Osage ring question ?

[SLIMBOB]

I've mentioned this before, but I sharpen my drawknife razor sharp.  The bevel is only on one side.  This puts enough of a burr on the blade that when I turn the knife bevel down, and hold the blade edge perpendicular to the back, it shaves like a razor.  It works perfectly as a scraper on Osage.  Not as well on softer woods.
Pristine back is where it starts for me.  I do agree with Ed and Simon in that it may not matter one bit on yours, especially if you are adding sinew.  Just one of those judgement calls.

Final thought here.  When you chase the ring, leave the early wood intact on top of your back.  Lightly sand or scrape that off at the end.

[BowEd]

How stressful of a design you have in store for the bow?

[Stick Bender]

It does look usable but Im going chase to the next down hoping for the better one doesent make sense not to if I have the thickness which I do , I like the scraper draw knlfe & leave my others razor sharp works good for me especially when I have to chase a ring 3 times , I will leave wood around the knots and go back scrap like Ed sugested , I would leave the early layer on Slim but I want to see whats under on this stave !

[Stick Bender]

Posted at the same time as you Ed its going to be pretty stressed 57 in. Pulled to 29 1/2 45-48 lb maybe 2 oz sinew 6 1/2 static leavers 5 in total reflex between the hooks and reverse strung to start hoping to keep 3 in.  so all the stars need to line up if not I will go to another stave but this one has good early/late ratio Im keeping the width in the lowers 1 3/4  to past mid limb !

[bradsmith2010]

I agree it is slightly violated in the same ring, and might be ok,,, if you have the wood try again to make sure,,
leave a bit extra as suggested next time,, thats a really nice piece of wood ,, should make a great bow, and would probably be ok,, but after I have worked that hard,, I usuallly go down and try to get it real clean,, so much work goes into that bow,, going down one more ring wont be that bad,, and you will feel more confident,,
I have made sinew bows and I didnt have enough wood,, and made them not on the same ring on back and worked fine,, but with that nice ring, you should be able to stress the heck out of it .... with no ill effect,,

[Stick Bender]

Thanks Brad I just chased another foot of the ring below and same thing that lunar mix of rings deal I just shellac it going to put it back up on the wall for a less stressed design Im afraid of it on this design Im going back to another stave it was a good new lesson for me never ran into it before !

[bradsmith2010]

well,, ok , I think it would work,, if you cant get past it,,

[Stick Bender]

I will probably only make 1 maybe 2 bows between now & spring so I just want to take all the wild cards out of the mix if there is such a thing in natural material bows and I think maybe a bendy later date on that one Im just to chicken on this design for that stave is all it probably would work being sinew .

[bradsmith2010]

yes proceed with what you have confidence in, sometimes intuiton is good to follow,,

[Eric Krewson]

What you have is neither fatal or uncommon in osage, Lots of my bows had the same, none failed.

[Dances with squirrels]

I call them Lunar rings because that's what I heard them called years ago, but I think they're related to alternating surges of growth and retarded growth within an annual growth ring. In some osage they are remarkably obvious, in others, nonexistent. They can really mess with ya if they're predominant in a piece of thin ringed osage... especially a wet piece. I think you would have been ok, but I'm anal about the bow's back so I probably would have chased another one too... especially with that knot nearby.

[SLIMBOB]

Same here.  I can't say with any certainty what causes them.  The moons cycle seems to be reasonable as they do have a somewhat constant pattern, where if they were due to moisture they should be less organized.  Who knows?  If they are prominent I want to follow them faithfully if I can.

[Stick Bender]

I started re chasing the stave from the other end a little thicker ring the lunar rings are showing up in a area they weren't before but would be narrowed there and gone I will finish chasing next week end and see whats there ,I would realy like to use this one as I can get 1 3/4 width ! after chasing 3 rings I dont want give up just yet will see will post !

[bradsmith2010]

its a nice thick piece of wood,, so you have the option to do that,,

[Stick Bender]

Thanks fellas yep it is thick enough to do it ,the more I think about it the more I will give it a shot I'm probably only going to tiller to about 25 lb @20 in before sinew & reverse stringing so before the stave would get under any real stress the sinew will be on and very little if any stress on the wood back ! The interesting thing is I have several staves from the same general area of Mo. and none of the others had any lunar effect ! But been a good day learning some thing new !