Chasing a ring

[bassman211]

That stave is not fire wood. Sinew back it if nothing else works out for you.  Nothing wrong with a sinew backed Osage bow.

[Muskyman]

Okay here’s another question. How much sinew does it take to back a typical 1 1/2 in bow that’s approximately 6 ft in length? Also where do you get it? I was looking online and saw some at 3rivers One oz. Pre pounded approximately 12 inches long.
Found the answer to the how much part of my question.  3rivers said 8-10 ozs
I’ve really got a lot to learn about making bows. Now I need to find some good tutorials on putting sinew on..  have seen hide glue or barge cement to put it on. Any comments about that?

[Badger]

Also use your scraper often, every few inches to keep it cleaned up where you can see it good.

[bassman211]

M man. hide glue or,  tite bond 2 ,and 3  will get the job done. Before you sinew though try Brogg's idea. It may save you from sinewing the bow, but through time you will want to try sinew any how. Get on utube for sinew backing a bow. It is not that hard, and their are plenty of tutorials that shows how to do it. Good luck with your bow.

[Muskyman]

After some thinking about what Bjrogg said about how small a piece of Osage you can make a bow from I started thinking about a piece that I had tossed over into my wood pile. I had looked at it several times before but, it still had the bark on it and I just left it there till this afternoon. Got it out and peeled the bark off it and here’s what I ended up with. It’s got thin rings but it’s out of the scrap pile

[Muskyman]

Another picture

[bjrogg]

I’ve made lots of nice bows with pieces like that. You can still go with a stiff handle by gluing on thin laminates to build up the handle area. If you try to just glue on a block it might pop off if the area wants to bend

Bjrogg

[Muskyman]

The other end is thinner than the one pictured, also a wedge shape. One side is about 3/8 the other about 3/4 to 1 inch and about 1/2 in the center. First I’ll have to get a ring chased on it. I’m going to really try and take my time because the growth rings are pretty small. It’s a green piece so I’m thinking if I can chase the ring I’ll rough out the bow try to get th limbs to almost floor tiller, or should I just forget about chasing the ring, shape it out and seal the back of the bow and put it away..
Question, is it harder to chase a ring on a piece of wood that’s not been seasoned and still has a high moisture content?
Picture of the other end

[ssrhythm]

FWIW...I use an ancient draw knife that I picked up from an antique shop in town that was well used before I bought it.  I have backed 20-30 staves, and I have never sharpened it.  It is ridiculously dull, and I love it.  It's dull enough that it will not get away from me and dig in...I have to work it good.  It is "sharp" enough to get through the late wood with some elbow grease, but the dullness is such that when I hit the early wood, even if it is super thin ringed, I can easily feel the crunch. The duller the instrument, the greater the tactile feedback.  There is a happy medium, but I think that happy medium is much duller than most folks would think to ever let their drawknife get. 

I'm pretty sure I could go end to end with the draw knife in one go and clean it all up with a scraper at the end, but I never make it more than 4 inches before I get paranoid and go to the scraper to ensure I am still on one ring edge to edge.  I use a mystic scraper which is super thick and non flexible vs the typical cabinet scrapers I see most people using, because I will often use that scraper to remove a ring of late wood and go thru the early wood to my target ring on super thin ringed staves...a typical flexible thin cabinet scraper would take forever to do that.  I have not run into a stave yet that the super dull draw knife and that mystic scraper would allow me to get through without getting into the wrong ring.  Just get a side to side clean spot backed on one end of the stave and go two inches of early wood crunching at a time before cleaning it up with the scraper...rinse and repeat.  If you feel yourself getting impatient or in a hurry, put it down, go have a beer, and come back later.

[bjrogg]

Yup just take your time. Only go a few inches at a time. First with draw knife leaving some early wood and then cleaning it up with the scraper. The biggest secret is just not getting lost.

I see people try to hop around to different spots on the stave. Very bad. It’s impossible to know if you are chasing the same ring.

Start in one spot and follow the same ring from one end to the other. Or at least from end to handle

Bjrogg

[Muskyman]

Being patient is probably going to be my weak point in this process but, I’m learning that I’m going to have to be to get where I need get. I think that walking away from my stave is probably going to be key for me. Funny thing is that I’m not impatient with a lot of things in life but, this is one I’m going to learn to be. I’m slowly seeing that I’m going to have to slow down and relax about getting to the end result with this.
Thanks for your thoughts and help,
Mike

[Zugul]

that is exactly the same problem I have, normally I'm patient enough but give me a stave and I'll work on it until it's ruined 

[bjrogg]

As Eric said. You will get more comfortable with your tools and the process. Things will speed up on their own then.

Then you can find new ways to screw up your stave.lol

Like tillering

Bjrogg

[Muskyman]

Zugul, that’s funny, that’s exactly the problem I’m having.  This is what my mind is seeing. It’s not working out that way though.  I think also I’ve watched to many bow building videos. You know how it goes, they start with a nice big stave and 15 minutes later their taking practice shots with a new bow..
I’ve always had to learn the hard way. I just hope I can speed that up also..

[superdav95]

Nothing beats hands on trial and error learning when it comes to bow making.  Anything really.  I’ve broken many many bows experimenting and testing limits of wood to so don’t look at a “failure” as a failure but instead chalk it up to experience in the bow bank.