Split or saw

[Allyn T]

I debarked a stave tonight and I am hoping to get 3 bows out of it. Do you think I should split it or try to band saw it. I have a little table top saw. Says it's like 2hp I think.

[Morgan]

Probably saw. If you’re good with your saw, you could knock the heartwood off of it and keep that “belly split” and cut you some quarter sawn board bow staves or backings out of it

[Nasr]

I would saw it but that bench top might not be good enough. My experience with bench-top bandsaws haven’t been good. Even if the are powerful enough I can never get them to cut straight. But yours might be different and if you can do it I would definitely go that route.

[Del the cat]

I'd say saw if your saw is 2hp  you should be able to cut through anything! A decent blade, a well adjusted saw and some care and patience when hand feeding the stave are called for. IMO don't try to use a guide to run a stave through, as cutting along the guide can still allow the blade to wander or pull the stave off line. You want a blade with alternate set teeth.

Will you get 3? Depends where you want them in that timber (you don't say what it is). if you mark 'em on there with a sharpie, we can comment... there are some scribed lines on there, but they don't make sense to me...
It's easy to think you have more width than you really do, I cut the corners off first which narrows the back to a more realistic width.
Del

[Dances with squirrels]

Del, I think those are drying checks.

I'm generally conservative about trying to get staves out, but I've gotten 3 out of pieces like that plenty of times. Depends more on your equipment and ability.

Here are a few potential options I see.

1. If it split nice and straight before, split it in half to get two staves.

2. If you and your saw are up to the task... measure down from the bark 2" and draw a line down both sides of the stave. Cut that piece of heartwood off to possibly make a heartwood bow. This is a tricky cut, even on a big, powerful, accurate bandsaw.

3. You could split that belly piece off instead of sawing it. That works too. If you have a good circular saw, you could draw those lines down the sides, kerf it with a circular saw down both sides, then pop it the rest of the way off there with a wedge. Then split the sapwood piece in half.

[stuckinthemud]

Not sure if I'd be able to get more than 2 bows out of that stave.

[Allyn T]

It looks like I should try to saw it and see how it goes. It's hickory and I got the bark off last night. It split straight when I reduced it to staves. My initial thought had been belly split and then splitting the sapwood in half. I'll try to cut the belly stave first and see if it works

[Eric Krewson]

Every time I got greedy on trying to get a bunch of staves I ended up with less. I play it save now go conservative.

I tried to split off the core on a huge hickory stave the other day, the split ran off and I ended up with a chunk of firewood 6" wide and 7' long.

[Allyn T]

Dang Eric that's a cautionary tale if I've ever heard one. I know I could split it in half safely but I don't know about the belly. Really wanna be able to use that heart wood though, and don't want to ruin the stave ugh 

[Eric Garza]

If that is hickory, the heartwood will not be useful as a bow wood anyway. I would split the stave down the center and get two from it. I am with Eric Krewson, I tend to lean conservative. Better to get two good staves than zero. I have ruined my fair share of amazing staves by getting greedy.

[Pat B]

Is the stave hickory?  I've never seen hickory with that much heartwood.  It looks like it was split initially. If so seems to me it would split straight again.

[Nasr]

I’ve made a bow with hickory heart wood and it held up so I wouldn’t throw away that heart wood. I haven’t seen hickory that dark before either.

[bassman]

I see sparks flying when cutting Hickory with a band saw. I would split it in 2, and see what you have. I have read were flight shooters have made sinew backed heart wood Hickory bows that were excellent shooters. I have one that is backed,and has siyahs that does oK, but it took to much set. Builder error. That was at a time that I used no heat to make a bow.

[Allyn T]

Yes it's shag bark hickory

It was a rather large tree, I got 6 trunk sections out of it all 78" long. This stave I think is from the second biggest section

[Pat B]

I've heard that hickory heartwood is brittle which wouldn't be bad for belly wood so you could back it with more hickory sapwood, maple, ash or elm and make another bow with the heartwood.