Bark Or No Bark

[bassman]

I have made a lot of one tree at a time bows that I built green. A lot less work to get to the end result, and never had to seal the backs with any thing. I can clean the back of a 6 month old Birch bark stave in 20 minutes. The Elm takes a little longer, but with a draw knife and a scraper you can make short work of it.

[Piddler]

Fellas just one more question. It was said to take them down to the yellow and get rid of the sapwood. Exactly how close to the yellow are we talking about. Ive been pulling them down to (Mostly) where I hear the crunch. Sometimes I get a little greedy and get into the back but trying not to. So basically there is still a little white in places but it is extremely thin. Is this acceptable. I sure hope so because that's where most are and sealed. So far so good.
Just an observation. I had a piece that I cut off that had the bark off and sapwood thinned down on one side. Threw in the junk pile outside. Didn't take but a couple days and it has splits in a couple places. One even where the sapwood is pretty thin. It was not sealed by the way.
Thanks,
Piddler