Veneer question

[Bowbender63]

I have some nice Ambrose maple and I got it ground down to .040 I have used .024 and .030 before with no problem is 40 to thick biulding a R/D take down 62" I read somewhere that it could be hard maple depending on witch tree the bug crawled into any way to tell if not I will try to get it to.030 with out messages it up.  Thanks I forgot it will be one veneer under clear glass with boo core then brown glass

[C. Johnson]

No, it'll work just fine.  You might want to adjust the rest of the stack accordingly to make up for the increased thickness or you might have to narrow the limbs slightlyto hit weight.

Honestly, .010" difference isn't as huge of a problem as some guys think it is.  In fact, on a lot of my bows, especially the ones where I do a spliced limb design, I deliberately make the veneers at .040" because they sometimes want to warp and tear if they're much thinner than that.

I say go for it, you'll be fine.

[Bowbender63]

Thanks bud that's what I'm going to do

[kennym]

Hi Art,

Like Craig said, you will be good, just reduce stack on other lams.

.020" may be a lot of weight if you don't, depending on bow design.

I read up on hard and soft maple, and it seems the best way to see if it is hard maple is weigh it. Hard maple , if memory serves well, is 40#+ per cubic foot.  Thats hard to do with lams I'm sure....

[bamboo]

i've had soft maple smell strongly like urine when grinding--and its less math

[KenH]

There are 128 species of Maple in the world -- most of them in Asia.  "Hard" and "Soft" maple are artificial designations -- there's no urine smell or weight-per-cubic-boxcar-load that distinguish the two.  The distinction is on a much finer level than that.

Hard Maple typically refers to one specific maple species: Acer saccharum -- also known as Rock Maple or Sugar Maple.   The only other species that is sometimes considered a Hard Maple is Black Maple (Acer nigrum). 

What you call Ambrose Maple is "Ambrosia".  Ambrosia Maple is not a specific species of Maple (any more than "spalted" maple is a species).  Ambrosia Maple a general term for any Maple that has been infested by ambrosia beetles. The beetles bore into the tree, and with them bring a fungus that discolors the wood.