In this archived discussion, the dearly missed Ken LeVan said "the musical maple is red maple." He described in easy-to-understand detail why red maple (cousin of the European maple used in violins) is superior for banjo rims. While lots of people prefer hard or rock maple (sugar maple), which I guess is more dense and heavy, Ken was adamant that red maple is superior for this and was used pre-war by Gibson. He said a pre-war Gibson rim could weigh under one pound.

I have a rim made for archtop tone ring that I can weigh later today. It will weigh more than a rim of the same wood made for flat head because its taller. I imagine I can do the arithmetic and figure out what it would weigh if it were flat-head height.

I have 3 prewar OPF rims. The blue -11 rim is a little under 1 lb and the black KK rims are both over by an ounce or two. I wrote it on top of the rims, but did not put it anywhere else so can't give you exact numbers .

Thanks for your input! Since posting I found some more datapoints on past forums.

- Jim Burlile said the rim in the Porter Church Granada weighs 14.4oz

- It was reported that the Huber Engineered rims weigh in the ballpark of 15.2 oz

- A user said his Sullivan roasted red maple rim was 15oz

My friend also weighed his Sullivan Factory Floor (hard maple) rim and it was 18.8 oz.

It seems my rim is most likely sugar maple, and a dry red maple rim could be as light as 14.5 -15 oz

My non-assembled turned rims I just weighed are:
2 - RK 3 ply std skirt (Hard Maple?) finished Rims - one at 18.1 oz and the other at 18.2 oz
1 - Cox 3 ply long skirt (Hard Maple?) finished Rim - 18.6 oz
2 - Viking Block and Peg long skirt Red Maple unfinished Rims both at 15.2 oz
1 - Sullivan 3 ply Factory Floor long skirt (Hard Maple) finished Rim at 19.4 oz
1 - Lemon Block Red Maple turned for a prewar tone hoop unfinished and not beveled on top at 19.6 oz

My archtop rim (made in 1974 by John Janzegers) weighs 1 lb 3.7 oz.

Edited to add: By my calculations the approximate quarter-inch additional height of an archtop vs flathead rim is 17-18% of the archtop rim's height. So reducing its weight by the same amount, I end up with a flathead version of this rim weighing a fraction of an ounce over one pound.

Many have said that they prefer the tone of their "fat-boy" pre-war rims which I suppose are heavier than the thinner ones.

It’s not the weight it’s the straight

A one pound rim sounds good, no?

Red Maple surrounded Levan’s home in stacks good for curing and building as I recall.

In Mark Neu Kirchen in the alley were violin neck blanks curing in the cold East German weather for what? 400 years, I think.
Stacked straight, curing straight

So what’s your point? 14 oz sounds better?