Maple Flatbow

[Zion]

So a while back i got some nice Mountain Maple and i made one green bow out of it that turned out great, since then i was reckless and broke 3 of the other pieces. This piece was really straight and after seasoning for about 2 months it promptly became a bow.

I let the wood tell me what to do and it turned into a lighter bow with wider limbs than i usually have with less set than i usually have. So i turned it into a target type bow. Even tho it's not that heavy it still shoots great. I'm gonna apply this design to my heavier bows and see what happens!

Mountain Maple
60" TtT
I don't have an accurate scale so i'm guessing 55#@25"

The last pic is the handles of my 2 mountain maple bows, this stuff is great!

[Zion]

More Pics, tiller isn't perfect but it shoots fine so i'm not concerned. If it was 40# heavier i would have spent more time on the tiller.

[Zion]

Oops forgot the last one lol! Thanks for lookin

[rps3]

Fantastic looking bow.

[dwardo]

Looks like a stunner. Any idea what kind of maple it is? Would like to try and look some up.

[Zion]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It's Mountain Maple, the kind that grows in clumps. The bark ranges from smooth and grey to really rough and grey. I think it's also called Douglas Maple and maybe some other names.

[Badly Bent]

Nice Zion, looks to be a smooth drawing bow and probably smooth shooting as well. You seem to be able to make a sweet bow out
of any amount of character a stave throws at you.   Way to whoop that nasty wood into to shape bud.

[Squirrelslayer]

great bow! im also making a bow from maple. i like your handles but would have used something like sinew or artificial sinew to give a more natural apperance but appart from that it looks great!

[Arrowind]

NICE!

[richardzane]

Beautiful job there Zion, good job in working the wood.
you are going to know woods a lot more than many, as you're always working such difficult staves.
the tiller looks good, the lower limb maybe a little bendier, but don't really see any hinges.

[Zion]

Thanks for the comments!

Thanks BB, yeah it is definitely my smoothest bow! The wood wasn't actually that bad at all, it just seems like maple grows like this, the little lumps usually don't affect the strength of the wood i've noticed.

Thanks SquirelSlayer, i didn't care about making this one look more 'primitive' because i will most likely just use it as a target bow. If i wanted to make a bow look 'primitive' i would just go out in the bush with natural materials and make it that way.

Thanks Arrowind!

Thanks richardzane, well i've never found a piece of wood that is completely straight and clean and personally i think it's a waste of time unless it grows all around you. Since i started with the same types of saplings that i'm working on now i guess i'm just used to it. Ya the lower limb could definitely be a bit stiffer, too floppy for what i usually like. But it shoots good and there's no hinges so it's not bothering my OCD too bad lol!

Since this bow is kinda light i might give it to one of my friends in Alaska. he likes shooting 50-55# bows that are around 60" long so really it would be perfect. I'll see what he says this summer. He's supposed to make me a bow too and i ardy made his little bro one so we kinda have a trade going on every summer.

[Joec123able]

How do you get away with not seasoning your wood very long and still getting hardly any string follow ?

[dmenzies1950]

Yea Zion, mountain maple is some amazing bow wood! I lived in western Montana for 35 years and mountain maple is what I built all my bows out of. I love the stuff! Those are some great looking bows as usual! I guarantee that you'll build a lot more bows out of it in the near future! As for seasoning the wood, it does dry fast, especially if you rough out the bow, put it upstairs in your house. Six weeks that way, and you got a bow!   Dale   

[bushboy]

Very nice bow,starting to see a zion signature in your work!thumbs up bro!

[bow101]

As always Zion your tillering looks fantastic, great bows~~~~~~~~~~~~~~