de-crowning vine maple?

[bowbendr]

Hey,

I was a member of this site for years, but let a couple years go by without doing anything archery related and forgot my account info. So, I'm starting out from the beginning again--first post!

Do I have to use the freshly de-barked surface of a vine maple stave for the back of the bow, or can I dig down and decrown it somewhat? I think it's a good stave as it is, but I might not have been as careful as I needed to be when I debarked it--I'm pretty sure I nicked the top growth ring now and then. It just seems that if I decrowned it I could get a wider working surface area--I've made a lot of board bows, but I'm still cautious and tend to overbuild my bows.

Thanks!

Trevor

[El Destructo]

The only experience I have with Vine Maple...is with using the First Ring...and being very careful over all of the Ginks...and Gnarly Spots.... I have lots of experience with Decrowning Wood for Paddle Bows...but I have never tried it with VM... I can't see why it would not work...if you backed it with Hickory...or Boo for safety sakes..after Decrowning....

[Gordon]

It's impossible to follow a ring with vine maple because the rings are just too thin. Smooth out the nicks on the back and you will likely be alright. Vine maple is very tough stuff.

[Elktracker]

I agree with Gordon, I helped a guy who was new to bow building build a VM bow and told him to be carefull not to violate the back and explained it to him and when I came back to check on him he had violated it pretty bad! We smoothed it out with heavy sand paper and tillered the bow out to 50lbs and it is still up and shooting just fine. If you think about it when you decrown a stave you are violating the back far more sevearly than if you just nick it a few times, as long as you smooth it out some you should be fine IMO.

Josh

[bowbendr]

Works for me, thanks! I took a look last night and the nicks will sand out nicely--just a few real small ones. Now I know how careful I need to be next time I debark VM. It's amazing how much of it there is around here--thanks Weyerhaeuser   

[bowbendr]

As soon as I posted that I had another question. So why would decrowning badly violate the rings? Wouldn't it be about the same as using a board with perfectly straight rings running the length of the back, as parallel lines from tip to tip? Those aren't violated, are they? Is it just because it's so difficult to follow the rings on VM?

[Elktracker]

Yes your right it is like useing a board I guess I really have no experiance decrowning staves so I cant speak as to how it would work on VM I guess I was just thinking of it as cutting into a ring as it being violated so when you cut through a mess of them I was thinking they have been violated lol It would be like useing a board, not sure how it would hold up but like I said I have never tried it . The last question I dont get but if I have what your asking right the difficulty is in the fact the rings are so tight it would be very hard to follow one ring the entire back of the bow without ctting into another one but guys do it with yew I guess.

I usually peel the bark while the staves are green with Vm and it comes off very easily and drys without checking if dried slow for the first couple weeks. Hope this helps

[Gordon]

Is it just because it's so difficult to follow the rings on VM?

The rings on vine maple are so thin and the back typically so uneven that it is virtually impossible to chase a ring.

[Del the cat]

If you decrown a stave the ring violations run along the length of the limb (not across it) and don't cause trouble.
E.g. If you run a few strokes of a spokeshave up the back of the stave you end up with nice parallel lones up the back. No prob' the sky doesn't fall in
Look at the Hazel and Ash bows on my website (and the tillering videos), click the globe symbol under my username.
Del