De-crown or not to de-crown? That is the question.

[ffdiggs]

I have a 68" osage stave with very thin rings. Thinking about trying to de-crown it and put a hickory backing on. Just not sure the best way to go about it and get a good flat surface.
    I actually have several pieces of thin ringed osage that I would like to turn into boards but not sure how to go about it. I do have a variety of tools, not high dollar but they fit my budget. they are a jointer,planer,table saw,and a very temperamental bandsaw. Also have the whole gamet of hand tools. any advice appreciated.  

[Pat B]

I've never Decrowned a stave. If the rings are thin I usually chase a ring the best I can then back it with rawhide.
 If you are intent on decrowning you can use the table saw and maybe use the joiner to get it very flat if necessary. You may have to mount the stave to a board to insure safe and smooth removal of the crown.

[George Tsoukalas]

Decrowning is not as easy as it seems. You have to look at the ring lines you make and make sure the rings are all violated equally.
A joiner will not work because it will take off wood straight. Anyway, watch your fingers. Joiners and table saws were made for dimensional lumber.
I decrowned one stave and used a dknife.
I'm not a fan of decrowning if you are concerned about the crown leave the stave a few inches longer while if you are concerned about the thin ring leave it wider.
Jawge

[Dan Landis]

I did an ERC stave once and backed it with hickory.  I did mine with a draw knife to get it close then a good sharp scraper to take off the high spots.  Ended up with pretty good glue lines, but it took a while to get it right.

[ffdiggs]

I think I will try to get to one ring and see how it goes, then put a good backing on it. Thanks all. Besides I like my fingers, no sense in putting them in harms way.

[Pat B]

If I want to build a backed bow(hard back) I'll use a board for the belly otherwise I'll make a selfbow from tree staves. Some I back with rawhide, some not.

[Pheonixarcher]

I know next to nothing about self bows or board bows, but if you could do like mentioned above, and try to violate the rings equally, you may have a good belly and handle for a tri-lam. Perhaps another possibility?

[Beau J]

I decrowned a hickory stave once by using a 36 grit sanding disk on a 4" dewalt grinder. I just drug it over and over along the stave and followed the waves up and down so that the lines of the rings stayed the same width until the flat spot I created was 1 1/5 wide. Then layed it out like normal. It was a lot of work and I'm not real sure it was necessary on this stave but I wanted to try it after reading about it in TBB.   BeauJ

[ffdiggs]

Im slowly working it down to one ring, slow and steady with the cabinet scrapers.