This always puzzles me

[Badger]

  Usually when I rough out a stave I remove the belly wood one growth ring at a time until I get a slight flex, at this point I stop, and round off all the corners and make sure both sides of the limb are the same thickness and start to build my tapers. . Ideally I will end up with nice litte V's pointing toward the tip after this stage.

   It always puzzles me how the growth rings on one side of the bow can end up almost a 1/4" thicker than the rings on the other side when the are only about 1 1/2" apart. I don't run into this often but it is not all that unusual either. My quess is that even though the sides of the limbs are cut at 90 degrees to the back it is somehow not how the tree grew.

[PatM]

Pretty normal for a non circular tree to have undulating ring thickness as viewed  from a cut across the grain.

[Badger]

  I know it is not all that unusual but still seems odd for such a large variance over such a short distance.

[osage outlaw]

Sometimes the trunk will be growing next to another tree or limb that inhibits the growth in an area.  Also a leaning tree will often have thick rings on one side and thin on the other side.  A stave  split from the transition in rings will look like yours.  And osage trees often have ridges that run up the trunk that cause changes in ring thickness. 

[Badger]

  I Know they still make good bows but if you are sending it out someone I kind of worry about how they might react to it.

[osage outlaw]

Here are two staves that I recently cut that show the different ring thicknesses.

[Danzn Bar]

The one on the right would be fun to chase a ring on......
DBar

[osage outlaw]

I'll put your name on it then     Guess I kind of owe you one for the auction skins anyway.

[Danzn Bar]

Guess I kind of owe you one for the auction skins anyway.

No way Clint, that auction was fun...

[alwayslookin]

You definitely live up to your name outlaw.

[Marc St Louis]

You can get a variation in ring thickness between the South and North side of the tree especially the farther North you go

[crooketarrow]

 Just sounds like a stwist.

 As long as you tiller it right it'll come out right.

 WOODS WOOD

[Pappy]

I do see that pretty often in Osage, I use to built a lot of Ash and Hickory and you could almost vet the V I called it right down the center and the tapper and limb thickness side to side would stay almost prefect while tillering a stave, not so with most Osage I deal with. Like has been said, I don't think it effects the bow but a little different to work with and you have to be careful if you try and use it for any kind of guide as I am sure you already know.
 Pappy

[blackhawk]

Hey Clint....if that concave staves back is like that the whole length I'd chase a ring the opposite way and make a backwards bow. Bet ya it'd work.

[Pappy]

Yep ,it will work Chris.
   Pappy