Possum,
there are hard maples and soft maples. Hard maple is basically sugar maples which is a more popular bow wood than the soft maples. I've never made a maple self bow so I can't really say with any type of certainty but I've read that bowyers suggest staying away from the soft maples. Hopefully someone with more knowledge of maple self bows will chime in. Built a lot of glass bows using hard maple which has been a standard since Mr. Bear started the mass production glass bow concept.