Hard rock maple

[Mad Max]

Hard rock maple rift sawed
verses bamboo flooring for lams ????????????

       

Iam getting low on bamboo

[Roy from Pa]

I'd buy soft poplar boards at the lumber store... Get the crooked ones with the most knots and run out...        

[jsweka]

Roy - How many have you had with dinner tonight?

Mark - rift sawn hard maple will make great lams.  My experience is that hardwoods like maple will give you a couple lbs more draw weight than actionboo for a given stack thickness.  You won't notice any difference in bow performance.

[Roy from Pa]

My experience is that hardwoods like maple will give you a couple lbs more draw weight than actionboo for a given stack thickness. You won't notice any difference in bow performance.

How can that be?

[LittleBen]

Hard maple is basically the standard for factory bows. Personally I find maple lams to look great, and bows with maple lams and brown glass especially give me a warm, nostalgic feel.

Kenny M did an experiment a while back, building several identical bows, one with maple, one with bamboo and one with walnut IIRC. You kit be able to dig it up. He chrono tested them all and there was minimal to no difference at a given gpp.

[jsweka]

Roy - Just different properties.  Maple is a little stiffer for a given thickness than bamboo, so a bit higher draw weight for a given stack thickness.

Now, like Ben said, if you build two bows that have the same draw weight (slightly different stack thicknesses), but have different core materials, there will be very little difference in speed.  You definitely need a chrono to tell any difference.

But I've never tried poplar, so maybe that breaks all the generalities    

[Mad Max]

Poplar it is, then.
Thanks roy  

[Mark Smeltzer]

what about soft Maple for lams.....sorry not trying hyjack the tread.

[Mad Max]

there a lot of lip flapping going on up there, not naming no names, ROY    

jump on in Mark
maybe soft maple for veneers ?

I like boo flooring because it has straight edges  
and I have a 2" x 10" piece of hard maple, just rip off a few and grind.
So both ways is good for me

[Mark Smeltzer]

aaaaaah, I got nothin. lol

[Wolftrail]

I have used cherry on the belly and as a center lam.  A little soft but not like Poplar.....      

Maple is very forgiving as long you double check/triple check the grain for any run outs.  I always prep the pieces using 50grit.  TTB 3 lots of it and dont over clamp.

[Roy from Pa]

I've got a bunch of poplar lams. I'll let ya'll have some at a discount price..  

[LittleBen]

I built a poplar bow once Roy .... It was 2-3/4" wide, 68" long and drew a whopping 25# @ 28". What a rocket launcher that POS was.

Thank god I chopped it up and threw it in the dumpster.

[Roy from Pa]

Ben, ya could have made a dozen arrows out of it..