Maple selfbow?

[eastcreekarchery]

Will maple make a good selfbow? I want to cut down a sapling and make a bow from it.

[Jurinko]

Absolutely. Maple is excellent bow whitewood.

[Deerhunter21]

depends. Hard maple or sugar maple makes a good bow... the soft maple and curly maple doesnt

[Fox]

Isn’t hard maple and sugar maple the same thing ?... but yeah sugar maple is said to be good , and soft maples like red and such could probly make a bow. Just make it long and wide. A good heat treat would likely be good on both hard and soft maple .

-Fox

[bownarra]

Hard maple and sugar maple are the same tree - Acer saccharum

[Jakesnyder]

Black maple makes a good bow too. (Acer nigrum) a subspecies of sugar maple. Its very distinct if you find some. Its not called black maple for nothing.

[Eric Krewson]

I make flintlock gunstocks out of maple, red can be hard or softer, sugar is harder on average but can be soft as well. Silver maple would be useless as a bow wood. Like I have stated before trees are trees, where they grow depends on how they turn out. I have cut osage as soft as poplar or as hard as a rock, different trees different places.

[eastcreekarchery]

The tree i have in mind is a sugar maple or rock maple

[Deerhunter21]

Hard maple and sugar maple are the same tree - Acer saccharum

sorry i meant, "hard maple, also known as sugar maple" when i said "hard maple, or sugar maple"

[vinemaplebows]

I make flintlock gunstocks out of maple, red can be hard or softer, sugar is harder on average but can be soft as well. Silver maple would be useless as a bow wood. Like I have stated before trees are trees, where they grow depends on how they turn out. I have cut osage as soft as poplar or as hard as a rock, different trees different places.

That sir is a statement of lots of trees under your belt. I could not agree more. I cut figured woods and staves for years, and there can be variations, that's for sure!

[Eric Krewson]

Lots, I don't know how many, I wish I had kept a log book, I am guessing 250-300 osage staves and billets, probably more as well as a handful of hickories. I have given a ton of staves away to my bow making buddies, almost everything I cut in the last 10 years.

I have a few sitting around for future use, a bad neck has me out of bow making and shooting at the present but getting it fixed is on my agenda.

[Lumberman]

I have made one soft maple bow but backed it.  Imo soft maple worked Well under compression and was pleasant to work with

[vinemaplebows]

I have made one soft maple bow but backed it.  Imo soft maple worked Well under compression and was pleasant to work with

Bigleaf maple (west coast/soft maple) will make a decent bow backed, look for larger ringed trees.

[George Tsoukalas]

Sugar maple will do just fine. Jawge