cherry bark

[Pat B]

Last year I cut down a Quansan Cherry(ornamental flowering cherry) that got too big for it's location. I left the stump about 2' high because the bark looked like the choke cherry bark I've used in the past and I wanted to try it out. After a year in the weather the bark has separated from the trunk and the outer bark peeled off with little effort. This is the bark I got off the stump yesterday. It not only looks like choke cherry bark but feels like it too. Not quite as coppery but seems just as strong.

[DC]

When you decide to use it take lots of pictures. I've got a pile of it too. Well, mine's Bitter Cherry but it looks the same. I covered a handle with it and the only way I could get it smooth was to plank it like a boat. Little 3/8" strips. I think it took all day. Looked good though.

[Dances with squirrels]

Looks a lot like the stuff I collected recently. I thought it was cherry, but now I'm not sure. Maybe I grabbed grey birch bark? Not sure at this point. The tree was under a pile of logs at a sawmill and I went on a hunch and did the best I could.

My mother has one of those weeping cherry trees right in front of the living room bay window of her house and it's overgrown. I was eyeing the bark up yesterday. Wonder if I can talk her into letting me cut it down? 

[Pat B]

DC, I built a bow a few years ago with cherry bark backing but I left all the lichens, etc on the back. It looked cool, made for good camo and was amazingly durable under a few coats of Tru-Oil. If I can find the pics I'll post a few.
Squirrel, be sure it is the right kind of cherry or the bark won't make a good backing. This stuff has a thin(1/32" or so) but very strong outer bark that is used for wraps and as a backing. It may even add a little performance. Regular cherry bark(for lack of a better word) is not tension strong and when it gives it can break the bow.

[Dances with squirrels]

What's 'regular' cherry mean? Black cherry? No, this stuff, whether some type of cherry or birch, definitely has backing characteristics. While removing much of the inner bark, I was impressed at its ability to flex into a tight radius, while at the same time it seemed very strong longitudinally. This stuff is better than rawhide. I'll do some more investigating to try to figure out exactly what it is. I'll try to post a picture here too.

[Dances with squirrels]

Here is the log I peeled the bark from. It looks similar to yours, but there are similarities in the bark on some cherries and some birches. Yellow birch is the one I was thinking of, not grey. Some yellow birch bark looks similar to this.

[Santanasaur]

Cherry bark smells like almond extract and yellow and sweet birch smell like wintergreen. Works better fresh but if there’s any smell left a good whiff can be enough to tell. Sweet birch can look a lot like cherry

[Dances with squirrels]

That helps! Thanks for the tip Santanasaur. I didn't know that. When I started peeling the bark on that log above, the smell of wintergreen was powerful and unmistakable. It smelled like a freshly opened new can of Skoal.

[Trapper Rob]

That's going to look really good on a bow