Poggins - I hope I did not come across too harsh in my IP. I am very green when it comes to bow making, and even greener in picking wood. Thus the post here. I figured you were on this board and put as much description in the post as possible so you would recognize the wood. I have all the wood at my home in Indiana. He and I worked out a trade.
That is me in that picture. That piece has a lot of character, but has several significant checks. I think there is a bow in it, but will wait until I can talk with an experienced bowyer at Marshall.
I will take some pics and post them here.
I am just about done with a blank for Matt from the wood he brought up. very pretty wood, and very dense rings. i took the bark and very thick sap wood off and discovered some checking. I then took the next ring off (3/8 thick), which was a bear to remove, and most if not all of the checking that was concerning was taken off with that ring.
I have already encountered one live bore in one of the seasoned pieces that had bark on it. I am going to try and take the bark and sapwood off the rest of the split ones and split the logs and do the same to try and get ahead of the bores.
if that big knot was placed a little differently it would make a very neat "see through" bow, but I fear it is too close to the handle... billets is what I was thinking as well.
