MOUNTAIN MAPLE!

[vinemaplebows]

Douglas maple has a extra lobe on the leaves, if my memory serves me right. From what I have seen it is not quite as snappy as vine maple...but it could have been my sample? Either makes a fine bow!


VMB

[steve b.]

See, Zion, muscles only go so far, you have to have brains too then you can understand big words 

Bow looks good.  Keep going.

[Zion]

Haha steve maybe in college i'll use words like that!

VMB i guess you would be the guy to know lol. In the spring i'll take a better look at the leaves.

I'll try to get a string on the bow tommorrow.

[Weylin]

Dude, you're string that stuff already!?  didn't you just cut it?

[Zion]

Weylin don't worry, what you see is the smallest piece which i am entirely using as experimentation.  If it takes a bunch of set by the time i get it basically tillered out i'll just heat treat it and clamp it. This may or may not turn out to be a nice bow, it might just be a lesson to working with this wood. I'll let the 'nice' pieces season for a while before i touch them.

[BowEd]

A friend of mine was elk hunting in western Wyoming in the mountains and came home to tell me there were maples growing at 6000 to 7000 feet.Five to eight inch diameter.Straight as a gun barrel.The leaves were a dark crimson red.He's going next fall to the same place.Is this some of that mountain maple?And is it just as dense as the hard maple here in Iowa.Just curious.
Looks good Zion.Thanks for sharing.

[Accipiter]

Beadman - I'd say its most likely mountain maple. Definitely not vine maple out in Wyoming! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_glabrum  Turns out theres a whole bunch of varieties of Acer glabrum, and from my limited observations the different strains grow a bit differently. Some grow very clustered with smaller stems (1-5") but I've seen a few in Oregon and Washington that had very large main trunks. Most likely they have different properties as bow wood too!

Zion - Nice title switch Don't feel bad about that ID, they really are pretty similar, just make sure you don't mistake a hemlock for a yew! Also, how did you take the bark off those staves? Knife? I just cut some vine maple and am wondering how to take off winter bark without damaging the back.

[Zion]

Accipiter it is easier than you would think! The bark is pretty thick so i first take my drawknife and carefully peel the bark off like you would shaving down a bow. Then only the cambium is left and i scrape most of that off. when it's dried a bit i take the patches of cambium off with my knife and lightly sand the back. I was surprised that the bark came off so easy during the winter, a lot of other trees really keep it on.

Beadman that's awesome! I guess it goes to show maple's a really tough tree. When i hike up that high i usually just see scraggly white pines and similar trees.

[Zion]

K, i did some tiller work today. Just got it to where it's bending fairly evenly, the limb on the left needs to be a bit weaker. Not pulling it far yet. I then tied it into some reflex for the night.

Sorry for the crappy pics, my camera doesn't do so good at night lol.

[Weylin]

 Nice title switch Don't feel bad about that ID, they really are pretty similar, just make sure you don't mistake a hemlock for a yew!

Ha! Years ago I went out on my own into the cascades looking for yew. I had never seen one before so I wasn't positive about what to look for. The first place I got out and started walking around I thought I'd hit the jackpot. There were these HUGE yew trees everywhere. Pretty quickly I started to have my doubts. Of course, they were hemlock, but the leaves looked similar enough to fool me for a bit. I felt pretty silly.

[Zion]

LMAO! The same thing happened to me except with fir trees. I was like 'dang, why does everyone say yew grows small and crooked?' After seeing a real yew tree, though, it becomes pretty obvious!

[Zion]

I haven't been able to post for a while because my internet was down and other things, but i got  the bow tillered out to where i liked it a few days ago.

Right now it's weighing 75#@25", which is right on target. With the future bows i'll probably be able to get s'more weight out of 'em but this;ll do fine for now. Its shooting great so i'm really happy how its turning out.

I heat treated it lightly over my stove 2 times, just lightly browned it.

It has about 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" of string follow, which is kinda hard to judge because of the little bump by the handle. Do you guys think this'll be fine? It's been drying about 1 1/2 weeks.

Sorry i don't have any FD pics but tommorrow i can take some.