Beetle tunnels on Service berry stave

[burtonridr]

I found a piece of wood to make a bow with last night. It was a piece of service berry I cut last year before I knew you could build bows with them. So it sat all year out in the weather. Well, last night I peeled all the bark off and it seems to be dry and in good shape except the beetle tunnels on the surface of the hard wood. As far as I can tell they didnt go into the wood, just bore tunnels along the surface of the wood. I should mention that there are only like 2 small places with tunnels, about the size of a half dollar. What has me concerned is they run in a few spot on the back of the bow.

So the questions is, should I try to make it into a bow? Or will it cause the back to fail when stressed?

[Pat B]

The beetle tracks would be the least of my worries with a piece of wood that sat on the ground for a year.

[wizardgoat]

White woods in the elements dont last long,  Id feel iffy about a week on the ground, let alone a year

[burtonridr]

I'm a Super Newbie, what else could cause problems? Its not rotting, I live in a dry climate, it sat on a north slope(so it got some direct sunlight). Could it be to dry?

If the piece is junk, its not going to hurt my feelings, I can go find a new one and turn this one into a walking stick

But I would like to know why it is junk and what I should pay attention to.

[TacticalFate]

Any whitewood lying on the ground outside for a year is probably going to be firewood, no matter where it is.

Reasons-
Fungus loves whitewood - nomnomnom. Esp with dry rot, you can never really tell just by looking at it. Even just a little bit of fungal activity will make a piece of wood blow up if you try to make a bow from it- the wood must be at full strength
Insects, beetles, larvae, etc like to munch on it

Now I know halfeye has made bows from dead standing hophornbeam, but if you're just starting out, then I suggest cutting something fresh rather than putting a lot of work into something that was doomed from the start.

[burtonridr]

Ok that makes sense, I will make a killer walking stick out of that piece and go find some new staves to cut.

Thanks!