Big leaf maple with light gold stain

God bless you all, Steve

Sweet pics, fellas.  You guys do some superb work.  I'm liking what I'm seeing.  Thank you...Mike

Getting giddy in Kentucky over this tinting of curly maple!

Also something that really makes a cool bow is suigy working the maple. Lightly torching it with a broad torch until it toasts. if you do it right it looks great. You do have to watch the veneers and I like to torch them when the veneer is heavy and then lightly sand over it and do all the rest of my sanding from the other side.

Kirks got it going on with the tinting though . It ties the whole bow together. limbs and riser. I believe that even with the torching I will also use the tint on top of it. That just looks awsome to me.

God bless you all, Steve

Very simple process w/ very good results is using leather dyes.You apply a 2 part light brown and dark brown dye.
First the dark brown.Then sand till you get that amber tone like on Kirks photo.Wipe down w/ white vinegar.Apply the light brown stain and wipe down w/ vinegar.Makes curly maple look alot like curly Koa wood

These bows are extremely well done and well thought out. Great work you all do.

QuoteOriginally posted by overbo:
Very simple process w/ very good results is using leather dyes.You apply a 2 part light brown and dark brown dye.
First the dark brown.Then sand till you get that amber tone like on Kirks photo.Wipe down w/ white vinegar.Apply the light brown stain and wipe down w/ vinegar.Makes curly maple look alot like curly Koa wood

Yup.... that "very simple process" is time consuming and a heck of a lot easier to put in text than it is to do and get a nice even job bro. it's all like a box of chocolates, ya never know what you are going to get...

I wonder if Forest Gump could have built bows lol.

Kirk, beautiful looking woods/bows.

Kirk,
Never had any issues w/ the dye method.
I've refinished 3 curly maple bows like this and have had great results.
Maybe more time consuming because it's a 3 step process and not a one step process but it dose make the maple have great depth in it's figure.

When done like Overbo is saying the outcome can be spectacular. I have also done the dark , sanded and applied oxblood and it looks simply awsome.

God bless you all, Steve

Love to see more pics, these bows are stunning! Never had anything of curly maple, but I love the stuff.

I've often thought it would be VERY cool to have a bow with riser and veneers made of tiger curly that were stained a deep red brown.

Basically a bow that would match the look and color of a fine flintlock/ cap and ball stock.

along these lines..

That's exactly what I asked Mike Fedora to do up for me.  I even mixed the stain myself using three different colors of Laurel Mt. Forge stains.  One had brown tones, one was gold and one was red.

         

I asked Gregg to give me the same effect (like an antique flintlock) when he built my Shrew: