Question about Dogwood Prep.

[Scrub_buck]

I cut a neat smaller dogwood today and have a few questions about how to prep it.  It is straight and small ... maybe 3.5 inches in diameter on the big end (sapling bow try).  I don't think I can split it in half and get a full handle out of either side, so I want to just try to make one bow.

I cut it about 80 inches long and when I got it home I squared up the ends and cut it back to about 70 inches and sealed the ends.  I split the 10 inch piece I cut off in half and just for kicks, I wanted to see what it was going to take to get down to the wood ... to test how hard it was going to be to remove the bark and cambium getting it down to the back of the bow.   Well its very easy right now to remove the bark down to the light and textured cambium ... and the cambium peeled off easily revealing the nice and rich colored wood on my sample piece.  As easy as it is to deal with now, I really want to go ahead and get it down to the wood. 

Now my question is how is the best way to handle a smaller sapling like this in order for it to best dry?  Isn't it more lilely to check in round form while drying?  I'd really like to bandsaw the log in half leaving the handle section whole and clamp it to a form to try to induce a little backset while its drying?

Any ideas are welcome.     

[toomanyknots]

It's more likely to check in places you don't want it to if you leave it whole. If it's pretty small, just take a bit off the belly to get a real rough out, leave it thick for a good couple week if you don't want checks to be real bad on the belly. Then slowly start taking it down to dimension.

[HickoryBill]

If you do split it or saw it, tie it belly side down to a 2 by 4 or 4 by 4 ,with little wood spacers in between the stave and the board, the length of the bow. This will keep it from getting to much back set or warping and still dry ok. Seal the ends and the back( if you remove the bark, and I recommend you do) with shellac or urathane to keep it from checking.