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Sapwood layer on hickory

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Franklyn:
Cowboy, trying to leave photos now - wish me luck! Thanks again for viewing

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Pat B:
I think the heart wood of hickory in more brittle than the sap wood. It would be good for belly wood and probably fine for self bows. I have always used the wood closest to the bark for hickory bows.   Pat

cowboy:
Those look like some good staves Franklyn - thanks for posting. Reason I wanted to see em was I have only cut about half dozen Hic's and don't recall ever seeing any heart wood in any of them (one was about a fourteen incher at base). Must be a different kind of hickory.
  What Pat said - right under the bark is a good back :).

Pappy:
How thick is the heart wood ?I work with a lot of Hickory and if it is 2 inches or so you can put a wedge right where the heart and sap meets and it will split right down the stave.We have made a few bows from the heart wood but like Pat said it is more brittle.They worked out OK but
I was a little afraid of it.Splitting it out just make it easier to work with and gets rid of a bunch of un wanted wood and you also have a heart wood stave left. :)
   Pappy

Franklyn:
Thanks, again, you have cleared up my main concerns here. I was helping a fellow pick up some wood from a logging operation about three years back for his Winter wood supply when this log came in, about two feet in diameter,and, eight feet long A fellow operating  the mill said they didn't have much use for it for veneer purposes and when I noticed the straight grain, we made a deal right there and brought it home. I took the bark off it immediately and split it into what you saw in the photos and it has been in an enclosed woodshed ever since. It is not showing any signs of check marks ( I had sealed the end with white glue ) and sure is dry, appears to be about 7-11% which is dry in this neck of the woods. I have some smaller pieces I will experiment with first with your advice and hopefully turn out a self bow that's workable for 2008.
The heartwood in most of the split out sections is likely 4" compared to the sapwood layer which is 1-2 inches - it varies - very few knots but there is a bit of twist - in most sections, I think it can be worked around. It split great and followed the grain for the whole length. These sections are still eight feet long - hopefully lots of room for all the errors I will likely make.

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