David, You just peel the growth rings away like you would an onion. Each ring goes around the tree and down it's length. The only living part of the tree trunk is the cambium layer, the thin layer just under the bark. Everything under that is dead wood as is the bark. So, you remove the bark, then the cambium, the sapwood(lighter color) and down to a darker colored ring. On the stave, that runs down the length and will be the back of your bow. On the belly side, from the handle area out, the rings will feather or step down from one ring to another to the tips. If this was reversed and the feathering was on the back the rings would separate and the bow would break
. The continuous ring on the back holds it all together.
Pat
