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ERC 90% Sapwood Board - 59" clean or 66" with a knot?

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Loganic:
Hey yall,

This marks the beginning of my fourth attempt to make an ERC bow. This time, I'm going with mostly sapwood and am trying my best to avoid the impatient tillering of my youth. I have a board here that has remarkably straight grain all the way down with the exception of a knot about 6" away from one end. Big knot that goes all the way through.

See the pictures below to see how that looks. Asking for advice... should I cut the bow down to the 59" of clean wood or work around the knot? I know there are vulnerabilities either way but am leaning towards working with a 59" board. I'm only shooting for #40-45 in draw weight so hopefully with so much sapwood it won't be too bad.

 :BB

Loganic:
That third one there is weirdly distorted... the board is most certainly not that thin!  ::) Let me try again with that one....

Pat B:
I've seen good ERC sapwood bows but they were made from staves, not boards. I don't think I'd trust an ERC board for a bow unless it had a hard backing.

superdav95:

--- Quote from: Pat B on March 11, 2023, 01:51:58 pm ---I've seen good ERC sapwood bows but they were made from staves, not boards. I don't think I'd trust an ERC board for a bow unless it had a hard backing.

--- End quote ---

Plus one on this advise.  Hard backing at minimum.  Boo backed perhaps.

Hamish:
The board looks to be around 4-5" wide. That should allow you to easily build almost any design of bow for the full length of the stave, and totally avoid the large knot.

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