Splitting curved wood

[katzmoor]

I have a small problem with some leftover wood from the maple I cut a while back. The other staves are fine - two were perfectly straight and are being made into bows (the other two had mad curvature and propeller twist, and so weren't very useful - they're out back), but this particular piece I have I want to make into a nice gull wing style bow. It's relatively straight with zero twist, and has a nearly symmetrical C curve in the middle that doesn't deviate to the side in either direction. I know how I'm going to do everything so far... except split it. I'll take a picture later, with sharpie lines for reference. I'm worried though if I try splitting it now without advice that it's going to break or otherwise become unusable. For reference, the diameter is about the size of my index finger, so 3-4 inches.

[Jim Davis]

I would mark a  line that approximately parallels the split edges, then saw with a band saw. Your cut will be close enough to the run of the grain.

[katzmoor]

I unfortunately do not have a band saw at this time... I might be able to get one later, but at the moment I have a bow saw and a hatchet. 

[SLIMBOB]

Kerf with a skill saw if you can get one....carefully.

[stuckinthemud]

Or carve it down with a hatchet

[Pat B]

Even curved it should split along the grain so find the pieces you want to use and split it to divide those pieces apart.

[willie]

some maples follow the grain more than others, or dont have much in the way of a long grain to follow.

saw or cut any kind of groove or cut to help the split go where you want

[TimBo]

I think I might take it down with a hatchet just to make sure.  It depends on how much you want the back half of the split (might make a nice deflex handle...).  I have had some success with funky stave splitting by drilling holes where I want the middle to split (like by the handle) and starting the split there.  It's always a bit risky to split, but if it is straight grained, you shouldn't have too many issues.

[katzmoor]

I'm thinking of splitting it with a hatchet after making split points with a spike, like the drilling holes that was mentioned earlier.