Thanks guys. I tried leaving the bark on full length, but when I did some long test pulls to check for safety the bark began to crack and pop. So I scraped the limbs clean.
Del, I am grateful to find pictures of me and my brothers shooting bows in the backyard as youngsters when I sift through mom and dads photos. Your kids will probably appreciate it too.
Greg, the kids bows are tricky to tiller. I started with a piece of cascara that was reflexed, but developed a hinge near the fade, after one careless swipe of the drawknife. I went back to my old kid bow standby, Vine maple. This was the first time I used a couple of pieces with natural deflex. I figured it would make it easy for the twins to string and unstring it themselves, and I doubt they will notice a lack of performance.
