BL stave...

[Blaflair2]

I just don't see how... It's seriously hard as a rock. And it's so flat the knife doesn't cut so well

[Blaflair2]

If I took it down farther I believe it's possible. I only went down 4 rings. If I went farther the knife would have a better angle. Gauging from my experience and whatnot it's gonna take about.... Forever and a day. Lol and I have no heat in my shop so those long nights out in are getting colder and shorter. Making a bow in a winter coat sux lol.

Also I wanna try and get some skins for it. What goes well with BL? Rattler or copper head? It's like a Carmel color

[blackhawk]

Its more technique than brute force....ya gotta get that blade into the early crunchy growth and she'll glide right along thru it making it easier...the early growth gives way lots easier than the late wood...but ya can't be danty about it either,and you do have to put some muscles into it....I've taught lots of guys how to run a ring and seen lots of guys just taking scraper sized shavings off with a drawknife on the surface of the late wood cus there scared to mess it up...its just a piece of wood,n there's plenty more out there......so get that blade wedged down into the early wood and pull

[huisme]

And there's no way u could chase this ring in ten minutes.

Wanna make a bet on that?  ...n there's s lot of guys on here who know me personally and have built bows with me,and I bet they wouldn't make that bet against me  ..call me cocky and arrogant,but I know I'm right   

Can confirm at least that a ring of BL can be chased in ~ten minutes 

[bubby]

iowabow posted a video of someone chasing a ring on osage and they timed it, faster than 10 min, pearlie would call those blindman rings , bub

i'm slow chasing rings too

[bowmo]

How wide is that? I see two bows in there. haha. Never had any luck with IL black locust tho, frets too easy.

[Blaflair2]

I dig in and then slow down when I get to the crunchy stuff. It's so hard though. Lol. I've never tried to carve a piece of wood this hard.

It is 3" wide and 4" deep. Before I said that backwards. I was thinking of splitting it again but couldn't chance it. Don't wanna be greedy and mess both up

[George Tsoukalas]

Beltsander? Don't do it! No power tools untlil you have a minimum of 6 bows done. Jawge

[wood_bandit 99]

Cut it down a ring above the one you want right on the end of one side of the stave pulling from the center of the stave to the end and once you have a half inch of a ring above the ring you want exposed, you go from that tip and wedge it into the early wood and rip the crap out of it! Then chase the ring under that one just to make sure it isn't violated. That's how I do it. I have done a few osage chasing rings and have gone through 1/2" thick rings, 2 of them, and followed that ring in 25 min doing it like that. It's easy you just have to grow a pair and rip the crap out of it! .  Lol

[DuBois]

I see you sharpened your draw knife. It seems a lot of folks like dull draw knife better. I think unsharpened has been better for me so far in my limited experience. Doob

[Blaflair2]

The belt sander was a joke. I know how to chase a ring. This wood is just stubborn and flat. My draw knife doesn't like cutting so flat

[Badger]

I think I might narrow that stave down a bit before chasing the ring if you are able to see it good enough to lay it out. I am pretty fast at chasing rings but on wide flat ones where my draw knife can reach the early wood I have to slow way down. Thats where the curved draw knives come in handy. Yes some locust is harder than others.
I had a persimmon stave last month that dulled every tool I had as soon as they touched it including my bandsaw. I got my draw knife razor sharp and it ook the edge off after about 4 passes.  Great looking stave.

[mikekeswick]

Yeah i'm jealous too!! That is a nice stave 

[Joec123able]

Send it to Me I love chasin rings

[JW_Halverson]

You have a straight bladed drawknife, don't you?  Straight blade and straight back makes it hard to focus work in one area of the stave, that's why I gravitated to the slightly rounded drawknife.

With experience with the draw knife, tool control and confidence, I was able to step up to a very sharp drawknife and eliminate a lot of the brute force.  Sharp tools for me!

No one else has mentioned it, but the early/late wood ratio on that stave puts it in a pretty rare category!  Lovely stuff!