Black locust and ash questions

[wood_bandit99]

Hey guys, I've never used bl and was wondering if u keep on the sapwood or take it off? How thick should the sapwood be if it is on there? I also have never used ash and was wondering how good a bow it will make? Can either be heat bent or do they work with steam? How do they react to heat treatment? Dies ash have sapwood? Do u use it? Do u scrape off the bark and that's your back? Sorry only have used sage,yew,hickory,hackberry,and red oak.

[huisme]

My favorite BL has the sapwood on and works just fine. I left the outermost wood intact and ended up with about 50/50 sap/core wood. Use steam when it's green, and I haven't had a whole lot of luck bending it dry.

I've made my ash bows without reducing all along and can't complain about the results. Get a big enough tree and there'll be belly splits in it for 'ya 

[oldhippy]

   I take the sapwood off of all of my locust. Never used any of the sapwood because of the horror stories that I have heard of bows blowing because of it.
   Hippy

[Thesquirrelslinger]

sapwood can blow. learned the hard way with 3 bows...

[twisted hickory]

I have made three bow out of BL. It makes a great bow. Go slow when tillering and don't develop any hinges. If you heat treat don't get too crazy with heat treat. My current shooter is fast and humidity does't affect it near as much as hickory. Get it down to the heart wood.
Watch for compression fractures.

[rossfactor]

Ash responds very well to wet and dry heat bending, as well as beat treating.

[blackhawk]

sapwood can blow. learned the hard way with 3 bows...

No wonder you think locust is brittle,and weaker in tension,and haven't gotten a shooter from it yet...when giving advice(as per the other recent locust thread) ya might wanna say all your attempts were sapwood backed....try chasing a heartwood ring and using that as your back...

[huisme]

My favorite is sapwood backed. It was an accident during a belly split, and I just went with it 

http://imgur.com/a/mkQrt

Which isn't so say I think sapwood works nearly often enough to try it most of the time, because it did fail me a lot more than chasing a heartwood rind has.