Osage sapwood

[Mounter]

So whats the deal.. I've started working down a few of these staves I cut in early may. Worked a few of them down to the first ring under the sap wood and sealed the back.. A few others I was able to strip the bark off by hand, leaving a pristine back like on a white wood... Sealed the back of those too, sapwoods about 3/8ths thick. I'm seeing a few osage bows built with sapwood, but know it's usually reccommended to remove it. Just wondering, pro's / con's or opinions... Thanks!

[sleek]

No cons to my knowledge.  Most of mine are sap back. Sometimes you have to thin the sap down to have heartwood on the belly....

[wizardgoat]

I don't think I'd want sapwood on the belly, best Osage bow I made has 1 ring of sapwood on the back. I love sapwood/heartwood bows

[sleek]

Heartwood is preferred but I have seen them made of all sapwood before.

[Stringman]

My experience is if I leave the sapwood on and seal then stand in a corner they will crack badly on the back. I either have 2 choices. Strip bark and sapwood then seal and store, or leave bark on, spray with pesticide and store. Leaving the bark on will keep the sapwood from checking, but you will need to keep the bugs out of it.

[Pat B]

I've made a few osage bows with a ring or two of sapwood on the back but generally would prefer an all heartwood bow.
 If the wood was green I'd do as Stringman suggested.

[bradsmith2010]

i think that is the main reason most take it off,, to prevent checking,,
as far as the performance or durability,, if left on,, there are different schools of thought,, I really think that if the sap wood added anything,, we would have seen alot more bows with it on, and the fact that most guys prefer to take it off,, has to mean something right,,

[George Tsoukalas]

I take off the sapwood when possible on back locust and osage. If I don't have enough heartwood for a bow then I leave sapwood.

Pro-some think the sapwood is pretty. I don't.

Con-heartwood is denser and does change colors which is fun to watch.

Sapwood turns to heartwood in a tree so the closer you can get to the heartwood the better.
My last BL bow has a layer of sapwood out of necessity.
Jawge

[DuBois]

I have wondered about this too. I have made one bow using the sapwood directly under the bark and I really do like the contrasting colors. I am currently making 2 kids bows from the same stave; same length and weight if all goes well. One with mostly sapwood and one all heartwood so it will be interesting.

Sapwood seems quite a bit lighter so in that sense it may help performance.

I cut some osage and cleaned off the bark split to stave width and sealed it with shellac. No problem with checking but other times it checked when left only split in half logs.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I don't see many 50 year old sapwood back osage bows. I see lots that are solid heart wood. Take it for what its worth.

[BowEd]

Colors are cosmetic.Designs and tiller are not.At least with osage and black locust.

[sleek]

Colors are cosmetic.Designs and tiller are not.At least with osage and black locust.

Oh come now. We all know with osage a good tiller is only cosmetic. With locust, your point holds.