I have done one, however it was a youth bow. I backed it with deer rawhide and it did turn out really well. It took very little set, but like I said it was a smaller youth bow.
I did years ago and was successful. Believe it or not when I first made it it was close to 60 pounds after a while with our East Coast humidity it took a bit of set and drawl weight dropped to 45 pounds but yeah it will work
Yeah, maple boards will make a good bow. We don’t see a lot of maple boards in the big box stores down south. I received some maple and birch boards in a trade years ago. They were hand picked by a selfbow man who knew what he was looking at- absolutely straight grain with no runouts. The birch was sort of light and brittle, but I got a bow out of it. The maple worked good for me and I got a good hunting weight bow out of it. As I remember, it was 66” nock to nock and the limbs were about an 1 1/2” at the fades. 50@ @ 28”. I remember that maple reacted favorably to heat treatment of the belly- picked up 6 or 7 lbs. of draw weight.
Rock, or sugar Maple which is one, and the same is considered a good bow wood. A few nice examples over on the primitive forum. Never made one from a board, but have made a couple from saplings that turned out OK. If I were to make one from a board, I would make 1 3/4 out of the fades to 1/2 at the tips, and 68 inches long, and work from their. I would also back it with linen, or raw hide.
I made a Perry reflex bow from a maple board and backed it with hickory. I then backed it again with a snake skin A Ball Python. The bow shot well and I donated it to a draw to help our Trad association.
Redoak I’ve had really good luck with and I’m a beginner. Although I did just get my first hickory board to shoot. Both were boards ordered from the lumberyard , I requested top grade boards and I wasn’t disappointment.
I've made them from maple and red oak from the hardware store. They work ok, and they're good for starting but hickory is better. The menards here in town has hickory. I like the 2" and 4" but I like the wide flat ones better. Here's one I made last winter, very smooth draw, wish I wouldn't have sold it.
NY Yankee, Rock/sugar maple is about .70 specific gravity, so if the wood you're used to is less or more dense let the maple be narrower or wider in proportion. The maple bow will then have the same safety and performance as your earlier bows. Be prepared to look through 50 or so board to find one with perfectly straight grain. That's the biggest if when making board bow. Tim
