I have read a great deal about various woods on TG and other sites and it seems difficult to nail down to use heart versus sap wood. Obviously osage is a heart wood bow....what about some of the other common woods? Sugar Maple, Oak, Hickory, Cherry? Or does it even matter?

My experience with Hickory is the white outer wood is better than the dark inner wood.Tried 2 heartwood Hickory bows and they both took on a-lot of set.

I've made bows from hickory heartwood and sapwood and couldnt really tell any difference in the way they performed. The other woods you mentioned I dont think it really matters. Generally speaking on woods that have thick sapwood like ash and american elm it doesnt matter.

Hickory takes a lot of set if not really dry and if not tillered really well.

I believe the heartwood might be stronger in tension  and really like the appearance of a sapwood bow w/ heartwood backing strip.

With whitewoods(I consider all you mentioned as whitewoods for bow making)use the wood under the bark for your back. With osage, locust, mulberry and a few others, remove the sapwood and use the heartwood for your bow. The sapwoods of these woods can be used to build good bows but generally it is not.

Ok, thanks that makes things a bit simpler.

with yew both the sapwood and heartwood are used to make a selfbow. sapwood for the back and heartwood for the belly. i think this is the only wood where both are used in a self bow.
                                      don

Mulberry sapwood needs to be removed just like osage? I thougt I heard somewhere you could use the sapwood on mulberry if it is dried properly?

Actually the sapwood of osage, mulberry and locust can go into a selfbow or a selfbow can be made with just the sapwood. I have done it with all but locust and I have seen a bow made with locust sapwood. You have to be sure of the soundness of the sapwood though.

I like hickory sap wood only because I like to make the back from right under the bark. I like to use any wood like this that can be used that way. There are exceptions as Pat just said wood like osage,mulberry,BL sap wood can be used but not the norm.

Heres a pic of a hickory-cherry trilam with 1/2 heartwood and 1/2 sapwood on the hickory belly lam.

that's a sweet looking bow!

Thanks NY. That bow has probably had over 1000 arrows go across its shelf and it still shoots great. Hickory can make a great belly lam if handled properly.

For whitewoods and yew  I leave the sapwood on. For osage, mulberry and BL, if I have enough heartwood, I remove the sapwood. If I do not then I remove enough sapwood to get as close as I can to the heartwood. I contend that the sapwood closest to the heartwood is the strongest because it is aout to become heartwood.    Jawge