Spalted Curly Maple Veneers

Spalted/curly hard maple veneers crafted at the Bending Branch wood shop. This set is sequence-matched, meaning they are consecutive cuts that serve as symmetrically opposites—perfect for achieving a uniform, professional look on your bow limbs. The width and thickness are not adjustable as these are already crafted. If you need a different dimension, please reach out.

Renowned for its dramatic visual movement, curly, spalted maple is a prized variation of the classic Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum). The “curly” wood is a natural phenomenon that present itself as horizontal “tiger stripes” that appears to shift and glow under light, a characteristic known as chatoyance. The spalting—typical in both sugar and soft maple—is wood that has begun to decay due to fungi, resulting in striking, inky black zone lines and contrasting color streaks. Because spalting is a form of natural decay, the wood loses its structural integrity and cannot be used as a primary load-bearing material. These veneers should be used with fiberglass, carbon, or other structurally supportive material.