Question on first selfbow(hickory)

[tdog]

About to start my first unbacked self-bow. I have a great looking hickory stave/blank. It has been roughed out to size and I am about to start working it down and tillering. My question is this - Is the brown layer on the back of this stave the cambium? Should I leave it on the back or scrape it down the the whitewood underneath? Pretty "novice" question, but then again, I am certainly a novice.



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[tdog]

Closeup of the limb tips.

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[bowman26]

I work with hickory a lot. The strength is in the whitewood. I call that stuff barkwood. It is excess mass and it stores no energy.

[tdog]

Thanks, bowman26. That was my gut feeling, but needed to make sure before messing up.

[JW_Halverson]

I have only one stave hickory bow under my belt, so take this with a large block of salt. 

It looks like bowman26 is right about the barkwood, because the dark stuff is kinda thick.  The cambium layer that I scraped off my hickory stave was mighty thin stuff and I left bits of it on the back to be a sort of camo covering. 

Good luck, and post a few more pics as you go along.

[tdog]

I started scraping this afternoon and MAN! That barkwood is one tough covering. Occasionally I could get underneath and take a long strip off, but mostly it came off in small scrapings. I have the back down to the whitewood with small pieces of cambium and I may just leave it as is. I think some of the pics of the cambium being left on for "camo" may just be folks like me who have scraped till their wrists are sore and give up. I may rest till tomorrow and try sandpaper to get the rest off. I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

Thanks for the replies.

Mark

[Pappy]

I usually leave some in the grooves ,just for effect,You can wet it with a damp rag and it will soften and come off easier. 
   Pappy

[cracker]

What Pappy said but then scraping it off is all part of the therapy. Theres a shrink on here who says so.Ron

[barebo]

On woods with pronounced irregular contours, I pick and choose what to leave on or take off - personal taste. On woods with smooth outer rings under the cambium, of course it comes off.  I like the way it looks and depending on how you apply the stain , it can add some character, and there's no doubt that it's a selfbow.

[bowman26]

If the stave was cut in the spring or summer there would be nothing to remove making my job easier even though I just cut about three staves and there's snow on the ground.

[JW_Halverson]

I think some of the pics of the cambium being left on for "camo" may just be folks like me who have scraped till their wrists are sore and give up.

Uh, yeah man, I mean, that's why my wrist is sore, really.

[PeteC]

Tdog,yes,remove the bark and as much of the cambium as you can without violating the back.Hickory has very thin growth rings so be careful.Its OK to leave some showing in the valleys of an un-even back,like most hickory has,and it looks nice as well.I remove most of mine with light scraping,then light sanding. God Bless