thin ring osage

[Lee Lobbestael]

I got permissionto cut some osage from a neighbor down the road. After getting it home I realized that all of it had very thin rings. A good ring on this stuff is like thinner than a dime. What do you guys do about this? Just chase it very carefully? I don't want to back it

[lebhuntfish]

Just take your time. I chased one the other day that was super thin. About like a credit card.
Seen one done at mojam that looked like paper stacked. In my opinion the thin ring stuff makes a snapper bow and the fades look awesome too. JMO Patrick

[dylanholderman]

i have a short thin ringed(like 1/32 at best) piece of osage that i plan on sinew backing but i have tried to get it down to a single growth ring, what i found to work best was a card scraper after i got the sapwood off. if your osage is like my piece there wont be much sapwood to take off.

[Hrothgar]

I'm in the middle of a similar dilemma. I have this osage stave shaped and beginning to floor tiller but I still haven't got it down to one ring. I posted pix of the stave last spring, its something like 30 or 31 rings in 1 inch. I'm to the point of just sanding it real good and applying sinew or a couple layers of something.

[Lee Lobbestael]

Ok I'll just have to take my time I guess. I don't have a whole of experience with osage. I split it into staves and sealed the ends.

[osage outlaw]

Two years ago at the Tenn. Classic a guy and his father stopped to talk bows with me.  The guys dad showed me his osage bow.  The back was just swirls of paper thin ring violations.  I looked it over closely to make sure I was seeing it right and I was.  He said he sanded it very smooth and coated the back with super glue before putting the finish on the bow.  He said it was his daily shooter and you could tell the bow had seen a lot of use.  I was very impressed by it.  From what I remember the bow was a flatbow style that was slightly over built.  I'm guessing that is a good reason it was still holding together.  I wish I had taken some pictures of it. 

I have never tried this on a thin ringed stave but I would like to give it a shot one day.

[Lee Lobbestael]

Wow That sure would make life easier! Anyone else try this?

[bowmo]

Suuuper thin ring osage is fairly common here in IL. I just scrape that ring with care and love, and then back it with rawhide. I have had several very carefully chased back rings fail on me in the bow building process with thin ring osage, so in order not to waste wood and my time I just back it now.

[Badger]

Two years ago at the Tenn. Classic a guy and his father stopped to talk bows with me.  The guys dad showed me his osage bow.  The back was just swirls of paper thin ring violations.  I looked it over closely to make sure I was seeing it right and I was.  He said he sanded it very smooth and coated the back with super glue before putting the finish on the bow.  He said it was his daily shooter and you could tell the bow had seen a lot of use.  I was very impressed by it.  From what I remember the bow was a flatbow style that was slightly over built.  I'm guessing that is a good reason it was still holding together.  I wish I had taken some pictures of it. 

I have never tried this on a thin ringed stave but I would like to give it a shot one day.

  Over the years I have had several osage staves that looked like violations but weren't, it looked like it formd mini rings less than paper thick but it seemed to be just a color thing. His may have been actual violations I don't know.

   At the thickness of a dime you should be able to chase it carefully with a draw knife and a scraper just as you would any other osgae. Just go slow of course so you don't go through the spring wood.

[osage outlaw]

They were definitely ring violations. 

[Pat B]

I like thin ringed osage. It can be difficult to chase a clean ring and especially if there are knots or pins so I usually rawhide back it.

[missilemaster]

If the early to late wood ratio is good then you got some of the best osage out there IMO. Granted it does take time to chase a ring bu its worth it.

[Pappy]

What Cody said is my feeling totally.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

Take your time. If you miss then go through it again.

Get close with your drawknife and then finish up with a scraper-like tool.

Here's how I do it.

http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/osage.html

Jawge

[Parnell]

Thin ring has performed better for me.  The best Osage I ever used was very thin ring stuff like you describe and it had that "redness" to it.  It was great.