Help me chase a ring! pics added

[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
 

[razorback]

I have only chased one stave, but by the looks of the rings on that stave you should not have much of a problem. Early growth is very brittle and powdery when you scrape through it. It has a very distinctive noise and feel. Carefully scrape the late wood of a ring until you start to expose the early growth of the ring below it. Keep moving along the stave leaving the early growth of the ring you want in place. In this way you will be able to see the end of the ring you are removing. look aat it from a bunch of angles in different light and you will be able to get an angle that will clearly show the rings. I took a digital photo of mine, without a flash, and it showed the different rings amazingly well. Once you have the ring you want go back and carefully remove the remaining early wood with a scraper. I use a pocket knife. Looks like you could use the second ring down without problems. If you used that one you may be able to get a second bow out of the bottom of the stave, like Pat suggested above.
Work slowly and enjoy. take one ring at a time and if you mess up just go to the next one down. I am a newbie to this but this system worked for me. others will chime in and there are good tutorials here and on other sites explaining ring chasing. I believe there is a good one in the how to forum.

[razorback]

If that stave is not thick enough for 2 bows think about making one and split off the rest and add wood to the handle area, like a boardbow, to get a second bow out of it. That piece of wood loks too good to only get one bow out of it.

[tah-gah-jute]

you want to remove thin white layer of earlywood and leave dark layer of latewood for back of bow.rings look good and wide(glare on one side of picture)should be able to use any of first dark rings.you don't want to cut into rings,but should be o.k. on rings that thick.you definately don't want to cut thru ring.take your time and you should be fine.could probably even just use scraper,instead of drawknife if using 1st wide ring.looks like you wouldn't have that much to remove.

[tah-gah-jute]

yeah,i agree with razorback.how deep is stave?if you have access to a bandsaw,looks like you could cut in half by white speck in picture and get two nice bows out of that piece.

[kodiakkid]

Thanks for the help. I did split the stave like Pat suggested. I am trying to get to one ring on the belly piece now. The sun isn't shining here today and the lights in my shop aren't all that great. Along with my over 50 eyes equipped with dime store glasse probably doesn't help either. Oh well I'm going back to the shop to scrape some more. Paul<><

[va]

Not one ring on the belly... you want one ring on the back of the bow - the part that faces the target.  If you are not confident of a clean ring on the back then back it with something.  I back all mine because I am doubtful of my ring-chasing ability.

enjoy

[kodiakkid]

Yea I know I'm supposed to chase the ring on the back. I was talking about chasing the ring on the back of the piece I split off the belly of the stave. Paul<><

[razorback]

Don't forget lots of pictures.  

[razorback]

I would probably start with the stave that was closest to the bark. The rings are wider and flatter. Makes it a whole lot simpler to chase the ring. Practice with the easy one then go to the hard one.

[Shaun]

Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain. You are doing fine. Bright light and a teacher will help, but you can do it on your own. You will soon get a "feel" for cutting the thin early ring. Small nicks in a thick dark ring are not a problem unless you cut down to the next early ring. Go for it!!!!

[bigcountry]

Here is what I do.  I remove the sapwood and mark all flaws, pins or knots.  I work down to my desired ring on one end only.  I may do this very carefully depending on how thick the ring is or how many rings I have to go down.

     

I then will work on that ring carefully with scrapers, possibly a drawknife about 12" up the stave. Not cutting thru the ring. I then turn the stave around and pull backwards with drawknife between the growth rings  I only work 6" at a time.  I won't move forward until I am sure I am down.

When I get to a knot or pin, I will try to pull up about 1" from the knot with my drawknife. Most of the time, it doesn't work, but sometimes the rings will pop off the knot and not damage the rings.  If you cut thru a pin knot, you might have gone thru seveal rings.

[bigcountry]

Here is around a set of pin knots.  the layes didn't pop off as I wanted, but I worked around them carefully with a pocketknife (relatively dull one) will come back to visit later.

 

[kodiakkid]

Thanks for the pics and all the help. I am gonna post some pics of the piece I split of the belly of the stave. I think I have it chased to a single ring up to where the handle is gonna be on one limb. Not sure I'm even gonna get a bow out of because of the width. It is barely an inch wide 12" from the center of the bow. Good practice chasing rings though. If there is a bow here is there a paticular style that will fit this stave best.
 
 
 
 

[razorback]

That little snake in the stave is going to add some real nice character to your bow.

[kodiakkid]

Thanks razorback It's nice to know someone thinks it will be a bow. LOL

[George Tsoukalas]

It seems to be very hard for me to distinguish between rings. (Remember, kid, you want the darker late wood not the lighter colored early wood.) Do I want to just cut thru one of the thinner lighter rings and stay on the wider darker one? (Yes) If I cut into but not thru a ring do I have to go to the next one or am I okay? (OK) Any tips? (I go up the right side right about a foot to the ring I want or the a few above, come down the middle towards me and up the left side and then back up the right for about a foot. Why? If I make a mistake  and go through the ring on the edge it won't matter because that mistake will come off when the bow is shaped. Before I continue back up the right side I've cleaned up that first foot and then I continue. A lot of the work is done with a curved scraper like tool because osage rings dip up and down. But those rings are pretty large so it will be a good one to start. Have fun. Jawge

[Pat B]

Paul, On the belly split, find your back ring. In this case, the first one you can make clean. Take the most narrow part of the stave and make that the width and clean up the edges from tip to tip. Now see how it floor tillers. If it bends, begin reducing the belly just like with a regular tillering process but the belly will probably be  deeper so make it more rounded. Osage can handle it. You can also make it bend through the handle like an Eastern Woodland style bow.
   With a belly split like this that you hadn't even considered, you have nothing to loose. Time to push the envelope!!! Make that piece of wood bend evenly throughout and make a bow out of it. Don't consider a design, just make it bend good.

[Shaun]

Narrow staves are just right for bend or semi bend in the handle bows. These have a gentle thickening near the middle instead of a thick handle with fades. The bow bends a small amount into the handle in the last part of the draw. Pat's advice is good, follow the wood rather than forcing it to some pre conceived idea.

[shamus]

thoughts of mine on chasing rings.  


I hope it helps.