pith

[stuckinthemud]

I am carving a nice chunky handle (on a common laurel bow)and I find the pith is showing as an oval spot on each end of the handle where the pith travels through it; how do I deal with this - ignore it, cover it over with a contrasting veneer cap, or dig it out and fill it, or drill  it out and glue in a piece of laurel dowel so the repair is invisible, or as close as I can get it?  All the above are assuming the pith can be left inside the (stiff) handle, or do I have to get rid of all of it?

Thanks

[DC]

I don't think it matters. I've never used Laurel but Ocean Spray has a dominant pith and I've bondoed, veneered, plugged and ignored it. The nicest was veneer but OS veneer is hard to come by so I used Ash. The color was off a bit so I had to get my wife's help to match that up

[bowandarrow473]

I saw one of Druids bows, and the pith channel was huge and not only ran through the handle but the limbs too! I just looked up laurel and found that it has a specific gravity of .68 , that suprised me, I always though of laurel as soft for some reason.

[stuckinthemud]

Don't know about its specific gravity, but it does seem to be a very dense and heavy timber. It is lovely to work with, carves very nicely, doesn't seem to split or splinter, although I was careful to season it slowly.

[bowandarrow473]

I'd love to see what it looks like when its done

[Weylin]

I don't think it matters. I've never used Laurel but Ocean Spray has a dominant pith and I've bondoed, veneered, plugged and ignored it.

Agreed

[mikekeswick]

Doesn't matter one jot 
I've made a few elder sapling bows with a hole running right through the handle. Elder has a pith channel about the diameter of a pencil. The bow will whistle if you catch the wind just right!

[Del the cat]

I saw one of Druids bows, and the pith channel was huge and not only ran through the handle but the limbs too! I just looked up laurel and found that it has a specific gravity of .68 , that suprised me, I always though of laurel as soft for some reason.

Specific gravity (Density) and hardness are not the same thing... things can be light and hard or heavy and soft... take the metal Lead for example much heavier than Aluminium but softer.
Del

[bowandarrow473]

Del, I understand that specific gravity does not neccessaraly translate to hardness, but what I was trying to say was that I had always thought of laurel as a less-dense wood with a SG of around .45-.50

[hammerstone]

if the handle is going to be stiff, why worry? Look at some of S
impsons bows.