Its not that hard to be careful and not nick the wood underneath if your good with hand tools...start carefully with a drawknife taking all the rough outer bark off,then scrape the rest of the inner bark off with a scraper..then 220 sandpaper....just be careful of any knots and raised areas....I'd rather take my time and do it right exposing a clean non violated back...that is the base foundation of your bow so do it right