Skinning cats and chasin rings: what's your method

[Steve Kendrot]

Took a hiatus after my first few BBOs and now that I have my new shop set up, giving my first Osage self bow a try. Reading books and watching videos so I don't blow the limited staves I have. It seems there are as many ways to chase a ring as to skin a cat. Dean Torges  (Hunting the Osage Bow) decrowns a stave along it's length down to a target ring, leaving bark and sapwood on each side of the "trough" to be removed in subsequent passes. With each pull of the draw knife he reaches further into the uncut wood, pulling towards the back revealed by the previous swipe thereby reducing the risk of tearing into the future back of the bow. Stim Wilcox (The Art of Making Self Bows) on the other hand exposes the target ring on either side of one end of the stave by "trapping" the stave and then removing the peak to the same ring. He does this a few inches along the stave on one end, pulling towards the closest end until the entire ring is exposed at the one end. He then works the ring in the opposite direction, pulling the drawknife away from he exposed back and into the wood to be removed in short upward strokes. His reasoning for this is to avoid accidentally cutting into the back with an over zealous stroke of the drawknife. In the Clay Hayes video recently posted, I noticed he too pulls towards the wood to be removed with a steeply angled "dull" drawknife. Torges and Wilcox both  seem to prefer a sharp drawknife.

In my first pass, I used the Torges method of cutting towards the exposed wood but found myself frequently "nicking" the back ring. I am considering the Wilcox approach as I work down the ring or two. How do you all do it?

[DVSHUNTER]

I use either a sharp ( preferred ) or dull drawknife and Chase the ring I want completely by chasing a few, maybe three rings in stages so that I have about four inches of each ring to see. Chase the top ring six inches, then the next ring six inches, then my final ring. Each ring stays a few inches back from the next making it easy to see and feel. Once you get the hang of chasing rings it really is no big deal. A lot of fuss is made about it because it is so important. It is important, but I think it is a lot easier than most think. I chased my first ring without a teacher or the internet and it took me a week! Now, even with tight rings about 20 min tops for a solid ring.  When I teach people I tell them.to think of the rings like a typo map with rings toward the bark being "higher" elevations then below and the spring growth is the lines they would see. It works for some. Some people need a different analogy like the gravel road dean describes in his book. Good luck. Hope that helped, and welcome to the madness of selfbows!

[Steve Kendrot]

Thanks DVS. So it sounds like you pull away from the highest ring towards the exposed target ring? This is what I've done so far and I kept "slipping" and cutting into my target ring, leaving some fairly deep tool marks to remove with the scraper. How much of a concern are these "micro-violations" of the back ring?

[DVSHUNTER]

That is the only way to take rings down without risking having the grain tear when it gets pulled up.  For the second question, those micro violations aren't good. Idealy you want you back ring to be as thick as you can get it all the way through. IE if your ring was only an with in. thick and your micro violations took a sixteent deep cut, then you back ring is now half as thick as before and the risk of pulling a splinter increases there as well as back failure.  Some micro nicks can be smoothed with a scraper like tool suck as a knife, half of a pair of scissors, a piece of glass etc.  Maybe chase to the Rick.g above the one you want with a draw knife and then use a scraped to reveal you final ring. It will take longer, but until your skill with a draw knife gets better it is a safe way to go.

[George Tsoukalas]

First, when I chase a ring it is on whole stave. I never layout first. I go up the right side. Mistakes on the edge won't matter as the stave is full width. This lets me get comfortable with the ring.  Then I go down the middle and then down the left side.  On staves that have irregular rings I use scraper-like tools because draw knives are large and will automatically violate adjacent rings. If I cut through I start all over again. More on my site. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/osage.html

[John Scifres]

I always chase the ring above my target ring.  That lets me quickly get it roughed out and then I flip the draknife over so the bevel is down and scrape from the target ring into the waste basically popping the waste off.  

I use a sharp blade.  This only works for me if I get it down to the ring above the target.  If you leave too much on top, it allows the waste to get too much purchase and rips into the target grain.  If the rings are real thick, I thin the waste ring down some before popping it off.

[Steve Kendrot]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I have some skills to develop with the drawknife. I have a couple junk staves I can practice on. Just impatient! Want to shoot this bow at the Baltimore shoot, but not going to make it at this rate. I have some heat bending to do too. Not sure at what point I should start straightening this thing. How thick is too thick to bend with dry heat?

[scrub-buster]

I like to quickly work the stave down to a single ring.  Then I lay out the dimensions of the bow on the back of the stave and cut it out on the bandsaw.  Next I chase it to the final ring.  I stop when I get to the spring growth above it.  I like to leave some of that on the bow and sand it off later.  That way I know I haven't damaged the final ring.  I would much rather chase a ring on a roughed out bow than an entire stave.  I feel like that saves me time and effort.

[Mongo]

FWIW - I usually follow the Torges method of chasing a ring.  I expose one end first, then use the drawknife from the uncut wood into the exposed portion, using a sharp drawknife.  I do rough it out to one ring above the target ring.

It just seems easier to me.

[Roy Steele]

First off unless your really experanced even then why would you take the chance with a draw knife. Unless I guess there 1/8 inch or thicker rings.  In build self bows there's no hurry and once you go to far you can't go back only down to another ring.
  As GEORGE said use some sort of a scraped. I've used a glass out of eye glass's for as long as I can remember. Just because you have a better ring below the origional back dos'nt make it a better one.
  I use the back under the bark or under the sap wood. This is a much better back ring if it's not broken. WAY better than going down to a thicker back ring.
  When I have to (can't remember this last one)I start at one end and go down one ring at a time.  There's no cutting through that ring with a scraper.
  WHATS THE HURRY am I missing something.

[Steve Kendrot]

Wasn't looking for the fastest way. Just the safest. I'll give the scraper a try. Each ring I chase is more experience. Did try the Wilcox way. Found it easier to control the knife, but did notice more tearing. Not sure yet if it ripped through the spring ring.