One coat of shellac enough?

[razorsharptokill]

Stripped the bark off of my new Osage stave I bought at OJAM. The sap wood is showing and I put a coat of shellac on it. Will that be enough to prevent checking?

[Eric Krewson]

NO NO NO, get that sapwood off or you will be sorry. 5 coats of shellac won't stop sapwood from checking. The rule of thumb is if you take the bark off the sapwood has to come off as well. I have a bunch of well sealed sapwood on osage in my stash, all has checked.

[DVSHUNTER]

I somewhat disagree with most here. I have about six staves curing with sapwood and three coats of shellac that have not checked. If you don't plan on using it, then do as eric says and remove it. I have had them check, but it is not a absolute thing. I only leave it on if I plan on making a sapwood bow. Definitely use more shellac either way.

[razorsharptokill]

Will get the sap wood off today! This way to nice of a stave to let it check. Hope it can wait till I get home!

[razorsharptokill]

MAN! That was a chore! There was like 3/8" of sap wood on there and that was after my back and bicep workout! I got all but few small spots of thin sapwood and put another coat of shellac on it.

This stave is wide enough for two bows I believe. I think I'll find the center along the full length, connect the dots and run it through my bandsaw. Good or bad idea? This would help it dry faster would it not?

[Eric Krewson]

You will be patting yourself on the back when you pull out that stave to make a bow out of it, no sapwood to remove.

Don't know if you have a band saw but you can take short slices on the sapwood with a band saw and get most of it off, much less work.

I removed the sapwood from a nice stave yesterday and shellacked it. I never put less than three coats on the back of a stave. Shellac is cheap and much easier to come by than a fine stave, take no chances, add a few more coats.

[DVSHUNTER]

with good straight grain you can bandsaw it. Follow the lateral grain lines as best you can and go slow. I don't have a bandsaw, so I split all my staves.

[razorsharptokill]

Ok, I'll get some more shellac on it today and tomorrow. So how about splitting it into two staves on the bandsaw?

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I have had staves go either way, some that I left the sapwood on and sealed did not split, but others weren't so lucky. Most of the time it will split through the sapwood and like Eric said you will kick yourself for not getting it off there.
I'm glad you decided to clean it up.

If you want to try and get 2 staves out of that one, then a band saw is the best option. Make sure you can get your 1 good bow out of it then saw off what's left. I have scored them down the middle and split from the center out toward the ends and it worked out fine, but there's no guarantees that it will split the way you want it to. The safest option is to saw it lengthwise.

Good Luck.

[razorsharptokill]

Thanks guys, glad I got it cleaned up too.

[razorsharptokill]

I measure center every 5 inches for the full length the n conected the dots with a sharpie and a straight edge. I was wondering if i could get three staves if I cut parallel to the back along the narrow part of the stave before I split it in two? It is about 4" in width across the back and about 3" across the belly.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Got any pics? Pictures would really help see what your working with.
Cause I'm not sure what your describing?

[razorsharptokill]

[John Scifres]

I would just go for two great ones instead of risking 3 average or worse ones.

Remember that you are going to lose about 1/4" of width on each edge when you square it up.  Still looks like you got 2 in there though.  I usually square up one side, and scribe a line 1-1/2" off that and cut it nice and square.  Then see what you got left.

Also, circle any imperfections on the back and don't leave them on the edge unless you think you can get rid of them totally in your final layout.

[razorsharptokill]

That is what I thought too. Quality over quantity. Thanks guys.