follow the crown?

[Echatham]

Mr. Torges says when laying out the bow, follow the crown... even if it runs from opposite corners of the stave.  does he mean to forget about the grain?  the stave should follow the grain... and if its a wide stave, say 3" wide, and the crown ran from opposite corners it would cause grain runout to follow the crown.  anybody want to comment on this?

[Eric Krewson]

Bottom line, you want the thickest part of your limbs centered on your stave. If you have it off to one side your bow will dogleg when you string your bow. On most osage staves with snaky grain, the crown will allow you to follow the grain on the sides of the limb with out moving the crown to one side or the other.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Sometimes on wide staves you can split down the center of the crown and get two bows. If its narrow, follow the crown or you will have the issues Eric pointed out. All the tiny details add up to a great bow in the end.

[Echatham]

maybe i just have good eyes...  but i can see the grain. its not hard to just draw a line down the center (roughly center) of the stave and just follow the grain through all the wiggles. then i draw my circles centered on that line.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Exactly how I do it.