Dose anyone barnish bows.If not why not.  

I never have. Never saw a reason to do it.

I think Jawge burnishes his bows, maybe he'll see this and explain.

I used to burnish but don't anymore though I do think it adds a measure of protection to a marginal back. Roy, if you do you have to do it before staining because once the wood is burnished it won't stain. The only wood I would burnish now is osage because I don't stain it. Jawge

I no longer do it either anymore and thanks I know about staining first.Bow for bows that needed backed this is as good as backing as far as I'm concerned and alot easer.When done i've never had a splinter raise.When I first started I did barnish about 10 bows.Why not tell this to begainers it dose help.
 I think osage bows are the least that needs barnished.Why are you noing this.I don't stain my osage bows eihter.Just a thought i've never seen a thread ever about it.

Sorry. I didn't say that correctly, Roy. I don't burnish osage and I don't stain it either. I don't burnish anything but I do burnish my hand planed white pine shafts to compress the grain and make them have less diameter. Jawge

THANKS

What does it mean to barnish/burnish a bow?

Leo, burnishing the bow is when you run the wood vigerously with a smooth object like a glass bottle, smooth steel like a screw driver shank, bone, etc. What it does is compresses the wood fibers and gives the bow(or arrow) a harder smooth surface.

Oh I see, just like when using a burnisher to sharpen scrapers, thanks Pat

Burnishing yields a wonderful, lustrous surface on Osage. It hardens the wood to resist bumps and scrapes, and helps hold everything in place-like little splinters.
I have used bone for a final surface prep before finishing with Tru Oil. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth the effort IMO.

It must help more than we think all indain bows I seen or read about all were done this way.Indains they did'nt just hunt as we do they hunted to live.And everything was done for a reason.
 I knew an old indain,bowyer that built selfbows for over 50 years and he tood me he'd barnished all of his bows and always had.
  Thanks for the insite.

I burnish all my bows, mostly because it provides a glass smooth finish that won't raise after being dyed or finished.  I also think it provides a slight barrier to moisture and perhaps a degree of safety in preventing splinters.

THANKS EVERYONE

I burnished when I first started, but not now.

I burnish the string grooves to make them a little more wear-resistant, but that's about it.