Bow Back Placement question!

[Knotty]

Alright so, it's been about 3 weeks that My guava stave has been drying up, it's still quite heavy and to accelerate the drying process , I'd like to shape it down to floor tiller sizes.

Now here's My question: Since the stave has many knots, would it be better to place the back of the bow in the part with the least amount of knots? (Making the knots stay in the belly)

Thanks in Advance!

[k-hat]

I'm not sure I follow how you position the bow with knots in the back vs belly (unless you're talking about moving the layout in such away to avoid certain knots (ones that come out the back) in favor of other knots (that go in through the belly?)),  but yes, unless you are trying to make a challenge for yourself, I would keep the knots out of the back as much as possible 

[Knotty]

That's exactly what I thought mate!
Thanks For answering, 😊

[Pappy]

Yes as much as you can, but you will want to follow the longitudinal grain so where ever that takes you , you should go. JMO Go a little wide around the knots. I would rather deal with knots that violate the grain.   
 Pappy

[osage outlaw]

Check out this link to Micky Lotz's build-a-long.  It's for an osage bow but I think you could learn something from it that would help you with your bow layout.

http://peteward.com/Articles/Ferret.osage.buildalong1.htm

[George Tsoukalas]

I've never worked with guava but I always try to keep the knots as much as possible in the back of the stave, particularly when making a sapling bow. That way I can deal with them properly. That means I have to leave knotted areas wider and let the grain swirl around the  not.

When tillering I leave knotted areas a little stiffer so that they don;t bend as much as the rest of the limb.

How many knots are we talking about?

More on my site.

http://traditionalarchery101.com/

Jawge

[Knotty]

We're talking about 2 small knots and 3 big ones ,
I've started to cut out the sides od the stave, and since the wood is pretty green still,
The knots in the sides went right through without a problem.
I was thinking on just peeling off the bark on the back , without following a single ring,
Since I think that right behind the bark (on guava) it already has a single ring all the way down.

I hope I'm correct..


@osage outlaw I'll go ahead and Read that right now.

[mullet]

You are correct about the back of guava. You do not need to chase a ring. And leave the limbs a little wide. I' go no less then 1 3/4" out of the fades. Are you using yellow guava or the smaller strawberry guava?

[George Tsoukalas]

That' a fair amount of knots., Knotty. Compensate for them as best you can.
Jawge

[Knotty]

Indeed George!

Eddie I'm working with the common Brazilian Guava, I dont think there is strawberry guava around here, so I guess it's the yellow one.. I'll have a look .

[Knotty]

After some research I found out that the guava wood I'm using is  "Psidium Guajava" of the Red variety.

[mullet]

If it has the small, red fruit, it is a better, denser wood then the larger yellow guava. But if you try to over load it, by making it to osage spec's it will fret or blow to you no where and back.

[Knotty]

What do you think the sizes should be?
And yes, it's the small red fruit's variety.