Bark and sapwood removal, the lazy way

[Eric Krewson]

I have some larger billet pieces with very thick sapwood and really didn't want to spend hours draw knifing the stuff off. The top rings were so-so, the lower rings were really nice. The billet pieces weren't thick enough to get a full sized core split from so I decided to core split off a few heartwood rings plus the bark and sapwood to save some work.

Things went pretty well, the split didn't follow one ring but I did accomplish what I had planned.



Leftovers;

 

 I had to spend abut 10 minutes on each piece cleaning up the backs of any remaining sapwood, I didn't chase one grain. I had this after about 45 minutes of work instead of may hours to doing the same job in the conventional way.

[hatcha]

Brilliant!!

That's thinking outside the box!

[Dean Marlow]

I have done a-lot of that but I had some of the same issues as you. If I try to belly split to close to the top of the stave it usually won't follow a ring and will run up towards the sap. You got to have some pretty thick wood on both sides where you are trying to belly split.

[Pappy]

I do that every chance I get,most times it works out very good.
   Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

Here are a few more pictures of the procedure;

I define the split by pounding a large screwdriver in the ring I want to run a split down.



I save the wood wedges from my splices for splitting wood and use one to open the screwdriver split. I actually used two of the wood wedges in the end and one in the side as the split opened up.



Next comes the metal wedge;


Folowing the splt down the log;



The final result;

[Fred Arnold]

Eric and Pappy, I've tried 3 times to do that type of split and on every occasion almost ended up with disaster. Lack of experience, where to start the split, and what to use as a tool may be the culprit in my case. Any pointers?

Thank you Eric, you posted while I was typing.

[Bryce]

WASTEFUL! That sapwood is beautiful stuff! Makes a good back riser.

[Carson (CMB)]

I have had good luck keeping on one ring using a machete as an impromptu Fro. 

[RyanY]

Work smarter not harder! I like it. 

[RidgeRunner]

I have tried that before...
Sometimes it works well Sometimes it don't.
It would seem to me that it works better if you start at the top end of the log and split down toward the stump end.

David

[Eric Krewson]

I did that on these David, split top to bottom.

[blackhawk]

I've had mixed results as well..sometimes they like to shoot up towards the bark side n will run off because there's less resistance that way...and it prob worked well for you seeing how there only billets and only going around half the length compared to a full length stave

[Eric Krewson]

This osage was very easy to split as well, even when I was splitting out staves.

[Dances with squirrels]

I do that too. Even if it runs out and doesn't split end to end, it still saves a lot of drawknifing.... and time... and energy.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I tried chasing a ring on a short locust bow with a pocketknife... it was work, but not diffucult... took me an hour to do each foot...
But it looked really cool. I am still working on it. Its actually miniture... I want to boil the tips and recurve.