Reason to decrown a stave?

[bigcountry]

Been trying to figure this out.  Is there ever a reason to decrown a stave?  I have been making my osage with just the one growth ring, I thought maybe if making out of a smaller limb?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Someone told that once, but I can't remember. I do know if the board/stave is decrowned you can laminate other backing wood to it better, but I may be wrong.

[ChristopherO]

Like you said, on a small diameter limb the crown will be very pronounced.  Decrowning it will help spread out the tension.  But you would need to back it with something as the back is violated, unless, possibly, it is Hickory.

[John Scifres]

You are correct.  It is generally done when the crown is really high.  A carefully decrowned stave does not need to be backed as the longitudinal fibers are intact for the most part.

[Keith Deters]

If you were building a longbow as opposed to a flatbow, even a highly crowned stave would work well.

A wider, shorter, flatbow design would do better if the same stave were decrowned.

Choosing the correct design for the stave would pretty much eliminate the need to decrown any stave.

[bigcountry]

A friend is getting me some elm.  and I was reading where they recommend using smaller saplings and keeping them high crowned.  Surprisded to see that.  But they said it had alot of tension strength.

I usually do not bother with 3-5" logs/limbs.  But might have to rethink using smaller branches

[tim-flood]

the flatter the back the more of it will resist the tension of the bend the farther you get from the back to the belly the less tension and the more compression, somewhere in the middle is the neutral portion so to spread out the tension the most the more flat the better.  think of fiberglass bows

[bigcountry]

When you guys decrown one, like a hickory small sapling, do you just to to keep ringslined up?