Hackberry Bark Question

[finefirewood]

Hey all. I have a split hackberry "sapling" (about 4 inches dia originally) harvested about 3 months ago. Once split, I debarked one half and set the other aside. Well, thanks to the high humidity and temp fluctuations of 40 degrees a day, the barked half checked beyond use, but the unbarked half is good, so that's the one which MIGHT become a bow, depending on me!

Now for the question: I started scraping the bark off, which was not as bad as I thought, and got down to the cambium layer. As I continued scraping the cambium thinner, I was getting through to the good wood but had a thought: Is it necessary to remove all the cambium or can I leave some of it in a sort of natural camo (like I've seen on musclewood bows)? I really like the look of it, but if it hinders the bow performance, I'll scrape it too.

Side note, the wood is amazing to work with!

Thanks.

FF

[PEARL DRUMS]

Next time seal those peeled portions. It can slow down or stop checking. As far as the cambium goes. I prefer to remove pretty much all of it. Its can detach with the sealer still intact. Who wants that to happen? Try a two-tone stain job for camo maybe.

[finefirewood]

That's the thing, I did seal the ends! Guess the big temp changes and humidity was too much in a short amount of time.

Thanks for the advice. If the bow performance won't suffer, I think I'll try to leave it to see how it holds. I'm always a hard head anyways! If the worst that will happen is it lifts off later with some finish/sealer, I can deal with that. Just didn't want to sabotage the bow.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Seal the back to, it forces moisture out the "bottom" of the stave, and yes, you can still get laminar checks. But it helps. Leaving cambium wont rob performance, just your time..

[Joec123able]

You can leave the cambium no problem I would just scrape it as thin as possible to prevent it from popping of when bending the limbs

[blackhawk]

I've seen too many peoples bows blow from leaving cambium on..here online and in person ...n some were even hickory...sometimes a cambium bow can be shot awhile before it goes,n sometimes they can go quick....I've done a couple with super thin cambium on and are still in one piece.....but since your new to this why not give yourself the best chances possible at a shooter and just make sure to remove it all....trust me..the looks on those guys faces when there bow blew cus too much cambium was left on wasn't pretty ....10-15 minutes of work removing it couldve prevented the hours of labor they had put into a broken bow

People hear they can leave the cambium on some woods and it'll be fine,not knowing it needs thinned to almost nothing..there's a lot of misinterpreted info out there that people don't read right....and even then its still taking a slightly higher risk gamble than just removing it all in the first place

[Don Case]

Would someone explain why leaving the cambium on would cause a bow to break? Just trying to understand.
Thanks
Don

[Josh B]

Don, this is purely speculation and best guess, but I have pondered this very thing after making the mistake of not thinning the cambium enough and ruining a bow.  My gut hunch is that it has to do with shock.  If the cambium is too thick, it is carrying a large portion of the tension load.  This is assuming that the surface of the back is carrying the biggest load with the underlying wood carrying progressively less strain as it gets closer to the neutral plane.  When the cambium "pops" that strain is instantly transferred to the wood underneath that was previously under less strain.  This immediate transfer of strain causes enough focused shock to overstrain the fibers.  If that makes sense.  Again this is just theory, speculation, S.W.A.G. or whatever.  It's the explanation I came up with to satisfy my mind so I could quit dwelling on it and move on to thinking about more important things.  Lol!  It could be completely wrong, but that's my opinion on it.  Josh

[Don Case]

That's good enough for me. I don't want to get you thinking to hard-you may drive off the road
Thanks

[finefirewood]

Thanks for the experience blackhawk and theory Doc. With that in mind, I'll definitely scrape the cambium. Won't take long, I just thought it was a neat look. I want to do anything possibly detrimental to the bow, Lord knows there's plenty of time for that left!

Thanks to all for the input. It's greatly appreciated and very uncommon on an internet board to have people actually give well thought out thoughts and insights. Love this place!!