freshly cut hickory staves with bugs

[Shane Whitlock]

Just cut a few staves and when I peeled the bark off I saw grubs feasting away. So I cut off about a inch from the back and plan to work it down to another ring. I have sealed the back with clear paint after I seen no holes or sign of bugs. Am I wasting my time with these staves or will this work. What do you do after all the work and  when you rip the bark off and see grubs eating away?

[Shane Whitlock]

I cut all this off

[Drewster]

Was this a standing dead tree?  Looks like it with all that insect activity just under the bark.

[osage outlaw]

I would guess standing dead also.  If it were me, I would find another live hickory to cut. 

[Shane Whitlock]

It was alive and standing. It was one of the shag bark hickories. The section of the trunk was 10 inches in diameter. It looks bug free after I cut off a inch . This was right under the bark and the little boogers had dug in a half inch for sure .it will sure be a lot of work if I turns out to be firewood.

[Drewster]

That much insect infestation is certainly a sign of an unhealthy tree.  Personally, I would find a better hickory, perhaps one of the smooth bark hickories......pignut or mockernut.  That tree certainly looks questionable to me.  If you're going to spend 30 hours building a self bow you need to start out with the best wood you can acquire.  Hope this helps.

[TRACY]

Hopefully you can find a section that is bug free and get some usable wood. If it wasn't dead standing then it was very close to being that with the amount of bug activity. Good luck and post a bow you make from it


Tracy

[briarjumper12]

Maybe you could build the bow with the side of the stave as the back.  Wouldn't be no different than using a board that had been sawed out quarter sawn.  Would be the one on the right.

[Shane Whitlock]

Decided to make firewood and not to waste my time with something that might not work. So today I got 8 nice staves of white oak. The neighbors had a select cut on their property so I am taking advantage of possible bow wood.

[1442]

I found bugs like that in every pignut tree I cut a couple years back. They where green and healthy looking but the area was suffering from a pretty bad drought that has killed a lot of different trees but the hickories seem to be surviving well even with the bugs. The area where they where cut is in Louisiana about 60 miles South of Shreveport.
The woods are littered with dead and falling trees now but most all the hickories have survived.
I haven't cut any since then to see if the bugs are still eating them, but even if the bugs are gone, it may take years to grow far enough past the holes they bored enough to make a bow without bug holes.