muscle wood bark removal

[tattoo dave]

Any good ideas for getting the bark off this stuff??? Rich gave me a stave a while back, and I'd love to sinew back it, but this bark refuses to come off!

Tattoo Dave

[PatM]

You might as well decrown it and make the back uniform before sinewing. Trying to lay sinew on a rippling back is going to greatly minimize the effectiveness of the backing.
 The wood has a very dense homogenous structure so violating the back rings and then tying everything back together with sinew isn't going to pose a problem.

[PEARL DRUMS]

That stuff is serious work to get off clean when the sap is up, no way Id try it dried on. Pats advice isnt so bad an idea if there is enough depth to decrown. If your not in a hurry? Id wait til spring and cut another then, its all over up here.

[tattoo dave]

I figured that to be the case with the bark. The only reason I considered sinew, is the fact that it's only 44" long. Might just end up being a really short draw bow with some bark still on it. I'll keep you all posted.

Dave

[blackhawk]

Gooseneck scraper is how I get the bark off of muscle wood because of the "muscles"...just takes a lil time n patience is all...leaving the bark on is not a wise idea IMHO

[usmcsgt]

One thing I did was, get it to the floor tillering stage and carefully start bending it until the bark started to pop off.
 Since I like the shape of the back, I would sand what didn't come off. I would take my time with it and enjoy it. I haven't seen many bows like this btw.

[tattoo dave]

Thanks guys. It's at floor tiller already, the bark is still not wanting to come off much.  I recieved the stave already dried with the bark still on. Just got home, going to work on it a little now, we'll see what happens.

Dave

[Badly Bent]

Yeah gooseneck scraper and alot of patience.   I've done 'em dried and green and both were a tough project. Three attempts with musclewood bows and one survived. Last one I harvested just north of your location Dave, quite a bit
of it up there I noticed. Thats the one I scraped bark off green with pocket knife and gooseneck and it still took a couple hours if I remember right, then it broke during tillering. The one that survived I gave to one of my brothers,
it's a pretty snappy bow at his long 28" draw. Good luck with yours, it is some cool looking wood with all the ripples.