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Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: buddyb on June 30, 2020, 09:11:23 PM

Title: Lamination Question
Post by: buddyb on June 30, 2020, 09:11:23 PM

Do you have to do anything special with maple laminations such as grain orientation etc? I've always used actionwood lams in the past.

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: Mad Max on June 30, 2020, 10:26:13 PM

I think most people use vertical grain :thumbsup:

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: bjansen on June 30, 2020, 10:37:57 PM

Vertical (quartersawn) should make a more uniform lam. I do believe anything will work though. I have used both without issue. I really think maple makes a decent core lam.

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: Flem on June 30, 2020, 10:58:08 PM

I'm a big fan of Maple! Awesome, affordable, available. I like flat grain, myself. But I have used lots of figured grain and honestly I don't think I could tell the difference in grain orientation by feel alone.

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: jess stuart on June 30, 2020, 11:03:11 PM

I buy 8/4 hard maple if I flip the board so the narrow  side is up I can easily see the grain. Just pick the board with nice straight grain lines and your good to go.  I love hard maple in my recurve limbs.

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: kennym on July 01, 2020, 09:44:40 AM

Maple is a great wood for lams, been used a long time . It makes a little more weight usually than aboo or red elm for me.

As said , buy 8/4 and pick your grain orientation!

Title: Re: Lamination Question
Post by: buddyb on July 01, 2020, 09:50:02 AM

I don't have a lamination grinder so I have to purchase my lams. I was trying to figure out rather to purchase more actionwood lams or maple.

Thanks everyone for the input, it helps a lot.