Success rate with maple?

[Prarie Bowyer]

Hi,

I was given an 80" long flitch with bark down one side.  It's dry.  I cut it as a mantle piece from a friends tree three years ago.  It was garage kept for this time. He decided not to make the mantle piece and is selling the house.  So I have this huge piece of maple (10"X14"x80") in my garage with only one central split and I'm thinking . . . Self Bow? 

I have no idea what kind of maple.  I would back the bow.  My only issue is that I've made two bows with maple bellies and both had "issues" of varying amounts.  So I'm curious if you guys think it's worth trying a few bows out of ?

[Slackbunny]

I just recently made a selfbow out of a piece of birdseye maple, and was very satisfied with it. If I were you I'd give it a shot, you already have the wood so the only thing you're out if it doesn't work is your time.

[sonny]

my current go-to bow for hunting is a maple flatbow that I finally finished up a couple of years ago.
It shoots great, fairly light in the hand and the wood was a pleasure to work!

(from memory but should be accurate) ..67" long, stiff handle, 1-3/4" wide limbs tapering the last
ten inches to 5/16" tips, little over 50# at my 26" draw length.

[Stingray45]

I like maple alot. I am making a maple mollegabet right now out of some. If you get some with really straight grain you can really push the limits. I had a rawhide maple bow blow up on me about a month or two ago but it was from my tinkering with it. I kept piking it down to get some more weight and I was shooting for a pyramid style bow, 60" tip to tip drawing 29" between 45# and 55#. It blew up once I got it stretched out to 27" pulling about 55#. I would have been good had I left it around 64" or so. It's tough stuff.

[Prarie Bowyer]

How can you tell what it is? 

[okie64]

Post a pic of the bark and someone should be able to tell. Red maples usually have smooth grayish bark. Silver maples usually have scaly gray bark and sugar maples have  almost black bark. Sugar maple is the one you want.

[mikekeswick]

Yep sugar maple a.k.a. hard maple is excellent bow wood, especially if you heat treat it. No experience of any other kinds though.

[bubby]

if you have that big ol' slab and your gonna back it any way, cut it into quartersawn boards and flat grain if you can, you will probably get alot more bows outta it that way, Bub

[Prarie Bowyer]

by "flay grain it" you mean no ELB types of cross sections?

[Dauntless]

Throw up a picture of the bark and someone should be able to give you some probables.  There are four kinds that grow were I live and they all have different bark.  A sample for density (float an oven dried piece in water) would give you a better idea of what kind of bow you can make than the species.

I've broken plenty sugar maple board bows because I was overconfident of grain.  Red maple staves are ok, silver chrysals for fun.