Maple Board Bow (Updated Pics...of the explosion!)

[4est trekker]

Here's the start of a 40#@26", 68" ntn maple pyramid board bow.  It's 1.5" at the fades and tapers to 7/16" at the tips.  It's 17/32" thick and has a very, very mild heat tempered r/d profile (more deflex than reflex).  I'm not that comfortable with maple board bows, especially ones this narrow that don't bend in the handle, so I didn't give it too much reflex.  It's got a three-piece laminated riser.

I've got to apply the sealer, a mild stain, and finish coats, as well as treat the handle.  It's been shot in about 120 times.  It's showing just a whisker shy of 1" of string follow just unstrung, settling to just over half that once recovered.  Again, if I had tempered a little more reflex into it, I might have come out even, but oh well!  I happen to like about an .5" to 1.5" of string follow anyway.  Seems to draw sweeter for me.  (Anybody else prefer this?)  

The first picture below is the bow just unstrung after about 40 shots.  The profile looks a little askew, but it's not.  My little camera has a tendency to bend images a bit.  I'll post more as the bow gets finished.

   

   

   

   

   


   


Never can seem to get the color of the belly perfectly uniform with my Goodwill bargain hot plate!  Ha!

   

[sulphur]

lookin good.  i enjoyed you red oak "recurve" build along.  I usually make maple 1.75 wide at 68".  I just bought a new board yesturday.  gonna get a new one going p.d.q.  also i haven't had a lot of luck tempering maple.  usually i leave it white so i can dye it later.  look forward to seeing yours finished.

[4est trekker]

Sulphur:  Yeah, maple doesn't take to tempering quite as well as say elm, ash, or red oak.  But, it does help by lowering mass, allowing a  profile to be bent into the limb (r/d, recurve, etc.), reducing set, and improving cast.  Also, I generally get about a 4-5# increase in draw weight with heat-treated maple (compared to about 7-8# pounds with red oak).  

Depending on the stain and finishing technique I use, I sometimes can blend the tempered sections in with the non-tempered, although with whiter woods like maple and ash it's more of a challenge.  We'll just have to see what happens!    

[Ryan Yoon]

Looks nice. Love the tips.

[NEProf]

Great looking bow! I love maple board bows. My favorite wood (along with red oak). I just made two of them last month, and am going to look for another maple board this weekend.

[4est trekker]

Here's some updated pictures of the bow.  I'll post side profile, strung, and full draw pics later.  

I first applied one coat of wood hardener, which is basically like CA glue in function, to seal the wood and prevent the stain from penetrating too deeply, especially on the end grain.  I followed that with a very mild alcohol-based stain back-wiped with an alcohol-soaked rag.  I then buffed the whole bow with alcohol-soaked steel wool to take the stain off the edges a bit.  After another coat of wood hardener to seal in the stain, I applied 3 coats of Birchwood-Casey's Gunstock Wax (carnuba wax, beeswax, silicone mixture).  I'll cut the shine later with a quick buff with steel wool.  

I did a woodburned stippled grip (a cool four hours of work!) and inlaid a penny with the year on it.  I like the penny because it: 1) gives the year, 2) is a symbol of just how cheap a board bow is to make, and 3) says "In God We Trust" on it.  A little corny, perhaps.

Could have spent a lot more time with the sandpaper, but I make board bows because I'm impatient...and sanding sure does try my patience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rich Evans]

i love that grip, and i agree with the sanding trying your patience. its my least favorite part also.  how does it shoot?

[sulphur]

WICKED!!  best compliment i could give!!

[sulphur]

if you dont have one, invest in a palm sander like a black & decker mouse.  will save lots of time.

[4est trekker]

I have a palm sander.  Know what the problem is?  It takes too blasted long to load the thing with paper!       Someday I'll slow down.  I've got a whole pile of pristine osage I've been too impatient to start on.  We cut and split it over a year ago, but so far I've only made one bow from it.  

You know what else just occurred to me?  I can spend 4 hours burning holes in a piece of wood, but I can't spend a half hour sanding the stupid thing!      

Thanks for the compliment, sulphur!

[4est trekker]

Well, I should have just gone to bed...

 

I was enjoying my new bow late this evening (when I should have been sleeping).  I had shot about 35 arrows when I thought to myself, "Man, this thing draws sweet, is smokin' fast, and is dead in my hand."  Oops, wrong thought.  On the next shot it was dead...literally.    

[Pat B]

Those late night bow drawing and shooting sprees are very costly. I blew my osage hunting bow for this year in a late night mishap.
  She was a sweet looking bow but your attitude will get you through it! d;^)

[Innocente]

that handle and the fading dark stain are (were) just gorgeous man.  
i gotta learn me how to tool leather, seriously, best grip on a bow i've ever seen.  the one thing i DON'T see is a seam on that grip...how'd you join the edges?

[Paul/KS]

Man.. that's a LOT of pieces. Hope no damage was done to you.
Sorry for the loss of the bow... keep up the good attitude.  

[kenn1320]

Any guess as to what went wrong?

[Jason Jelinek]

It almost looks like the board didn't have the grain parallel to the back.  Both the break in the upper and lower limbs seems to have the same angle in the same direction.  It looks like the board was edge grain but must have not have had the fibers parallel to the back.

I've broken a number of self bows myself.  Get back on the horse and build another.

[Jason Scott]

If anything, you have peaked some interest in stippling handles. Do you use a dremel tool or a hot iron? How do you stipple?

[Innocente]

i'm now filing away the term Stippling.  thanks jason!

[Art B]

Wow! You sure build some lookers for sure there 4est. Shame 'bout that one. Some thin deerskin rawhide backing may have prevented that. Lots of work there not to do so.

Can you tell us what the moisture content was? ART

[Hojo]

How long did you wait for the wood to rehydrate after the heat treating?  Wonder if it was still too dry?  

Sorry for your loss.  That stippled handle is/was very cool!