Last year at the "Great Ohio Rabbit Hunt" Mr. Mike Rizzo had an osage stave he and Ben had played around with. They'd taken a band saw to it trying to work it down to the lines they had drawn out for the profile. They hadn't gotten far the way I understand and place the stave in storage.
At the GORH event he showed me this stave and talked of the attempt he'd made at the bow. i believe his words were, "Man, that is one hard piece of wood".
I talked him out of letting me try and work the stave for him. He provided me the stave and I too had to let it sit for a year.
Well, today I got at it and put in about two hours with the drawknife and rasp. The stave is fifteen years old now and the first thing to go was that 2-97 date he had written on the side of the stave.
The grain is a little twisted and there were a couple knots that caused me to use the rasp more than I like. I'll use the rasp when the knife hits a knot or limb. The rasp grinds it off rather than the knife taking out a chunk that you don't want it to take.
The sectional cuts Mike did with the band saw caused the drw knife to hang up a bit but I let it go with the natural twist in the grain and things worked out.
I followed the original lines Mike and Ben had drawn except at the fades. They were about 3" long and so I changed that to 1 1/2" so we'd have the limbs working more.
Here's the stave before I started. You can't tell by the pic but, it was as dark a peice of osage as I have ever seen. My osage never lasts ten years on the shelf.
And the roughed out result of my efforts today.
Gonna have to put this thing on a caul this week. Hard telling when I'll get it floor tillered but I hope to update you guy's as I progress.
Topic: Fifteen Year Old Rizzo Stave (Read 1421 times)
