Finished Black Walnut Mollegabet Board Bow

[lukelawrence171]

Maple is more of a better backing almost as good as hickory because it's flexible, cherry from my experience is only good for laminated bows you could try backing black walnut with maple although I would ask around a bit more to see the best wood combos

[Arrowind]

Nice job!  I think the others have said enough about set and so forth.

Maple backed black walnut is a great combo in my opinion.

I have made 4 black walnut bows so far.  two backed with Hickory and two backed with maple.  All have performed well but I like the maple / black walnut combo better.  It's lighter, seems to hold up very well and I think performs better / shoots faster. 

I have not made a maple backed cherry bow yet but have heard some other very experience bowyers say it's one of their favorite if not most favorite combo.

I wouldn't think you would want to use black walnut or cherry as a backing.  Maple is better for that.   I would also suggest using "hard maple" which is also referred to as "Sugar Maple" or "Rock Maple"  If I remember correctly.   Must have straight grain.  The straighter the grain the less your pain.

[Josh B]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that maple is not a good backer.  I'm only saying figured maple isn't or any other figured wood for that matter.  Josh

[blackhawk]

Yeah..ditto to gun doc....no go using figured wood(its called curly,birds eye,tiger,spalted,etc..)ANY kind of species of wood with these.....I'd even be leary of using it as a belly...I know some who've tried and had it fail or fret on them....IMO that kind of wood is only good for super thin veneers in glass bows(yuck...can't believe I even had to say that..lol ) or handle under n overlays etc where no bending is going on...I am contemplating trying one in a core in a tri lam(making it super thin)....but the jury is still out on that one and is still up to debate in my head....and I think everyone else explained well enough the why's on having smooth radiused transitioning fades