So a recent move to GA and jumping back into the bowyers bench has caused some huge ideas and some consternation for my wife. I have about three bows in some stage of completion in the corner, an ipe board by the bed, a hickory tree on the property is asking to be cut down and a piece of ERC is leaning against a wall in the bathroom...My concern is the ERC/Juniper. Cut it, peeled the bark and sealed the ends. its about four inches in diameter with the heart wood being 2 1/2 to 3 inches. Am I right on the edge of not having enough heart wood to make this a viable bow? Need the practice but....

A few years ago I saw n ELB style bow a guy had made from all ERC sapwood. No heartwood at all.  The bow was very light in hand and pulled 45#@28" and was a real sweet shooter. I was pleasantly surprised how well that all sapwood ERC ELB shot.
A little heartwood along the belly makes for a pretty bow too. If you add a rawhide backing you could take the sapwood down a bit. You will probably get violations in the back but the rawhide should protect the back.

Here is an ERC I made last year - mostly sapwood with a sliver of heartwood.  I did sinew the back.  Shoots just under 50# at 28"  It is extremely light!  Really like to shoot it.  Good luck!


IMG_1959  by  mwosborn1 , on Flickr


IMG_1958  by  mwosborn1 , on Flickr

Looks like a very nice bow Mitch.

Thanks Pat - if I remember correctly you may have given me some advice on that one!  

Dave - I wouldn't be afraid to tear into that ERC.  I think you can come away with a pretty and viable bow.  Be careful with any knots when removing wood - it is brittle wood and catching a knot with a draw knife can rip out a big chunk.  I used a lot of sanding to remove belly wood.

Perfect! Now I'm stoked. I will be keeping it light , around 40#.  I was comfortable with a 50-55 but a few shoulder ops in and I can barely draw any of my other bows..beautiful bow by the way...

Need to a see a "sinew-along"....search time

Dadgum.....checked a bit. Not too deep into what was going to be the belly.

What kind of bow do u wanna make? If a short bow I'd remove as much of the sapwood you could and flatten/plane the back down...if making a normal length bow I'd reduce the sapwood to ~1/4" thick following the contours of the back and as close to one ring as possible(but a few subtle violations are fine)and rawhide back it...ive done sinew,rawhide,and hickory backed erc bows,and with your experience level id make it as long as you possibly can and go the rawhide route

I'm actually in the process of shooting in a rawhide backed ERC longbow this weekend and they are pleasant shooters and super light in the hand ...got any pics of your stave? That will help

Knots can be an issue with the stuff FYI as well,and could affect the best possible layout of your stave

ordcorpdw, check out my post,56" sinew backed osage static recurve. I did a sinew build along in there.