Hard Rock Maple. AKA Sugar Maple

[Slimpikins]

Hard Rock Maple / Sugar Maple from southeastern United States. Any use in trying to make a selfbow out of it?

[Wolftrail]

.     ...............You've got to be kidding me,  that wood is probably one of the best bow building woods in use hands down. It also grows in Canada not just south USA.

[Slimpikins]

Well then, I suppose stay tuned as I begin this project.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Its far from the best bow building woods around, perhaps top 10 if its a great piece. With that being said, it will make a bow and is worth your time if that's what you have to use.

Osage
yew
elm
black locust
mulberry
hop hornbeam
dogwood
ocean spray
buckthorn

and many others are better bow woods. If maple was that fantastic you'd certainly see ALOT more maple bows considering it grows all over the continent.

[rockkiller]

Pearl.....what kind of elm ?  :confused:

[PEARL DRUMS]

Red, slippery, mountain and American will make a good bow. I've personally used American and red with good success and have very good friends who had success with the others.

[Slimpikins]

I have been successful at making an American Elm bow. Ive had my eye on a piece of maple to try and so I shall.

[Pat B]

Winged elm also!

[PEARL DRUMS]

Good catch Pat!

[Wolftrail]

Many of the old recurves used Hard maple as their core wood.  This is a good topic read the part that Sixby wrote..  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=129814;p=3

[takefive]

Never made one from a stave, but I've made a hickory backed hard maple board bow.  I think it's very good bow wood.

[mikkekeswick]

Maple is the core wood AND makes great selfbows. I got some maple boards that used to be a school sports hall floor. Once cleaned up that wood was amazing.
The 'problem' with maple is that it is very tension strong whilst not being so great in compression. Do some bend tests to see what I mean.
From a bow making point of view you need to even up these properties by adjusting the cross section a.k.a. trapping. Trap the back significantly and you'll get a low set, fast shooting bow that is lovely and light in the hand.
A lot of people are down on a lot of excellent bow wood. The main reason a lot of these 'second rate' woods don't get used more is their strength in tension causing set in compression once they are bent. I've done a few tests on bows that have taken more set than I would've liked whilst tillering. I generally pull them even further so they have a good chunk of set and then put them on their side and run them through the bandsaw(cutting along the neutral plane).
On every single one once the belly has been separated it shows further increased set over what it looked like before cutting.....and more importantly the back tends to spring straight again. So you end up with a more or less original profile back and a heavily bent belly. The back is actually holding the bow in a lower set position
What does this show? The belly is doing more than it's fair share of work - so help it out!

[PEARL DRUMS]

That explains why I've seen so many maple self bows from you over the years Mike. Or have I?

It is a SUPER core wood in a glass sandwich and it makes a good all wood lam bow as Greg pointed out. Self bows have nothing in common with either. If I have to trap, temper, make wide, make long and so on, then how can I call it great bow wood when so many other bow woods require none of that to be great?

[Roy from Pa]

X'2 on what Pearly boy said.

[Buemaker]

X3 on Pearly. Bue--.

[Parnell]

I just picked up a couple boards from over 3,000 ft. elevation in WV last weekend PD.  I was calling to get your opinion.  Starting the core for a horn bow attempt.  Elm handle or laminated maple...hmmm?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Cores are a great use for sugar maple Steve-O.