Years ago in PA there was an article by Dane Snodgrass about a guy named Sonny Iman(sp), called "The Limbow". Sonny's limbows are works of art and are very good shooting bows. He preferred sucker growth of around 2" in diameter. He would split the sucker down the middle and add a handle riser. The bows I saw were about 60" in length. All he would do is remove the bark like with whitewood. I got to meet Sonny at the Friendship Shoot in Southern Indiana and see a few of his bows and Herb Reynolds(pres of CTA), a long time friend of Sonny, has 2 of Sonny's bows that he hunted with. Sonny passed away just this past year.
Last year I built a sucker bow but removed some of the sapwood. There is still 3 layers of sapwood on the back. When I split the sucker, both pieces took about 6" or more of reflex. I removed some of the reflex before I made the bow for ease of tillering. I sent the other piece to Kenneth(Little John) in Colorado but he had some problems and was not successful with the stave. You might be able to do a search for my "Pole Bow" as I called it.
I have made a few osage bows with sapwood as their backs. The bow I sent KOAN for the Christmas trade is about 50/50 sap/heart wood, 60" long and shoots quite well. As long as you handle the sapwood properly is works fine. Sapwood isn't as tough as heartwood but with osage, it is tougher than lots of other heartwoods and most white woods. Pat
