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Author Topic: boxelder bows  (Read 2550 times)

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Offline d frana

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boxelder bows
« on: November 29, 2008, 06:30:32 pm »
I' m just curious if anyone has made a bow of boxelder, a type of maple.  There' s a lot of it around here and i wonder if
it would be strong enough to make a good bow.
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Offline sailordad

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Re: boxelder bows
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2008, 06:52:18 pm »
i never  tried it, doubt it would work. the tree usually breaks under its own weight when they get large,they get hollow.not even good for burning
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Offline Hillbilly

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Re: boxelder bows
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2008, 08:31:08 pm »
Wouldn't say you couldn't make a bow from it, but it would be toward the bottom of my list of bow woods. Boxelder is probably the lightest and weakest of the maples, similar to willow. You might try a long, wide d-bow, try to keep it below 50# draw weight. Where do you live? There's probably something around you that makes good bows.
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Offline OldBow

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Re: boxelder bows
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2008, 11:34:29 am »
This is in the genus Acer to which all maples belong. But like silver maple, it is too soft a wood for bows.  Too bad, it is common mostly everywhere.
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