Black locust w/sap wood on

[Stringman]

I've not had much success with black locust, but I realize some of you love it. So I appeal to your commone knowledge. . .

This stave is 70" and 1 1/2" wide. The bark was peeled carefully and then sealed. There is a mild dog leg in each limb that will need corrected, as well as a bit of twist.



My question is about the sapwood. Will it be a good backing for this bow? It appears that I will lose most of the heart wood on the belly unless I reduce the back some. The other option would be to side tiller, but I don't like that idea due to the lack of compression quality in black locust.





So let me have it. I'm not in love with this stave, but thought I'd try anyway.

[George Tsoukalas]

I've made BL bows with sapwood backs but only when there was not enough heartwood.
If you must leave it then go as close as you can to the heartwood because sapwood turns to heartwood. Jawge

[Pat B]

Like George said use as much heartwood as you can. I'd only leave one sapwood ring, if any.
 If you don't have enough heartwood make an all sapwood bow. I've never done it but that is what I'd try...note I said try!   

[Springbuck]

Yeah, I agree.  BL sapwood is ok in tension, but useless in compression.  I attempted a sapling bow once that was 4" across and had no heartwood.  I have never seen a bow fold up faster on the tillering tree.  It was stiff, but then had ZERO compression elasticity.

If you want sapwood on it, just use the last sapwood ring as a back and make the belly all heart.

[huisme]

Same here, I prefer all heartwood but sometimes a stage doesn't have enough so I go to the last one or two rings of sapwood but never the outer bits. The sapwood is less rot resistant, less elastic, and less dense so the numbers and my personal experience say heartwood is best.

[Stringman]

Ok, so... Next question.

How hard is it to chase a ring on sapwood?

[huisme]

A bit harder than chasing in the heartwood. If it isn't well dried it can be hard to feel the difference between early and late wood. I'd go for one ring above my target, the last sap ring, and then slowly scrape to my target.

[Springbuck]

Harder than chasing a heartwood ring in locust, but easier than some other woods.