Any one here ever cut hickory in spring? Planning on making a selfbow for a young fellow in my archery club, but only have one hickory stave left & it's spoken for. Have some black locust, but I haven't worked it enough to trust myself to make a durable bow for someone else.
Have cut all my hickories except one in August, and the inner bark peels off real nice. Made the mistake of cutting one after the sap was down... like trying to get gray off steel. Vowed I would never do that again!
Is there a particular time in spring, say right after the buds start to leaf out, that a fellow could cut himself a hickory & peel the bark? Would it be difficult to remove any early wood that had started on the outside? The hickories around here typically have fairly thin rings, but a good early/late ratio.
All trees peel more easily in spring. Bark "slip" starts before bloom and leaf out on fruit trees such as apples and pears but right after leaf out should be easiest on most species.
i cut hickory when the leafs are about 2" long. the bark will fall off when you split the log into staves.