ERC 90% Sapwood Board - 59" clean or 66" with a knot?

[Loganic]

Hey yall,

This marks the beginning of my fourth attempt to make an ERC bow. This time, I'm going with mostly sapwood and am trying my best to avoid the impatient tillering of my youth. I have a board here that has remarkably straight grain all the way down with the exception of a knot about 6" away from one end. Big knot that goes all the way through.

See the pictures below to see how that looks. Asking for advice... should I cut the bow down to the 59" of clean wood or work around the knot? I know there are vulnerabilities either way but am leaning towards working with a 59" board. I'm only shooting for #40-45 in draw weight so hopefully with so much sapwood it won't be too bad.

 

[Loganic]

That third one there is weirdly distorted... the board is most certainly not that thin!  Let me try again with that one....

[Pat B]

I've seen good ERC sapwood bows but they were made from staves, not boards. I don't think I'd trust an ERC board for a bow unless it had a hard backing.

[superdav95]

I've seen good ERC sapwood bows but they were made from staves, not boards. I don't think I'd trust an ERC board for a bow unless it had a hard backing.

Plus one on this advise.  Hard backing at minimum.  Boo backed perhaps.

[Hamish]

The board looks to be around 4-5" wide. That should allow you to easily build almost any design of bow for the full length of the stave, and totally avoid the large knot.

[Loganic]

I don't think I'd trust an ERC board for a bow unless it had a hard backing.

Sounds good. I believe you. However, I do have quite a few good boards here so I'll try this smaller bow without a backing and when that explodes I'll do a backing like I should   

The unbeaten path oughta be proven wrong sometime! Probably will post an update next week.

Thanks yall!

[bradsmith2010]

its not an unbeaten path,,, the advice here is usually based on a few explosions,,

[Loganic]

Oh yes, fair enough! But it's unbeaten for me at least    I need another big explosion in my system it seems. I hear it's a good cleansing ritual

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes, it is cleansing, Loganic. I think I had about 5 while shooting and a few more on the rope and pulley.
Explosions made me learn about the importance of straight grained boards.
The grain on the ERC board is all over the place...a recipe for disaster.
Oh and ants are board killers no matter how small.
The Thompson brothers, if memory serves, used Tenn. red cedar backed with hickory.
Jawge

[Aksel]

you probably are getting very good advice BUT there´s value in breaking your own bows. You always learn something along the way!