black cherry sapwood. Take it or leave it?

[youngbowyer]

I have 2 nice splits of black cherry. I would like to make a rawhide backed elb with it and a simple rawhide backed flatbow. Can the sapwood be left on or should I chase a ring down to the heartwood?
Cheers, YB

[Pat B]

YB, I've only made a few wild cherry bows and they were all made with the wood right under the bark like any other wood I consider whitewood in bow making.   I've read that black cherry heartwood is relatively strong in compression but weak in tension so a backing of some sort is desired.   I don't know if a combo of black cherry sapwood and heartwood makes a good bow but I imagine it would. Generally if you remove the bark for your bow back you won't get any(or not much) heartwood in the belly of the bow although you will probably get some heartwood in the handle.
  Following Paul Comstock's lead is how I would attack a black cherry stave.

[Jude]

I think you should be fine with the sapwood.  I haven't heard that there is any difference between the heartwood and sapwood on cherry.  If the back is highly crowned, you may want to decrown it, but the rawhide should cover it ok.

Julian