Sugar Maple Staves

[Strongbow]

Hey all,

I'm new into this bowyer hobby (addiction?) and I finally got my hands on something other than boards.  It was a large sugar maple limb and the sections ranged from 6"-10"thick and I split them into about 8 different staves I'm going to to set yo dry for a few months at least (I've sealed the ends already).  Any tips for working with maple?  From what I've read on here it sounds like many of you have experience working with it and it makes a nice bow.  How does it respond to heat for straightening or putting in recurve tips?  I don't know exactly what design I will use for these bows until I start working the staves, but I would like to try a recurve of some type.  From what I hear its better to find the bow in the wood than try to make the wood into a bow.

Thanks to all of you experienced bowyers on here that help encourage and inspire others!  I've already learned a lot just from reading your posts.

-Strongbow

[Kitsu]

Hey all,

I'm new into this bowyer hobby (addiction?) and I finally got my hands on something other than boards.  It was a large sugar maple limb and the sections ranged from 6"-10"thick and I split them into about 8 different staves I'm going to to set yo dry for a few months at least (I've sealed the ends already).  Any tips for working with maple?  From what I've read on here it sounds like many of you have experience working with it and it makes a nice bow.  How does it respond to heat for straightening or putting in recurve tips?  I don't know exactly what design I will use for these bows until I start working the staves, but I would like to try a recurve of some type.  From what I hear its better to find the bow in the wood than try to make the wood into a bow.

Thanks to all of you experienced bowyers on here that help encourage and inspire others!  I've already learned a lot just from reading your posts.

-Strongbow

from what i have seen it can take heat well,


a few little tips, look around, there are plenty of posts that use it, and have had it treated, if you want info on how to bend it, look at one of the posts i made not long ago, link---- http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,22418.0.html
maple is a pretty fast wood, i love it

[half eye]

Strongbow,
     Sorry I cant help with the heat bending part, but I've made a lot of bows from fully quartersawn dense hard maple and I can tell you it's a very strong wood, and will make a very fast bow. If you back the maple it's just about indestructable. The compression strength is not to be believed.
     The last few bows I've made were walnut backed hard maple and were in the 70/75# range at 28" and they are really sweet shooters. Some of the maple from around here is about 1/32 growth rings and hard enough to "ring" if ya hang in up and hit it. Also it's the main choice of wood for bowling pins......well ya can tell I like it. It's pretty tolerent of design choices also. So I got to believe your in for some very nice bows.
rich

[sonny]

My current favorite bow is a 67" maple flatbow. stiff handle, 1-3/4" wide limbs tapering to 3/8" tips.
low 50s at my 26" draw, it seems to zing an arrow with very good cast.
 

[George Tsoukalas]

The maple I've cut was summer cut wood so the bark peeled right off. I'd take the bark off as soon as you can. It will be tough now but take yoru time. I use a draw knife. Jawge

[Strongbow]

Thanks for the link Hawkeyes!  I'm excited to start working this wood.  Too bad I have to let it sit.

Thanks for the tip Jawge.  I get to work debarking it this week.  Got a nice antique draw knife at a farmers market for $2!

-Strongbow

[PatM]

Maple can be dried very quickly so you may want to just get going on a couple of staves. If you reduce it to rough dimensions you can speed things up and have a shooter in a couple of weeks.

[Badger]

  One thing I like about the maple is that it doesn't seem to get as noodly as hickory when the humidity goes up. We have about a 60% average humidity where I live and it agrees with maple very well. Steve

[youngbowyer33]

It bends fairly well with steaming/boiling.