I have been stripping bark from a bunch of staves and have read a few posts where new guys are asking about how to see where a ring starts and ends so I thought I would take a few photos to help you guys out. First there are many ways to do this and normally I start in the center. But so that you can relate this to what you can see on the end and already know I am working backwards. In other words I will be working to the center from the end. This is a slower process for me but will be a better way to help you understand how the ring is chased. I will use a pencil to show you the edge of the ring. I suggest that in the beginning you do the same to keep track of where you are while working. After I remove the bark I start removing the sap wood. This is hard to do if you wait 6 months after cutting the tree down. I find it more difficult to follow the ring on wet wood so I wait and just suck it up through the white wood. I like starting a chase in the center of the crest and run it down the log. Then I remove wood from the left then right. I do the right side last because it is the most difficult job and is not a natural stance for my body while working. After the white wood (sap wood) is removed you will notice two things when you begin this process. First is a white/yellow line you will see as you go through rings and the draw knife will make a rice crispy sound change when you are ripping between two layers. This will leave a honeycomb look on the surface. When you see this and hear this pat yourself on the back. OK I am just going to post picture without narrative because it should speak for itself. Please ask questions because there are lots of people on here that can help you. There are really good bow makers with year of experience that can help explain this. One more thing if you are new take the time to rip each layer off rather than racing to the layer you want. You can learn 6 times the knowledge on one stave that way
