It sounded as though you had figured out the timing bit already. I was just confirming the notion. Chasing a ring on that will be pretty easy if you have a draw knife and maybe a scraper. You won't have to remove much material to get last years ring. Generally speaking, whitewoods are slightly more difficult to chase a ring on due to the hard to see rings. The best way to alleviate that problem is to work in natural sunlight instead of inside. Another little trick is to have a wet rag handy. When you can't see the rings just give it a swipe with the rag. The early wood fibers will fluff right up. Heat tempering the belly of hackberry is good practice. When you get it to floor tiller, then you can worry about heat tempering. There are several threads covering the process in good detail, but I can't think of which ones to direct you to. Josh
