Last year Mr Walski was kind enough to gift me some staves, among them is a beautiful piece of vine maple. I think I'm ready to dive into it, but have some questions.
A search on here for vine maple seems to yield a variety of opinions on growth ring violations and if it's ok with vine maple or not. This stave has some pin knots and a couple spots of tear out, but not bad. My thought was to clean up the back best I could which will likely violate a ring here and there, so thinking to back with rawhide. But is it necessary? Some say it's like hickory and can handle it, others not.
Also, curious how it takes to heat treat? This also weighs in on my uncertainty as to back it or not, and when to back it since I'd like to try and heat treat the belly too if this is possible or a good idea with this species.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
