Maple for ELB

[TheFatboy]

Unfortunately, I do not know much about maple as a bow-wood, other than the fact that it's in the core of my reflex-deflex longbow.

Upsides/downsides?

 

[soopernate]

I dig maple for both core wood and for veneers. Nothing bad to say about it......

[dutchwarbow]

I guess you're talking about selfbows/wood laminates.

well, maple is an excelent wood, but as it's a whitewood, with an s/g of 0.5-0.65, you want your bow to be flat and wide. 2" wide at the fades till midlim, then tapering to 3/8" wide nocks is a good design for maple. 66-70" is a good length for such a bow.

in addition, maple likes to be tempered. Goodluck!

feel free to ask any questions.

Nick

[TheFatboy]

Nick,

had my concerns that a whitewood would not do well for a selfbow ELB style due to the lack of heartwood. Flatbows may be great, but personally I find 'stickbows' more charming. I have access to yew, so I may as well use that instead, until I attain some more skill and experience. Thanks for the info though!  

[dutchwarbow]

Fatboy,

it'll work in a stickbow, but you gotto keep the belly flat. I've made warbows in the 90# range of maple, measuring 78" ntn and 1 1/2" wide. You can go elb style, but you need to keep the belly flat. And, as I said, tempering helps.

doesn't take away that good quality yew is the most precious wood available.

Nick

[TheFatboy]

Only very recently started working some stickbows. Wouldn't know how to temper wood properly. How does the process work?

[Jason Jelinek]

If you want to try it in an ELB form, you should consider tempering the belly.

[TheFatboy]

Tempering, being something I've never tried before. A little guidance would help me alot  

[dutchwarbow]

best way is to read marc. St Louis' chapter in TBB4.

Nick

[TheFatboy]

Well, I better buy the 3 other volumes then. Have just read Vol. 1.

[hickry]

I agree w/ buying TBB4.  I'm still very much a NOVICE at this bowbuilding, but the TBB series is very helpful.  The gurus of bowbuilding have done a lot of testing since TBB1 and have a lot of new ideas and beliefs since publishing TBB1.  The chapter on design and performance has been totally revamped and rewritten.  All of my bows (what few I've done) are whitewood... and, after reading the chapter on tempering... will ALL be tempered.  If I had to start w/ a TBB after vol 1, I'd skip all the way to 4.  Others may disagree... I don't know... but that's just me.  Good luck w/ your project!

[limbcracker]

I agree, I have read all 4 TBBs, but number 4 is the best one, it wouldn't hurt to skip ahead. And tempering is great, increases draw weight,  or you can tiller back to the same weight and still have faster arrow speeds, and you can add deflex.  The process of tempering is basically blackening the belly of the bow with a head gun or torch, while held in a form to deflex the bow. But there are some important details, best read about it first. Good Luck, Kirk

[TheFatboy]

Thank you very much for the input guys. Guess I will be ordering some book(s) in the nearest future!

[limbcracker]

You ought to make at least one holmgard or mogalabet out of that maple. A good Danish bow to hang on the wall with a good story to go with it. My buddy Boomer has some excellent step by step videos about how to build a mogalabet on utube, there is a link at  www.minnesotatraditionalbowhunters.com