he will tell you just what to look for in a board or stave for your new.
  I have heard that hard(sugar) maple makes a good bow but I haven't tried it.

[LittleBen]

I also have not had great luck with maple. I have only tried the soft maple they sell at HD and the likes. Hard maple is supposed to be better. I've had better luck with oak.

One nice thing about the oak is that the ring thickness is a pretty good indicator of density, to alot of latewood and a small amount of earlywood clearly indicates a dense/strong board. Maple it's harder or impossible to tell because it's a diffuse porous wood, not ring porous like oak.

[takefive]

Don't know if they have Menards stores in Illinois (they are big here in Wisconsin) but they always have a lot of hickory boards.  Good luck on your bow whatever wood you choose.  Mahogany is not a good bow wood, though.

[alteredbeast]

yes we do have a menards here in fact my wife works there i saw some hickory but the grain was all over the place on it. I will be backing the bow but still wasn't sure about that crazy grain pattern.

[LittleBen]

If you're backing it with wood you can get away with not so great grain.

Don't try and back a really bad board with brown paper or anything .,.. but straight grain white oak or hickory as a backing would work

[takefive]

You really do have to sift thru them at Menards to find a good board.  I think I looked at 25 boards before I found one with nice straight grain for the hickory self bow I made.  I also made a red oak bow from a board I bought at Menards.  It was a 1" X 4" board that I cut at an angle to follow the grain.  Ask your wife if she can find out when the next order of boards comes in :-)

[michaelschwister]

You live in ILL, go get some osage.......

[spider64]

Osage is the best1