East meets West

[George Tsoukalas]

Very impressive! Jawge

[wizardgoat]

Cool bow Don

[DC]

Thanks a lot. Your opinions mean a lot to me. Makes my day

[leonwood]

Really nice bow again! You really make a lot of bows, and nice ones too

[DC]

Thanks Leon, i only post about half of them. Taking pictures ain't my thing

[Aaron H]

You're turning out some performers Don. 

[Bayou Ben]

Very nice DC!  I think your performance numbers are legit.  Good tiller, efficient design, not much excess mass, light FF string = a fast wooden bow.
So is Douglas Maple considered a hard maple?

[DC]

I don't know if it's a hard maple. It's not as hard as Sugar Maple and not as soft as Big Leaf. It does make a good bow on it's own, this one just had to many knots in the wrong spots. I'll do a SG test if I can find an offcut.

[Bayou Ben]

I was told that if it isn't hard maple/sugar maple then it's soft maple.  I have some red drummond maple that seems similar to your description, but I'm reluctant to try it in a bow as it's not a true hard maple.

[DC]

I just read that too. If that's the case then Doug and Vine maples are both soft and both make good bows. I think that any of the small, multi trunked maples would make good bows. Maybe someone else has experience with Red Maple.

[DC]

Doug Maple has an SG of 0.6 as I measured it. Hard maple is .56 to .71 according to the Wood database but that's with a MC of12%. I dried my sample in the oven for 4 hours. Lets just say they are comparable

[upstatenybowyer]

There are 128 species of maple. I'm pretty sure that more than just one of those will make a good bow. 

[Bayou Ben]

Yeah upstate, I need to just cut some and try it for myself.  If I’m afraid of a failure, I should take up another hobby 

[Bayou Ben]

Why did you dry the sample in the oven DC ?  Just curious

[DC]

To do a proper SG test the wood should be dry, 0% moisture content. At least that's what I think.