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Author Topic: Red Maple bow  (Read 6516 times)

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Offline Stickboy

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Red Maple bow
« on: February 19, 2012, 09:40:02 pm »
Back in the fall, I acquired a red maple branch from a downed tree in the field behind my house, and started a new bow. The initial idea was to strip off most of the outer bark, leaving some of the inner bark to act as a natural camouflage. Once the bow was done, I found it is more lightweight than I wanted, and will be adding a sinew backing and recurves. I'll have to strip the inner bark and linseed oil, but it should make it a better bow.

Tools used: backsaw, hatchet, draw knife, pocket knife, rasp, sandpaper.
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"A man should not step one foot
forth in the field without weapons.
One cannot know, when on the road,
when he will need his spear." - Havamal, 38

Offline Stickboy

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2012, 09:42:03 pm »
To everyone who looks at this, I apologize for the shape of my garage. It's the catch-all space of my house, and I didn't have any heat in my shed to work in there.
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"A man should not step one foot
forth in the field without weapons.
One cannot know, when on the road,
when he will need his spear." - Havamal, 38

Offline mullet

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2012, 09:45:41 pm »
That's good results from a tricky piece of wood,,,but,,. The tiller is off a little. It would be great for a Reflex/Deflex bow, but bending so close to the handle is almost causing it to hinge.I'm really suprised that one of the limbs has not folded up. I don't know how light weight it is but being light has helped it live this long IMO.
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Lakeland, Florida
 If you have to pull the trigger, is it really archery?

Offline vinemaplebows

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2012, 10:06:51 pm »
Eddie,

                 Remember our conversation about tillering from the fades...... ;D Stickbow good start move your tllering up a bit... ;)
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Offline mullet

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2012, 10:28:15 pm »
 ;)10-4, Ellenore  :D
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Lakeland, Florida
 If you have to pull the trigger, is it really archery?

Offline Bevan R.

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2012, 10:34:52 pm »
Kind of hard to see, but won't the tillering now have to be narrowing the limbs? I just do not see enough would to keep scrapping on the belly to get the rest of the limb bending.
Not being negative, I am really impressed you got that piece of wood bending at all.
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Bowmakers are a little bent, but knappers are just plain flaky.

Offline Stickboy

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2012, 09:53:04 am »
Bevan -- I think you're right on the tillering; it'll need to be off the sides of the limb now. I'll have to put the bow back on the tillering stick to check to see if the tiller is still where it is in that picture...can't remember if I tillered more after that one was taken, or if that's the final. I didn't take anything there as negative. I'm still new to this; I'm happy for advice and feedback. Probably, though, the wood only bent because the bow is far too light (haven't tested poundage).

Vinemaple and Mullet... I'm not sure of the conversation you're talking about... Something I should read up on?
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"A man should not step one foot
forth in the field without weapons.
One cannot know, when on the road,
when he will need his spear." - Havamal, 38

Offline vinemaplebows

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2012, 10:36:01 am »
There was a thread on tillering not long ago where a majority of the people tillered from the fades. Not my style, but it works for some. People new to bow building (including me yrs ago ) that have little expirience end up with too much off the fades because they are trying to get the limb to bend too quickly there. That was the conversation.....I have been where you are at too many times.... :laugh: Keep trying ;)

Brian
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Offline lesken2011

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2012, 11:00:17 am »
I see that the limbs should be bending a little more, but I will be curious to see how you tiller by reducing the width with those knots. That's what I call a character bow!
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Kenny from Mississippi, USA

blackhawk

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2012, 11:30:38 am »
I also wood save the sinew for a better candidate. And I also wouldn't recurve it either. Chalk it up as a learning experience and start another. The only thing I wood do is for a learning experience and corect the tiller from the sides..if you can with all those knots. And if your curious about heat treating then give that a whirl with her too.
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Offline vinemaplebows

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2012, 02:51:39 pm »
Taking on a stave like the one you did shows some grit.... ;) You will have tillering down quickly I can tell... ;D
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Offline okie64

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2012, 05:39:40 pm »
That is definitely a challenging stave. I didnt even know a bow could be made from red maple, I thought it was too soft and brittle. I would get it bending somewhere besides the fadeseven if it means takin quite a bit of poundage off. Doesnt look like the bow would hold up very good the way its bending now
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Offline Stickboy

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Re: Red Maple bow
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2012, 12:02:14 am »
Thanks for the compliments, folks! Also, for the criticisms ;)

This one's definitely turned into a practice project, so I can have a little fun trying to tiller around the knots. The tiller within the fades wasn't intentional, more that I was afraid the bow would break if I tried to put too much bend around those knots. As to the brittleness of red maple, I can't speak to that -- the piece I got was from a branch, so maybe the younger growth is less brittle than the trunk wood?

Took a look at the bow earlier today... already put working recurves in it. How I forgot about that, I don't know... :/

Since I've never sinewed a bow, I might go ahead and sinew this one just to get the experience. I kinda feel like I would rather sinew and potentially save a possibly crappy bow than mess up the sinew on a good bow and waste the sinew... Maybe that's weird logic, though.

I do enjoy the challenge of the character bow, but maybe eventually I'll get a straight stave and try a non-character (not likely to be soon since I've got two hedgeapple staves curing in the shed :D). Though I wasn't supposed to before applying backing, I have shot this bow about 20-times to see how it performed. It did well enough, but gave me enough worry that I wanna back it.
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"A man should not step one foot
forth in the field without weapons.
One cannot know, when on the road,
when he will need his spear." - Havamal, 38
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