Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium) advice

[NicAzana]

I recently cut some wild cherry on my land here in Denmark, and took the outer bark for backing strips, the tree was rather large, and has 1-2 inch thick sapwood. My qustion is: is there any reason to remove the sapwood, other than cosmetic? How does cherry sapwood compare to heartwood?

Cheers,
Nicolas

[Pat B]

I would use the sapwood under the bark as the back. I imagine the bark slipped right off. The black cherry I've used has been the sapwood and not the heartwood.

[bassman]

The two Cherries mentioned above I have no experience with . Wild Choke  Cherry self  bows never worked out for me. I broke to many from the back. I have one left out of five that I have built. When I get enough I will back it with sinew. They broke on me after being shot from 100 to 300 hundred arrows.When they break they explode.Our Natives used it as bow wood ,but sinewed the back.

[Mafort]

I’ve got some good cherry here. The tension aspect of the wood isn’t not good at all however the compression factor is awesome. Make them wide and long and you’ll have a bow that’s really sweet. Short sinew backed bows are a good idea too

[SLIMBOB]

Never have worked Sweet Cherry, but if it is anything like black cherry, I rate the back as somewhere between ERC and dry pasta. When it let’s go, it’s very entertaining!

[NicAzana]

Thanks guys! I was thinking of backing any bows I made out of it with cherry bark from the same tree, but i dunno whether that’ll be enough. Wide would mean no heartwood I think .. it’s just so pretty though!

[Pat B]

Cherry heartwood might make a good bow but I would surely back it. All of the black cherry bows I've made(maybe 6 or 8)have all been sapwood. Backing it could be an improvement.
 There is cherry bark for backing and cherry bark not for backing. Black cherry bark wouldn't make a good backing. IMO.  I've used chokecherry bark for backing and it is a great bow backing not only for protection and beauty but I think it adds to the performance. The only other cherry bark I've seen that would make a good backing was from a Quansan cherry, an ornamental, flowering Asiatic cherry. If your wild cherry has a similar bark as these other two I mentioned then it would probably make a good backing. These cherries have thin but very strong bark.

[NicAzana]

Pat: The inner bark does not really want to come off easily. If I manage it without damage to the sapwood, I’ll probably do what you did. The outer bark peels off easily in strips around the circumference of the tree, is thin, but almost impossible to rip, so i think it’s the right stuff.

looks like this: https://images.app.goo.gl/zxK3hT4EFGQwQtEj8

[Pat B]

Yes, that looks like the choke cherry and Quansan cherry barks I mentioned. That should work great.  As far as the inner bark is concerned a light scraping and/or sanding should remove most of that and even with some slight violations the bark backing should give plenty of protection.
Looking forward to seeing the results.   

[NicAzana]

I’ll try that. It’ll need to dry first, and I just got my hands on some nice laburnum, but I also want to finish the yew molly I’m working on, as well as the elm pyramid I have roughed out.. Pheww, getting more staves is definitely faster than finishing bows

[Pat B]

Well, get busy.