maple cores

[BowEd]

Hello fellas....I've acquired some maple from a gracious fellow bowyer upstatebowyer.Sent them to me roughed out with the bark popped off nicely.I've trimmed them down now for cores.They are sugar or hard maple from 8" logs but still fairly flat as narrow as they are.As with other maple I've seen the backs are sort of a muscled look.Not smooth I mean like most woods.Will that hurt to sand smooth that all out?It might violate things I'm sure.Maybe do that after the ksan eye bend is put in.I plan for 3 piece horn bows.
I know steam bending them for my kasan eye bends for the sijahs is best done while they are fairly wet yet but I usually don't have any problem steam bending wood of this type so after they are dry I want to dry heat correct any propellers and undulations out of these on a flat 2" by 4" first then steam bend my bends in.
Think I'm on the right track or procedure here but are there any other thoughts.I don't want to mess these up.Pictures show dimensions they are.Top number is length and bottom number is width.Thickness on all three are a good 1/2" thick.I plan to groove these also.Done that before a couple of times.

[Stick Bender]

Those are some nice looking core staves  you have there Ed  looking forward to your future post on how it goes I know that's how Adam does his , but have seen it done with core slats already dimensioned close, I wonder if thin core slats are that difficult to bend the Kasan eye with out splinters done like Jeff Schmidt ?

[BowEd]

I think a strong 1/2" thickness before bending is very doable.Then shaping them to my liking.

[davidjw]

Those look mighty nice indeed! Keeping the cores thick helps a lot when gluing up the horn, either with rope or c-clamps, and 1/2" is not too thick to get some tight bends if needed.  I usually bend them as green as possible though, after soaking in water until they sink, then leave them clamped in the form for 6 months and any twist is taken care of.

[Aaron H]

Those look like some nice clean laths.  Good work upstate

[BowEd]

They should work Ritch and Aaron.
Last time I used the stick and rope method for horn to core joinery but with 3/16" thick cores.Some twist developes with that extreme amount of pressure used but can be corrected.Using a thicker core like you said David should come close to eliminating that.Then shaping the core and overall thickness like I want later before sinewing.

[mikekeswick]

Ed - I think the best use for those is to make 5 piece cores from them. A 5 piece core is much easier to bend. !/2 inch is a bit too thin really for 3 piece, you can add a strip to build up the thickness at the tips but better to have solid wood. Tip pieces are easy to find.
Do not sand anything flat and don't bother using dry heat to straighten things out before boiling (notice I said boiling not steaming!), any correction would come out once heated up in the water anyway and dry heat will dry the wood further.
You should also cut to length and then soak the lathes in water for a week. Once bent a week on the form is plenty to stop any twist coming back. Make the form accurate and then simply clamp any twisted spots down to the form.
The best way to stop twist when using the rope method is to have someone hold the tip in place whilst you wrap or rig up a vice that clamps the tip stationary whilst you wrap. Even tip (19mm) cores will twist when using this method if you don't secure the tip somehow. Clamps are the best way to avoid twist as there is no danger of inducing any with clamps. It is quite easy to make homemade wooden clamps to save having to have 20 c-clamps!

[gorazd]

Why not try  to pure dry-heat bending of the wood core ? I mean over  1/2 inch thick ...

I watched the videos how the wine barrel are made - from black locust wood strips .... they make a fire in the centre of barrel and (dry)heat bend the wood

[BowEd]

Mike...I see your points.A V spliced tip into 1/2" thick core is'nt thick enough though?
I've got the tools here.Just need to make the forms for Adams' methods.

[mikekeswick]

Why not try  to pure dry-heat bending of the wood core ? I mean over  1/2 inch thick ...

I watched the videos how the wine barrel are made - from black locust wood strips .... they make a fire in the centre of barrel and (dry)heat bend the wood

It won't work

[BowEd]

Mike my interpretation of a 3 piece is 2 sijahs tips and one long core with a handle glued on top in the middle.I guess to be technical it's a 4 piece.V splicing sijah tips into 1/2" or even 3/8" thick will work.