I "won" a half-log of vine maple on eBay...

[Chadwick]

I "won" an eBay auction for a half-log of vine maple, decided to try and split it to get more than one stave. Description said "proper cutting will produce several staves, has been air-dried 3 years". Maybe I should have cut it. It split out to one propeller. 90* twist in 60". AND it's wet wood.

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[wizardgoat]

Pay for shipping id send you a new one 
Im about 50/50 in my luck with splitting VM.
I just use a hatchet now

[Chadwick]

I'm glad I split it.. Too many grain violations if I had just cut it into bow-shaped blanks from the log.
I've made several VM bows, this 'stave' wasn't really bow wood.

[bradsmith2010]

sounds like it will straighten and make a nice sinew bow,,

[Chadwick]

Many gnarly pieces of wood can be wrestled with, heated and backed until they make a serviceable bow. That means they shouldn't have been sold as bow wood in the first place.

[Aaron H]

Pay for shipping id send you a new one 

Wizard, I give you two big thumbs up for this.

[Chadwick]

Where's my manners...
Wizardgoat, that was a wonderful offer!
Of course,  now that I've got this propeller stave, I'll be making it into a bow. It's just not what I was expecting.
You guys are a great community.

[wizardgoat]

ya no worries chad. vine maple grows everywhere here, probably the most abundant white wood in the area, and a post office a couple blocks away.

[Blacktail]

did the stave come from graham,washington...wizard is right to use a hatchet..its the only thing i use or if i had a bandsaw handy..john

[Chadwick]

You guys are great.
Technically, I was using a hatchet. I was pounding on it with my sledge. Not a quality hatchet, mind you! More like a wedge with a handle.
In any case, I trimmed it down and now I'm leaving it to dry out some more. I'll revisit it after the holidays.
Thanks!

[Bryce]

i ALWAYS bandsaw vm. separate the tension side from the compression side. splitting usually ends up in a twisted stave...

[bushboy]

I cut the log in several passes with a circular saw, setting it deeper with each pass and then split with a maul and wedges.this way I can pick the staves I want and avoid what I don't want. Chauk line works great!

[vinemaplebows]

I have been sawing vine maple for years, no reason to split it in my opinion. If you think about it.....if you have ever made a limb bow you most likely used twisted wood, as you don't split it. I am glad more people are figuring this out with vine maple, and to some degree this holds true with other woods as well....like Yew.

Sawing verses splitting has always been a subject of debate.....if you remember what Tim Baker said in "kerfing" logs and letting them dry then you can split...are they twisted? just a thought. 

VMB

[JW_Halverson]

Sawing verses splitting has always been a subject of debate.....if you remember what Tim Baker said in "kerfing" logs and letting them dry then you can split...are they twisted? just a thought. 

VMB

I know you are already working on testing this theory.  Be sure to post results.

[Gordon]

I'm in the same camp as Bryce and VMB - I always "split" vine maple staves using a band saw. If you try to split them half the time they will twist.