Several folks have asked me over the years to do a vine maple bow build-a-long. I had been reluctant because even though vine maple will make a fine bow it can be challenging to work with. The wood may be highly reflexed and have character in the way of knots, nodes, whoop-de-dos and dog-legs. On top of that vine maple wood often has grain swirls that makes it quite difficult to work with traditional tools like a draw knife, spoke shave and scraper. So I didn't think doing a vine maple build-a-long was the best choice for beginner bowyers. But over the last few years I've seen a rise in the popularity of vine maple bows and also there are now sources that can provide very clean vine maple staves (e.g. vinemaplebows) that are actually quite reasonable to work. What follows is a step by step guide to building a vine maple self-bow. Nothing fancy, just a self-bow with a stiff handle and self nocks. I chose to use as few power tools as possible because 1) many novices don't have ready access to power tools and 2) you are much less likely to make a fatal mistake with handle tools. So if you're thinking about tackling your first vine maple bow or just want to see what all the fuss is about, pull up a chair, crack a cold one and enjoy the ride.
I'm starting with a stave that was harvested from the forests of the northern Oregon coast. It was harvested in the spring and was immediately split and debarked. I have rarely had vine maple check on me so I like to remove the bark while it is easy to peel away. This is a pretty typical stave in my area - it has a fair amount of reflex, several knots and dips and a dog-leg at one end.
