I'm thinking of a new bow design with dyed quilted maple in the handle region of the riser. It will be joined at each end with African Blackwood and phenolic strips to seperate the sections. I've heard mixed reviews about the "hardness" of western big leaf maple from which most quilted maple comes from. Has anyone built a riser from the stuff?

Thanks,
Charles
Madison, AL

The veneers I've made using Western Big Leaf Maple were hard as heck. If all WBLM is as hard it should work great in a riser.

working on a one piece riser right now--seems plenty stout to me

Bigleaf Maple is intermediate in density between the average "hard" maple and the average "soft" maple but its other properties tend towards the 'hard' maple side of things.  Absolutely no reason it would not make a fabulous riser.

Excellent! You guys have given me the confidence to forge ahead. Thank you.

65 pounds is the heaviest bow I've used it on.  No problems on that one or any of the lighter ones.