What in the heck am I going to do with this?

[Fred Arnold]

  I swear this was fairly flat and straight when I placed it high on the rack of the shop a couple months ago. I trimmed it down some so that it would dry quicker. Here's what I found when I retrieved it. 72" but only 1 3/4 width to work with and this is mulberry.

I want suggestions because I have no clue what to do.

[Fred Arnold]

Here's another of it hanging on nails in my future bathroom.

[Cloudfeather]

Looks like some good reflex to me. It looks about the perfect amount to sinew back and have a fast shooter. 

[BowEd]

You make a bow out of it.Looks like a lot of my pignut hickory.

[sleek]

SEND IT TO ME!!!!!!!!!! Thats a primo stave! Exactly enough meat for a nice bow and great reflex.

[Fred Arnold]

Will the stave relax some after I remove the sapwood?

[osage outlaw]

Looks like some good even reflex.  Good luck stringing it for the first time 

[cornus]

Greas stave for flight bow I thing.
If a large reflex do deflex midle

[mikekeswick]

With staves like this it is tempting to think - big reflex = fast bow....
The thing to remember is that fresh wood = fast bow
Say that piece has 4 inches of reflex now and by the time it's a bow it sits dead straight well that bow has 4 inches of set...eg. it WILL have lost a lot of it's potential return speed.
Much better with these staves is to deflex the handle area (as suggested) with steam on a form. This will lower the overall stress it has to go through to get to brace, then full draw. Also deflex/reflex bows are one of the sweetest shooting designs out there when done correctly.
I've made plenty of bows from heavily reflexed staves and trust me it isn't always good news.

If I had to make a fast bow I would choose a stave with 1 - 2 inches max reflex.

[sleek]

I am makint a bow now of Red Mulberry just as Mike just described. Deflex in the handle, ( I actually cut and scarfed the handle into a deflex rather than make it bend by steam ) with reflexed tips. Originally the reflex after adding the deflex in the handle was one inch. After shooting it some it has 2 inches of set, one inch of string follow.

I left the sapwood intact on the bow, though I did go down a few rings into it to make the bow as close to 50/50 sapwood heartwood ratio as I could with a pyramid front profile. This bow promises to be fast. I did a mild flip on the tips because of a 28 inch draw length I wanted no stacking.

I said all this, not to tell you about MY bow, but to let you know what you can do with YOUR stave. It is a prime stave, and you should be able to make a wonderful bow of it. I will post this bow I speak of soon as it is done to give you a visual idea of what I am talking about. 

[dwardo]

With staves like this it is tempting to think - big reflex = fast bow....
The thing to remember is that fresh wood = fast bow
Say that piece has 4 inches of reflex now and by the time it's a bow it sits dead straight well that bow has 4 inches of set...eg. it WILL have lost a lot of it's potential return speed.
Much better with these staves is to deflex the handle area (as suggested) with steam on a form. This will lower the overall stress it has to go through to get to brace, then full draw. Also deflex/reflex bows are one of the sweetest shooting designs out there when done correctly.
I've made plenty of bows from heavily reflexed staves and trust me it isn't always good news.

If I had to make a fast bow I would choose a stave with 1 - 2 inches max reflex.

I have a few high reflex staves i have worked recently and i have been disappointed with all of them and I tried my best not to over stress them early on too.
I got to thinking that maybe the fact they reflex is solely due to the tension wood on the back pulling them into reflex which meant the compression wood was substandard as it was not being used.
The last one an elm still draws back to about 2 inch of reflex but just does not perform well.
I guess this is why adding a backing helps as it moves the neutral plane forward away from the poorer compression wood that was given a free ride by the high tension wood on teh back.
I bet that didnt come across well lol.

[Pappy]

What Mike said,I have had several that pulled into reflex like that and put high reflex in a few but for me I finely figured out it wasn't worth it. I think some don't understand  if you start with 2 inches of reflex and wind- up flat you have 2 inches of set,if you start with a stave with 4 inches of reflex and wind- up with 1
inch of reflex you have 3 inches of set and usually won't perform any better.
Looks cool but that's about it , really tough to pull off and make weight also.   
Pappy

[blackhawk]

When you lay it out find the center of that flat section in the middle,then layout your length from there. Once you chop off some length you'll have approx 3" of reflex,cus it looks like you have about 4",n chopping some length off will reduce that down to a manageable level for you. And I wouldn't deflex that handle cus you'll be starting with a manageable amount once cut to length.

[Fred Arnold]

After reading your replies I decided to measure and give some accurate readings. 5 1/4" of reflex and I've read here and elsewhere that  is almost unmanageable. Even to string it would be a chore.

I'm just wondering how to remove some of the reflex without straining or ruining the wood cells.

[coaster500]

I may be totally off the track here so please bare with me. I'm still learning. If the reflex was caused by the tension side wouldn't heating the compression side equal the stresses out and bring equality to belly and back?

Does the back or tension side of a stave shrink more than the belly side when drying and cause the reflex?

Back to your original question...  Looking at your stave I would try and leave the sapwood especially after what I am reading above as the stave is fairly well reduced to begin with. If the tension side pulled all that reflex then that's where the power is isn't it? If I was worried about the sapwood I'd back it?

Sorry I'm thinking out loud but hopfully learning