Vine Maple rules of thumb

[Bryce]

For correcting or bending I have had great results with boiling or steam.

+1

[Dan K]

For correcting or bending I have had great results with boiling or steam. 

+2

Word of caution though, It's been my experience with steam (limited now to about 4 staves) that you gotta be careful to bend slow and firm or you can lift a splinter or develop a crack.  Not that I've done this of course.

Also, the woods fibrous so when scraping it can tear if you go against the grain.  Fun to work though and smells great when you heat treat!

[Weylin]

I've been using a mircoplane rasp to remove wood on the vine maple bow that I'm working on. It works really well. What Dan said about the fibrous nature of the wood is very true, it clogs up most tools really quickly. I do use a draw knife to rough out my vine maple staves and it works alright, you just have to watch out for grain tear-out. 

[aaron]

a few thoughts to add:
Tools: rasp and scraper for tillering.

It's hard to get the bark off , and easy to violate the back while doing so. Here's a method that works OK- 1.Do this all on the day you cut it. use a spokeshave to remove about half the thickness of bark.2. cover with a towel and pour on HOT water. let sit 15 min and repeat. 3. carefully scrape with a DULL drawknife, or even a wood or plastic scraper. Beware of the little bumps- that's where it will want to tear out. Back with rawhide if violated.

tolerates fast drying if reduced to near-finished dimentions, even with unsealed ends. Sometimes dries into huge reflex or sideways bends.

If the tree was leaning, use the top side, the tension side.

sapling bows 1 1/4 diameter will work.

My favorite design- bendy handle 60 inch long, 1 3/8 wide, 3/8 tips with back nocks.

[Maxspin]

Just finished My first VM bow.
It didn’t even like my cabinet scraper (lots of chatter at every knot). I did all the tillering with the fine side of my 4 in1 rasp. Then finished with 60 grit sand paper.
Next one I am going to try heat treating.

Keith

[Don Case]

This is great! As a newby this is the kind of information I want.

[steve b.]

What aaron said.  Ferrier's rasp--end of story.  I have a 56" bendy handle that started with 3" of reflex and ended up straight.  String is off center of handle and it shoots really nice and fast.

I've found that the bark can be left on, at least on the old growth stuff, and after a month or two a point will come when the bark will pop off in big "sheets", exposing and nice clean back.  That's what I did with the stave in the pics above.  As aaron said, if I had tried to scrape that bark off I would have violated all those bumps and wrinkles.  So either get the bark off asap or pop it off later.

[vinemaplebows]

Oscillating Sanders are my choice, and you ignore the woods wildness till you start to get your bend. Then go back remove wood around areas that are not needed and add weight.

VMB

[dmenzies1950]

Just another word about vine maple bark. Peel it off as soon as you bring it home! I have never had a checking problem with vine maple, and if you leave it on, the stuff that dosen't pop off in the tillering process is murder to remove! Other than that vine maple is a pleasure to work with, and is super forgiving to the new bowyer!

Dale

[Maxspin]

Can’t remember who recommended it. Lots of patients with a wet wash cloth and a spoon (no sharp edges) to scrape off the lasts of the stubborn bark. The bark gets noticeably softer when wet & the spoon can work down into all of those valleys.

[JW_Halverson]

It's been cut for a month and I haven't had a spare minute to run it thru the bandsaw, so I have left the bark on.  I imagine I am in for the dickens of a time getting the bark off, but that's ok. 

Keep the stuff coming, getting a good list of tips and tricks for the species.

[steve b.]

No you won't be in for a dickens.  Find a spot where the bark is lifting, get a knife blade under it, or a screwdriver, butter knife, etc., and start prying it up.  Alot will pop off, some will not.
If there is not a loose spot of bark then just drawknife down gently to the wood, expose a one or two inch area and get the screwdriver in there and start prying.
If for some reason it won't start popping then do what aaron said.

[Bryce]

Getting the bark off isn't as hard as there making it out to be. I leave all the bark on my VM staves.

[Dan K]

The point is it CAN be.  I cleaned up a truck load of VM and I had some come bark come of like an orange and others were like scraping melted cellophane of a cinderblock.  both cut the same day and stored side by side.

Also, a great tool I use is called a 5 in 1.  It's a paint scraping tool.  Mine's really dull but it has 5 different scraping edges in your hand all the time.

[Don Case]

Do you guys in the Pacific Northwest think that these guidelines would work for Rocky Mountain Maple(Acer glabrum)?