start of my cherry bow

[mcginnis6010]

Well here's that cherry stave I was talking about the other day. All I have done to it so far is scrape thaw sapwood off and a lil thinning with a hatchet. First pic is of the back and second is the soon to be belly and third is a just a side view.

[mcginnis6010]

Belly

[mcginnis6010]

Side view

[mcginnis6010]

The check going down the middle of the back is only through two rings so it shouldn't be a problem

[steve b.]

Great.  What are you going to make with it?

[twilightandmist]

if you havent already, i would remove the sapwood. in my experience with cherry it performs better and more consistently without it. ive never had an all heartwood cherry selfbow break, including the 53 inch 72 pounder i posted on here a while back. is it wild cherry or black cherry? or something else?

[mcginnis6010]

Its wild cherry and i have removed most of the sapwood.

[twilightandmist]

wild cherry makes a fantastic selfbow, but must be tillered carefully. how long is the stave?

[soy]

That first picture looks like it has a dog leg in it  

[BowEd]

This wild cherry....Are you talking like choke cherry?

[Dictionary]

That first picture looks like it has a dog leg in it  

 

[mcginnis6010]

no its not choke cherry alto i may not know the exact species of cherry i definitely know its cherry as i go through these particular woods very often during the summer months to gather the cherries frome these trees and they are very sweet and delicious! Alot of them have alot of extreme bends and twists in them so its very hard to find a suitable piece to work with. i tend to only take dead standing cherry trees since i harvest from the live ones in the summer.

That first picture looks like it has a dog leg in it  

Yea that would be my retriever she was the runt of the litter so shes on the small size but shes a great family pet and she great at running down rabbits

[mcginnis6010]

Well i ended up splitting this stave in half as i discover a very bad crack going all the way through the stave but it actually was better that i did it as there was too much wood to remove on it anyway. now i have a large knot that is about 3 1/2-4 inches from the tip of the lower limb. any suggestions? ill have pics of it later this afternoon.