Overall we flagged about 12 trees ranging in diameter from 6" to the largest being around 15". Since the area we were looking in was about a 1/2 mile long and 300yds wide we did quite a bit of walking. We only carried our bow saw, a can of spray on shellac to seal the ends and our camera. We figured we would go back and get the larger ones next time. I will recruit a couple of new bowyers that I am working with the come and help hump em to the truck. Then they will get a chance to train on the drawknife debarking the staves with me. Here I am with the first batch.
The next section of this post will be geared towards those of you that have'nt harvested your own bow wood yet. I will try and cover the basics in proper splitting as well as processing your staves so that when well cured will give you a good stave to start with.
The first thing to do is size the log up for blemishes and knots and split it in half and then into quarters. I like to start the split with a good hatchet that can take a good wack of the sledge without mushrooming.
In this case we were trying to isolate a large knot on one end. We wanted it to split on the side so that it would be removed when laying out the bow later on. If you can't split it to put the knot on the extreme edge and be removed later, then make sure it is centered in the middle of the stave.
It looks like its splitting just like we planned. Right around the knot.
Then we leap frog the wedges down the split as it faithfully follows the grain.
And Voila. We have two nice half pipes which we will turn into quarter splits.
