Ring violation or color change?

[Seahunter]

Is it possible for an Osage ring to be different colors at different parts of the stave?  Does this shave look like the back ring has been violated? There is a dark spot on this stave that I am wondering about. It didn't feel like I was cutting through it, but it looks like I may have.  Looking at the side of the stave it looks like the dark colored ring changes color.

If the consensus is that the ring has been violated could the bow be backed with sinew?

[Joec123able]

Yes osage can have red streaks through it but it's hard to tell from that pic if you cut through, a closer pic would help. It does look like you may have cut through from that pic but need to see closer.

[Eric Krewson]

It is hard to tell from your pictures but like has been said osage can have color streaks pop up anywhere. Take your stave out in the sunlight and look at it from all angles, any early wood showing through your back will be readily apparent.

[osage outlaw]

Can you take a closer picture of that streak on the side of the limb?  It might be discoloration from a wind check.  Or it could be just a dark streak.  Osage can have dark and red streaks like that.

[High-Desert]

If you cut trough the growth ring, you should see that early wood that's crumbly. If you don't see that at the edge of the dark and light wood area, you should be good. A closer pic would help tho if you aren't sure.

ERIC

[Hamish]

Like the other guys have said colour in a ring is not always a  good indicator to tell if you are folllowing a single ring. You can get rings that are part sapwood, part heartwood, or have localised stains that can trick you.
If you are worried about having enough thickness if you took off another ring I wouldn't be too worried. I can't tell if you have gone through a ring from those pictures, follow Eric's advise to give you a better idea. If you have actually gone through a ring, the pattern suggests that its spread out over a long, smooth area, enough  to distribute any stress. A localised gash that goes across the stave then I would definitely take off another ring or back it. 

[JohnL]

     That looks just like the dark stains from the bore holes and an opened-up chamber of those flat-headed wood grubs.    There was a time when I didn't recognize the signs and ignored them, as dark anomalies in Osage, but then I felled a tree with heavy damage and realized what I was looking at.  And while Osage can have dark rings in it, that dark stripe on the edge of the bow can be the tree ring reacting downstream from the grub's injury to the tree.
 I decided to waste my time and follow the trails of damage, trying to cut-out the damaged areas until I was satisfied that I'd chased the holes to dead ends. -And several times, that ended with finding the live grub - still alive and eating, after the log had been seasoning in a hot shed for 9 months.  But I would slowly chisel out the bore holes (running inward from bark to heart, just like how a nail is driven into a tree), then I found they'd stop at a tasty ring they liked and stay in it, eating lengthwise with the trunk.  Then I'd often find the grub in an eaten-out chamber at the end of that tunnel.  And that chamber will stain the ring below and the rind above with that dark brownish-red cloud.  Then you see that stain streaking out downstream for a bit.  NOT saying that's what you've got there - just had to throw it out.

[Seahunter]

Thanks for the replies. Here is a close up of the dark area

[Danzn Bar]

Looks good to me ...except to be picky, I don't understand the dent on the left hand side............wet that area and the dent might rise and with a little sandpaper it will vanish.  proceed on!...........
DBar

[High-Desert]

You are definitely good to go. That just looks like some sort of discoloration. Most non white woods have this occur in some form or another. Get to knocking that bow out, and we need to see progress pics.

Eric

[osage outlaw]

That discoloration might be the outer edge of a hidden flaw.  Watch it closely. 

[Aaron H]

What I would be more concerned with are those pin knots to the right side.  You have to be very careful not to violate the ring at the peaks of those pins.  They look to be as flat as the area around them, which indicates to me that you may have cut through the very top of them.

[FilipT]

My first attempt to build a pyramid black locust bow was also with heartwood with discolorations. It broke at 27" with perfect tiller up to that point. These spots in my case were actually beginnings of rot, even though BL is extremely rot resistant (but not rot proof).

[Seahunter]

What I would be more concerned with are those pin knots to the right side.  You have to be very careful not to violate the ring at the peaks of those pins.  They look to be as flat as the area around them, which indicates to me that you may have cut through the very top of them.

I did cut through them and I was afraid of that. Does this mean the bow will likely fail. This is the first time I have tried to chase a ring btw.

[Hamish]

Just leave a little extra limb width at those pins, you will be fine.