Am I doin' It the hard way?

[ShinneryOak]

What's the best way to take sapwood off seasoned osage? I rediscovered a piece with bark still on in my attic and decided to try it. I ended up using a drawknife. I'm in reasonably good shape but it took wailing away at it for over an hour to get sapwood off one 3 ft. billet. Ended up sweating with no shirt at 40 degrees. I'm still learning on self bows. Read TBB1, etc. several times. If this is usual, fine. Maybe the drawknife is the wrong type. I have one on order, straight bladed. The one I have is curved like a smile when holding it. After all that I think the rings are too thin, about 1/8 in. What do you think is minimum ring width? TBB says about  3/16.

[Pat B]

For years and many many staves that is the way I went about removing the bark and sapwood. Now I remove most of it with a bandsaw then clean up down to the back ring with a draw knife.
  If the 1/8" ring is clean all the way down the length of the bow, it is plenty thick enough for a bow back.  I usually go down to the first clean ring.

[Hillbilly]

Drawknife works great if it's sharp and you're cutting with the bevel down. It shouldn't take an hour to get the sapwood off a 3' billet. An like Pat siad, 1/8" rings are plenty thick enough. What's the earlywood/latewood ratio look like?

[Dano]

Drawknifeing a stave and chasing rings is a developed skill for sure. I don't care for the curved blade myself, give me a straight blade any time. I have found that if you use your weight more than just your arms the sapwood comes off easier, in longer strips, if that makes any sense.

[ShinneryOak]

PatB, I did try the bandsaw first but ended up getting into the heartwood the first 2 inches, so stopped and went to the drawknife. Guess I'll just be more careful with the bandsaw. Hillbilly, will have to look again at the ratio, most rings were very thin. This wood is from a pretty dry area. About 40/60 ratio I'm guessing. I'll try to put pictures up if I figure out how.   

[George Tsoukalas]

You need a curved scraper or curved shave hooks too for the grain that dips. Jawge

[ShinneryOak]

George, My new drawknife came in this afternoon and is the exact one with red handles in the pic. My curved one is smaller, more curved and not as stout looking as yours. Where did you get it and the shave hooks. I got the red knife from Missouri Trading.

[George Tsoukalas]

I inherited the top one from my father who died in '89. I have no idea how old it is but it is a good knife. The shave hooks are available on line. Do a search. I bought mine from Woodworker's Wharehouse. They are out of business.I use them for chasing rings and remving nicks when finishing.  I paid $6 for the Swedish push knife at a second hand tool store. I use it for lifting up the sapwood layers. I actually push away from me when using it. I also use it in final tillering as a scraper. Jawge

[sulphur]

make sure your bandsaw is well tuned and has a good blade.  wandering of the blade is the biggest risk.  true up the bottom if the stave is thick enough, then the sides.  the back will go much easier that way.  hard to do on osage i know.   I use a hatchet sometimes to.  gloves, goggles and steel toed boots go with the hatchet.

[ShinneryOak]

Jawge, Thanks, this must be the same knife as yours, marked "Mora of Sweden". I'll try pushing with it. Do you keep them sharp or dulled? This one came pretty sharp. Sulphur, I had tried a hatchet too but need all my fingers and toes to count on. It probably is time for a new bandsaw blade. 

[George Tsoukalas]

ShinneryOak, I keep them as sharp as I can. I'm not as string as I use to be. Jawge

[ShinneryOak]

I tried the new straight bladed drawknife (or pushknife) on the other billet last night and got through the bark and sapwood in about 45 min. but was able to take my time and didn't have to take off my shirt! Jawge, pushing is definitely helpful if I clamp the wood at an angle and work with gravity. Trying again with my old curved drawknife, no wonder it wore me out. Think it's made for much finer shaving but it's too wimpy to take off sapwood. Should still be useful for chasing rings though. It's marked as "5 inch" size. 

[George Tsoukalas]

The big one will be good for taking off belly wood and even getting the limbs into floor tillering. Then I switch to the Surform and go with that into long string tillering. After I string the stave I use the little push knife as a scraper. Jawge

[sulphur]

John scifries used to have a great build along that showed how he took of the sap wood with his bandsaw.  don't know what happened to his page though??? anyone know where john scifries went???   he actually had a great website.

[Dano]

John's still around, I saw him in June at Cloverdale, Iniana. He lost his page as others did on MSN (I think it was), he said when he get's time he'll rebuild it. We lost a lot of great info when they folded.