Can't tell what's sapwood and what isn't

[Checkerbored]

This is my first bow, second attempt. My first attempt was from a really poor wood, but now I'm using white oak cut l cut down this summer.
The problem with this wood is it's like cutting through steel; it's so dense I couldn't tell what was sapwood and what was heartwood. And unlike my first tree, with this one it doesn't seem to divide very cleanly at all between the two. My current stave is completely chopped up on the back.
Here's the other half of the log I'll have to start over from. What do I do to make sure this works this time?

[willie]

from your first post, it seems like you are trying to remove the sapwood and chase a ring on the heartwood

may I ask why you want to remove the sapwood?

 it might make a good back for the bow

[alwayslookin]

No need to remove sap wood just use the wood below bark as the back.

[Checkerbored]

Okay, so the sapwood is okay for the back.
Thanks! That's all, I guess. Not too many knots?

[PatM]

If a knot is in the sapwood, it's in the heartwood.

[rockrush69]

I almost always use the ring just under the bark exept with mulberry and osage.  But all the white woods i have worked with ... vine maple , oak , hickory , cypress, cedar, even carrot wood ,,, hell expecially YEW wood.  I could be wrong but it always works for me . Shoot . Even most of my mulberry bows were sapwood.  I chased a ring down on 2 but still did not reach heartwood but was closer which the closer you get the harder the sapwood becomes.  But . Yea . Remove the bark and flip it over remove the rest from the belly . On most woods besides osage .... even some osage bows from natives had a few rings of sapwood in jim hamms bows and arrows of the native americans ... have fun brother

 Post pics !!! And make a rocket launcher !!!

[alwayslookin]

White oak is some dense stuff. I have some live oak I'm gonna work on here soon and I found a little piece to just mess around with and get the feel for it and let's just say it's gonna be rough on my tools. It's hard to cut with a ax.

[Checkerbored]

I can't afford to start over if I mess this one up, long story but I already slayed one tree of a family friend(with permission of course). So to be clear, once I pull the bark off and I have the back, do I start chiseling the sides off and the the back? How do I get down to the belly? This log is like, half a foot thick. Here's a shot from when I split it to give some scale.

[steve b.]

I live to debark the whole log to see what is underneath, then decide where to split it.  You could potentially get 4 bows out of that log, at least 2.
Generally I would suggest that, since you don't know about the back, and now the belly, to do some reading and/or get some OJT making your first bow, but assuming that is not an option I would tell you to draw a line down the crown of your stave with lines paralleling it just over an inch away on each side and cut on those lines so that you have a 2+" wide stave.  Then cut down the belly so the thickness of the whole thing is about 2", from tip to tip.
So you'll end up with a 2+ x 2+ " stave, flat on the belly, following the crown on the sides.  Take some pics of it and post it and ask more questions.

[alwayslookin]

I'm no pro but I see more than 2 staves.