need advice on Black Locust staves

[timmyd]

Hi all...need some help here. I split these black locust staves on Saturday, sealed the ends. I left them wide to help against warping. I've built quite a few hickory self bows but this is my first time working with Black Locust so I could use some advice. To give a reference, these staves are a minimum 7" across the back. Should I leave the bark on for now or remove? also, I need advice on ring chasing. The end pic below of the one stave shows 2 rings right under the sap wood but then the early growth takes over till I get about half way down? should I split the belly off to get to those thicker, denser rings? how would you handle this stave? thanks in advance

[JonW]

Take the bark and sap wood off now if you can. Seal them good. I would let them dry for a while to reduce the chance of warpage. Later you can chase rings and split them again.

[ajooter]

X2..after you get that done with all of them you can pick one stave and start chasing a ring...just make sure you seal the back and ends up good when your done!

[Pappy]

From the looks of them upper rings I would take a belly split off 20/25 rings in, seal it good and go from there. JMO
 Pappy

[Red Tailed Hawk]

From the looks of them upper rings I would take a belly split off 20/25 rings in, seal it good and go from there. JMO
 Pappy

. X2. Those top rings are real tight. I got black locust a few years ago and split log into staves removed bark and sapwood and sealed with shellac on back and ends. Stored it in my basement. No drying checks at all

[Aaron H]

Or you could just work them down to those two bigger rings about 10 rings down.  I think that is what I would do

[Pappy]

It's not the thin rings that bother me so much with it, it is the early /late ratio that would make me go deeper.
 Pappy

[Sparrow]

I am with pappy on that stave  You have two light bows in the top half and a sweet heavy bow in that belly split   Looks like   $0.02  worth   '  Frank