Starting Hickery Bow

[robbsbass]

Hi guys, hope you have all filled your tags, I couldn't get out ,Hospital again oh well, Got a question, when starting hickery, do you use the sap wood or not, when I look at the stave, I have the dark heart wood, then lighter wood, and then about 1/2 inch of I believe to be the sap wood, I don't want to screw up.

                  Robb

[Mattco]

When looking at a stave split from a log you have bark, cambium, sapwood [white wood], heartwood [dark]. I have made bows from all sapwood, sapwood limbs with a small amount of heartwood at the handle and half sapwood, half heartwood for the full length of the bow - in my case sapwood is always the back of the bow

[Kegan]

Just peel the bark off and there's your back. Hickory sapwood works great, and I've only had a few with heartwood in the limbs. Seems to me that the sapwood also takes tempering (a definately helpful step) better than heartwood.

[robbsbass]

Thanks guys, when I get out of hospital again, going in for surgery on Wed., I will have something to work on while I recover. Thanks again.

        Robb