Chasing osage rings HELP!

[kodiakkid]

It seems to be very hard for me to distinguish between rings. Do I want to just cut thru one of the thinner lighter rings and stay on the wider darker one? If I cut into but not thru a ring do I have to go to the next one or am I okay? Any tips? Thx, Paul

[fireball31]

I would post this in the bowyers forum. you will get a lot more responses.

[PSUBowhunter]

I have only made one osage bow, so take it for what it is worth. The thin ring is the spring ring. On the bow I made, this ring was very brittle and could be scrapped off very easily.  

You want the backing of the bow(front side of bow) to be the thicker ring(annual ring). You should take it down to the spring ring just before you annual ring, then remove the spring ring by simply scraping it off. This will leave you with a good backing of the annual ring.

As you scrape off wood, you can tell when you hit the spring ring. It is not as fiberous as the annual ring, almost like a condensed powder. The sound of the spring ring coming off is much diferent than the sound of the annual ring coming off.

I am sure someone with more experience will be able to explain this better than I can.

This link may help out some. I was shown this webpage when I was making my bow and it helped alot.

http://residents.bowhunting.net/sticknstring/default.html

[Jeff Strubberg]

PSU hit the nail on the head.  You want to scrape off the spring ring and then STOP.   Your goal is to have every bit of that good summer wood ring as your bow back.

[kodiakkid]

Thanks I'm off to scrape some more. I have noticed the thin ring being brittle and almost flaking off. Thanks again, Paul<><

[crosseye]

that's a purty stave!  yep, just as others have said, go right under the flaky white stuff to the hard, slick yellow/orange back and you are ready to build, my friend!  again, that is a GREAT stave!

stan

[BigArcher]

I would also always work in the same type of light and from the same direction.  The wood of Osage can take on different hues from different angles. This can have you scaping off what you carefully saved when working from the other end.

BigArcher