Guss

In the back yard of my parents house there is a maple tree that I have played on since I was 6, ya I still climb it now and then (age 22). My old man wants to build a garge and has to cut this tree down. I have been thinking about some thing I could do with the wood, ya know somthing to rember it by, and today it hit me a bow. Is it posible, this old guy is a monster of a tree about 3 ft thick at the base and relativly straight.
What would I do to go about preparing the wood, just let it dry out right. How big of a peice do I want to get out of it. Is it posible to use maple for a bow, I know how hard it is to work with. I have all the sites that you guys gave me the last time I asked about making a bow but didnt find anything about these first steps.

Thanks

Chris

Arthur P

That's a lotta tree![:-]

I've never made a bow out of maple but I'm sure it'd make a good'un. I think I'd saw that big ol' trunk into 3 1/2 - 4' long lengths and split billets out of it rather than try and split whole staves. You can even split out arrow shaft blanks if you want some good, heavy arrows! You'll probably find some limbs that'd make good staves.

But split the wood up approximately 4" X 4" boards by however long you cut them. Debark the surface splits. Dip the ends into a bucket of white glue and set the wood up under cover to dry and season for a couple of months. If I was in your shoes, I'd have my garage flat stuffed with bow and arrow wood.

I really recommend getting all three volumes of the "Traditional Bowyers Bible". Whatever you need to know about making bows from tree to finished bow, probably more than you ever wanted to know, is in those books.

Guss

Thanks AP, I measured the tree arter work last night and I was a little off. It is about 2ft 5in in diameter, man I thought it was way bigger then that, ow well still big enuf.
I ordered one of those books today and it should be here in a day or two.

Thanks agin.