ash questions

[andy thomas]

got a couple questions on ash. was reading the boywers bible and saw that after cutting  seal ends and remove bark, can i use a bandsaw to cut the tree  instead of splitting ? i am searching for some wedges right now but figured i could cut instead. another thing was it was mentioned that the sapwood under the bark could be the back of the bow?

then the stupid question for you guys is when you are talking about the back of the bow you are talking about the portion of the bow thats facing you as you hold it?

thanks guys

[agd68]

The back of the bow is the portion that faces away from you. The portion facing ou as you hold it is called the belly.
You can use a saw to split your stave no problem at all

[andy thomas]

thanks

[Pat B]

You can saw it as long as you are sure you are following the grain.   You can make wedges from hardwood! Start your split with an ax and drive the wood wedges into that split. Splitting automatically follows the grain.

[andy thomas]

thanks pat , it was easier than i thought . i used a axe and a hatchet and split it. piece of cake!

[JW_Halverson]

Ash almost wants to split, just needs a bit of encouragement.  The bark also comes off pretty easy, too.  Might as well do that right away, too. 

I've been ambitious enough to take an ash bow all the way down to a roughed out stage on the day it was felled, then cured it in a hot car for a week before starting on the tillering.  Since the wood was taken down so close to finished dimensions it was unable to really generate enough tension on the fibers to split or check.  But if you don't take it down to bow dimensions right away, you really should coat the backs with wood glue, polyurathane, shellack, or even cheap latex paint.  All those finishes can be lightly scraped off later and will prevent the backs from checking.