Incredibly dense osage-Pictures

[Hrothgar]

This osage was cut and split 12 months ago. Until I brought it inside to start working on this afternoon I hadn't realized how dense it is. I've counted between 29-31 rings per inch. With my 58 year old eyes and all the clear caulk on the end its kind of hard to accurately count. The pencil line is exactly 1" from the white sapwood. If I'm lucky the first ring will be the back of this bow.
Thanks for looking,
Eric

[osage outlaw]

That's a lot of early growth.  It might not be as dense as you are thinking. 

[Fred Arnold]

With my eyes I'd have to leave the sapwood on and back it with rawhide. Even with glasses and sunlight I can't chase those thin rings and any advice from me would be like the blind leading the blind.

[SLIMBOB]

+1 again osage outlaw.  Looks like a good bit of early growth.  Don't look bad at all, just not as dense as you might think.

[Hrothgar]

I had thought about leaving the sapwood on, it would make things a lot easier.

I guess I was so excited to share a picture of these staves that I used the wrong semantics; should have said 'tight ringed', not necessarily 'dense'.

[Danzn Bar]

Looks just like some sage I work a few bows up with and I was able to chase a ring with just a scraper.  Actually three bows from the same tree and all three raised splinters on the bottom limb about 4" pasted the fades.  Even backed the first two with some linen and you could still see the splinters raise through the linen.  Got smart and backed the last one with some thin goat rawhide. I've heard some say thin ring is no problem.  Hope you have better luck than I.
DB

[Dvshunter]

I like the thin rings on osage bows. They seem snappier to me.  I have had one lift a splinter though. If it was me I'd go for selfbow and maybe add rawhide if needed.

[Will H]

I've worked alot of thin ringed Osage. IMHO have a pretty nice piece of wood there alot my faster bows come from thin rings. The thing to remember about Osage is it's all about early/late ratio. Yours does have a good bit of earlywood, especially in the first bit under the sapwood. If it were me, I would probably shoot for that first thicker ring halfway between the sapwood and your pencil line. I guess about a half inch down. If you decide to just go under the sapwood I would suggest maybe backing it with some thin rawhide. Just my two cents looks like you're gonna have a fine shootin now out of that one

[Danzn Bar]

Here is one I backed with some linen cloth.  After the splinters raised I wraped with some FF string and still shot it.  after about 75 more shots you can see to the right another splinter has rased.  For all I know the same thing could be happening on the rawhide backed bow you just can't see it.

again I would for sure back it with rawhide.
DB

[toomanyknots]

With my eyes I'd have to leave the sapwood on and back it with rawhide. Even with glasses and sunlight I can't chase those thin rings and any advice from me would be like the blind leading the blind.

I was about to say the same thing. With that small ring of sapwood, there is no way on earth you are gonna gain anything or lose anything for that matter, or make any difference at all if you leave the sapwood on. I don't even really think it makes any difference if you leave it on when the sapwood is it's typical thickness, unless it is overly thick.

[toomanyknots]

I've worked alot of thin ringed Osage. IMHO have a pretty nice piece of wood there alot my faster bows come from thin rings.

I second that.

[JonW]

If you want to chase it down, Will gave good advice. If you want to leave the sap on that is fine as well. I have done it numerous times. Just scrape the bark off carefully and you won't need to back it.

[gstoneberg]

If it were mine I would draw knife off the first few rings of heartwood, get close to a single ring,  decrown it and then sinew back it.   I really like thin ringed osage under sinew.  If I can chase a growth ring I like it unbacked too.

George

[steve b.]

I would attempt to chase it knowing that I would be sinew backing it when done.

[sleek]

I just completed 2 self bows with that exact ring pattern. I blew through at least 5 actual rings accidentally before I was able to get to one complete ring on the last one. The first I got lucky with and got the first ring I aimed for. The first bow however, did lift a splinter in the same spot 3 times during tillering. I eventually got mad and decrowned the spot only where the splinter was, then finished my tiller. After I got it to pull all the way back without a splinter, I wrapped the decrowned spot with hemp to add protection just in case. I flattened that area fairly good too.

I would recommend to just say the hell with chasing those rings, and next time I will do this very thing and decrown the entire stave, making the back as wide and flat as you can. No thin ring problems anymore, or bad eye problems with that approach, and you can sinew if you wanna, or leave it as is. Either will work fine. Both of my bows were fairly wide though, about 1.75 inches to be exact. Good luck whatever you decide.