Black walnut limb

[Kidder]

My parents have a ton of mature trees in their yard that need periodic pruning. They’ve got a black walnut with a fairly vertical and straight shoot that is 4-5 inches across and maintains that for 10-12 feet. Is this wide enough of a limb for a black walnut bow? In other words how much crown is doable?Do you treat walnut like white woods in that you just peel the bark and there is the back of the bow? This piece has a slight lean - is the compression side the better side? Any other words of advice - including “don’t bother”!?!?

[IrishJay]

If you have a thick enough piece of walnut you can chase a ring down to the heart wood, but on a 4-5" dia piece you're probably going to want to just use the white sap wood under the bark for the back of the bow. The diameter you have should be fine, just keep it wide and relatively long, in my experience walnut sap wood tends to be ok in tension and a bit week in compression.