1 Sapling, 2 Staves & Mysticguido?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Well I'm hoping to get to 2 bows from these staves, but we will see. I don't have the best of luck with staves or anything other then red oak boards.

Well here is the sapling of Sassafras  
 
 

How would you lay these out. I might mess with the smaller one and get it to floor tiller.

[Pat B]

Sal, The heart seems to be centered in that stave so what I would do is find the best side to be the back and reduce the opposite side down until you get to floor tiller. Once you get the belly reduced some, remove the bark and cambium from the back and seal it. By reducing it to almost bow dimensions it will dry quicker...but keep an eye on it. If it starts to warp you may have to clamp or tie it down to a form until it is dry. With the back sealed you should get some backset and the more evenly you have the stave reduced the more evenly it will backset.
  On PA, a few of us are building survival bows. We are trying to keep it as simple as possible and use only tools we may have in a survival situation; ie. knife, hatchet, rocks, glass, scrap steel, whatever. No real rules but for the experience and learning how others would do it.  I collected 2 hickory poles and this morning found a sassafras that came down when I was cutting firewood. It is about 2" to 2 1/2" in diameter but only about 60" long. This is pretty short so I will probably go with an Eastern Woodland or Cherokee style bendy handle bow.
  O BTW, We have a month(Nov. 20) to complete out survival bows.     Pat

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Thanx Pat I'll check that thread out.

[Pat B]

I got my sassafras stave reduced, skinned and sealed. I'll keep you posted on the progress. Pat

[**DONOTDELETE**]

the small one 63.5" long the bigger one is 77" long. Both have high crown. I am working on the small one and trying to get down to one ring at the knots is hard. I might have to flat'en the backs and back the bows or try and do a crowned back bow. Like I said this will be a learning staves.

There is like 20 more that I can cut down, but I have all winter to cut them down so I'm going to take them out 1 a week or so. I really don't have room to store them to dry.

[Pat B]

When dealing with saplings you will have a high crown. What I am doing is reducing the width and giving the belly a rounder cross section almost the same as the back. Working with small pole staves is different from larger diameter staves. With a larger diameter you get a flatter back with the pole you work with what you have. I have decrowned staves before but I don't think it is necessary and won't for any of these 3 I'm working on now.
    Pat

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I have other things to do, so tomorrow I'll take pic's the the small stave. Since I have been trying to get a flat back I'm trying to get it under all the knots and go from there. There is also bigger trees I can get too.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Here is 2 pic's of the small stave/sapling. I messed up on the knots so I think I'll use it as the bellie side. The back side has knots, too &  I'm having trouble getting one ring. So I'm thinking of flating the back too as I posted before and add a backing.  
 

[michiganbowguy]

on whitewood nows you do not need to chase a ring.
just take off the outer bark and shape it to near bow dimensions and let dry.

also with sapling staves you probably should have left some wood around that knot...

ive always wondered the same thing with realy "well known bowyers"...
when you have such an awesome character stave why try to make it flat like a board????

ive had wood "gouge" like that before.it was because the wood was still too green and my sharp tool bound up on multiple layers of wood around the knott and with the force i was using while pulling my drawknife twordsme, i made deep gouges like that.

keep on truckin tho, id like to see it shoot!
jamie