If decrowning didn't "work" it would be impossible to make a bow out of a board stave. The back of a decrowned sapling is essentially a plain sawn board, rifts, and quartersawn all in the same thing. BUT,
Tension strong woods from small diameter trees (vine maple, other hard maples, white mulberry, plum, hickory, serviceberry, elm, etc, ) tolerate the tension on the crown very well. And if you make the bow as wide as that small sapling will tolerate, with a flat belly, you'll be ok.
Decrowning takes a lot of skill, too, so if you already have waves and knots, leave it intact and work around the grain.
OCCASIONALLY i have had red elm with very tiny thin growth rings pop up paper thin slivers on a crowned bow, sometimes in several spots. That is literally the sum total of my problems working with crowned wood.
