Can't believe my luck!

[Pat B]

The majority of the folks at the Classic camp. Pappy and the Twin Oaks gang just opened up another camping spot to allow for more camping. Look at my thread on PowWow about the Tenn. Classic. All the info is there and I've been posting pics of past Classics.
 I live in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of SW NC so your climate and mine are probably similar with the exception that you probably get colder. Our driest time of year in winter and we get pretty humid in the summer.

[DesM8]

Nice, that's what I was hoping to hear.

Here's the splits btw.  The nicer one had the center of the tree off-center, so I split through that to keep the halves equal and to go through the pith... Unfortunately that potentially left me with more side to side bending than back-belly.  Hopefully that'll be manageable and I can steam/heat it out if needed.  The more wiggly one is definitely going to be a bear with all those branches, we'll see down the road I guess.

[Mad Max]

Osage likes heat guns and steam bending, clamp it down while, just over bend it and clamp it down for string alignment.
 It will spring back some.
never heat the Back.

[bucknut]

That sure split out nice. Looks like it went nice and straight and has very little twist to it.  Osage usually isn't so friendly.   I'm not too familiar with your hot box set up, but you shouldn't really need much of a fan unless it gets too hot.  FYI when you peel the bark on a green hickory, you will really kick yourself in the rear for ever leaving the bark on one to dry.  That is a real pain!  You, like everyone else here have learned this lesson the hard way.  There just isn't much easy work in self bows. I guess that's what draws us to it.  LOL

[DesM8]

Definitely split nice and straight once I got it going... it was getting the axe head in there to start with that was the pain 

Yea my hot box isn't currently getting much over room temperature lol... I just threw some beer brewing heaters I had in there to see if that'd work instead of light bulbs.  If I don't have the fan on, they can get it up a few more degrees... still not that hot though, probably around 80F.

I'll 100% be debarking hickory green next time... I just roughed out another stave from that same hickory I had split... It's IS a pain.  I just got  it very rough, limbs down to about 3/4" and stuck it in the 'luke-warm box' for now.  I figure the extra wind and 10% lower humidity than the garage is better than just leaving it out there.  I'm letting the cedar bow chill for a day or two since I heated the crap out of it to align the string, so I needed something else to do 

[Mad Max]

That sure split out nice. Looks like it went nice and straight and has very little twist to it.  Osage usually isn't so friendly.   I'm not too familiar with your hot box set up, but you shouldn't really need much of a fan unless it gets too hot.  FYI when you peel the bark on a green hickory, you will really kick yourself in the rear for ever leaving the bark on one to dry.  That is a real pain!  You, like everyone else here have learned this lesson the hard way.  There just isn't much easy work in self bows. I guess that's what draws us to it.  LOL

I've never done it but I hear that cutting Hickory in late fall (winter) when the sap is down and it will pop off with just a little prying. I think all white woods are that way.

PatB will know.

[Pat B]

I prefer harvesting whitewoods(hickory included) in the spring, once the leaves are out. In my way of thinking, in the spring, last years growth ring has time to mature over the winter so I think it is stronger. If you harvest in the late summer or fall you will be using this years new wood. Weather my thinking is correct or not I don't know but harvesting whitewood during the growing season is when the bark slips, making it easier to remove.

[Mad Max]

"during the growing season is when the bark slips, making it easier to remove."