Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: clewis on August 29, 2015, 10:51:19 pm

Title: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: clewis on August 29, 2015, 10:51:19 pm

Hey all,

I was wondering if sugar maple heat tempers well? I lost my tbb 4 so i cant remember exactly what the chapter on tempering said about that wood. Ive tempered lots of hhb and its awesome, figured I'd ask first.  ???

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: bowandarrow473 on August 30, 2015, 12:13:22 am

The TBB puts maple near the top of the list for heat treating so go for it!

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: dylanholderman on August 30, 2015, 12:20:32 am

i'd say go for it. the one bow i wont ever trade or sell is a heat treated suger maple. when i heat treated it, it jumped from mid 50s to 70lb.  8)

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: clewis on August 30, 2015, 12:02:44 pm

So I went ahead and gave it a light treatment on one limb late lastnight and strung it this morning and to my delight its in need of retillering :)
So im gonna do the other limb after work and see how it goes. Ive got it tillered to 45lbs @20" 63 ntn.
This ones for the Mrs.

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: bubbles on August 30, 2015, 12:20:14 pm

Yeah, maple takes the heat very well. I did it on my trade bow this year.

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: Pat B on August 30, 2015, 12:39:24 pm

I think I'd do a thorough heat treatment instead of a light one. It may seem fine now but I don't think a light treatment is enough to give you a more lasting result.
 Any of the whitewoods will benefit from tempering(heat treatment) because most are relatively poor in compression strength.

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: clewis on August 30, 2015, 12:43:03 pm

Yes, I think I will give it the full treatment. Thanks for the feedback.

Title: Re: Heat tempering sugar maple?
Post by: nakedfeet on August 31, 2015, 03:14:53 pm

I recently had three bad experiences in a row with sugar maple, all fretting. I put it more to bad wood than blaming the species as a whole, but if I were you I would temper it really, really well. The more the better.