Putting bark on the back of bows

[Pat B]

Paper birch(or canoe birch) seem to be the most consistant and can be harvested in a big enough piece for canoes. Both the birch and choke cherry bark have their fibers that go around the tree instead of up and down the tree like most others.  I haven't tried sycamore but I doubt it would work as a backing. Any backing has to be very strong in tension or at least be able to stretch when the bow is bent. When I used birch bark I use only one or two "sheets" from a multi-layered bark. You can peel off one layer at a time if you are careful. I think the thicker it is the less effective it would be.

[BowEd]

The trouble I would have possibly with choke cherry is that when choke cherry is young it has this smooth texture to it on a small tree say lower than 3" diameter.Now as it gets older to about an 8" diameter tree the bark gets scaley.That would be a problem maybe.Now unless a person can use choke cherry off a sapling lengthwise even though like Pat said the fibers go around the tree that could work.I think if I was to try it I would get the bark off say in the early spring then clamp it between two boards to dry nice and flat.Then sand it to thickness.
I have a choke cherry roughed out bow on my express line to be sinewed sometime.Other than that I just used choke cherry saplings for stakes for my tee pee cutting spaced rings of the bark off towards the top of the stake.Looks great with the set up.

[Josh B]

Interesting thread Ed.  I've been wanting to use some choke cherry bark to back a bow for a while now.  I seen that Carson is offering up some chokecherry bark on his add. If i ever get a little more flush with whispering money instead of my usual small bit of clinkin' money, I'm planning on ordering some from him.  Any info on how to apply it is always appreciated.  Josh

[Pat B]

Choke cherry bark has to be stripped from around the tree. If you peel the bark from a sapling in spirng and press it to flatten it the fibers will be going across the limb and may split if put under tension. I believe most folks harvest choke cherry from dead trees, the bigger the better. You can splice it with a scarf joint and it will hold well.

[crooketarrow]

 I've used  birch bark twice and hickory twice.
  When hickorys green you can peal off larger peices. Not use about the birch traded for it. CUT INTO 1 1/2, 2 INCH STRIPS. Then I trimed to match the bow a little better after seasoned. I pressed (clamped) mine in between 2 boards let dry. When I was ready to put them on. I soaked them in a water trouth untill flexable. Wiped off excess water sanded both the bow and bark with 80 grit. Cessed both bow and bark with TB 11 and the second one TB111 used a ace banage. Put them up high and let dry a week rasped to match.
  Both of my came out nice I sold both as far as I know never came off. That was back in early and mid 90's.

[BowEd]

My fears of choke cherry bark splitting putting it on from a sapling lengthwise I'm afraid would come true like Pat said.I would butt joint it then with a bevel type splice piece by piece the length of the limb.Now off of these older choke cherries that have a scaleier bark does a person just scrape it down to thickness.I wonder what that would look like underneath the scales.There are big enough choke cherries here.Say about a 10" diameter which would give a person over 30" of bark strips to use.In doing that a person would have to take the log home for bows because that bark removal would kill the tree.
Gun Doc....Using Titebond III on a self bow or epoxy on a sinewed bow works great.Just get the bark as thin as you can but still be tough.I use painters masking tape applied to the other parts of the limb before wrapping which really reduces the clean up mess.Ace bandage or innertube with even amount of pressure applied all the way does the trick.To me it just adds another aspect of the primitive look on these bows.A bit more tedious work though.

[Josh B]

I appreciate the advice Ed. I got a nice choke cherry alb roughed out that I want to try this out on. Josh

[BowEd]

Super Josh.Look forward to seeing what you come up with.
My choke cherry floor tillered piece of wood is destined to get some copperheads on it.I'm thinking it would look kinda neat with the heartwood and copperhead skins.Gotta do something a little different from time to time to keep my interest tweaked you know.Good luck with yours.