Working on a selfbow and have a streak left in the wood, two growth rings up it would catch a nail. Where it is now it is simply a brown streak. If left in the bow it will be centered in the limb toward the tip if I go for a shorter 60” bow it will be completely gone. What would the experts do? It is about 2” long

Also this is a beautiful stave that should yield at least one more bow. I have seen videos of people using their draw knife driving it in along the grain to split the extra belly portion off. Is this the preferred method or should I just hit it with the bandsaw? Figure on leaving a 1 3/4” thick section for the bow I am working on.

May add some material to the belly of the handle. FWIW this piece has been air dried at least10yrs from what I understand.

What is the wood? I don't understand:

"Working on a selfbow and have a streak left in the wood, two growth rings up it would catch a nail. Where it is now it is simply a brown streak. If left in the bow it will be centered in the limb toward the tip if I go for a shorter 60” bow it will be completely gone. "

Jawge

Jawge it is Osage up two rings from the one that is now chased what is now just a streak in the wood was a tiny start to a check in the wood. It is a 2” streak now cannot feel any check/crack left in it.

Ok ...so you are now at the ring you want for the back? It's likely a drying check. Wood was not dry. Seal the back with a poly, spar urethane, etc. Sand and prepare it first. Don't wait too long. Jawge

I think he is saying he is in a ring below the one where the check was and the check is gone, but the ring is discolored.

I would just make a bow with it. I would not shorten it--even if the check were still there. Longitudinal crack/checks are not a problem if they don't go deep into the limb.

Good lookin' stave, have fun! Wyatt

Jim that is exactly what I was saying. It is what I thought as well just wanted to check with some of you selfbow Gurus. I can build a glass lam bow but want to learn more figure this is a good way to do it. Just a challenge to my abilities, also something therapeutic about a draw knife and a scraper.

Yeah, that streak should be ok... assuming the stave is adequately dry now. If it's dry enough, say below 10%, I wouldn't seal the back again. It should be fine.

I don't use my drawknives as wedges. I have wedges for that :^) I try not to get too greedy with belly spits because I have, and neither stave was as good as just one would have been.

That said, to remove belly splits, you can split them off from the end, but they don't always follow a growth ring, which means in a close call like this, that it could run into one stave or the other. To make sure you end up with enough wood for the handle of the top one, you can start the spit on the side at the handle area and work toward each end. But there's still some risk.

You could use a bandsaw. There will still be some loss because the growth rings have a bit of wiggle across their width, but if your bandsaw skills are adequate, and you hold the piece at the right angle, it could work out well. At least that way, you know for sure you'll get at least one good one.

I don't know what the overall shape of the stave is, but if you ultimately cut a straight line with the saw, you may be able to leave the back flat and then back it with bamboo or hardwood.

If you decide to saw it to use as two selfbows, clean up the sides of the stave so you can see the growth rings, trace the one end to end that goes right past your 1 3/4 thick handle, then cut along that line... again, the angle you hold the stave at as you feed it into the saw can make a big difference. You don't want to try to hit the line on the other side because you'll chop off growth ring undulations along the crown of stave #2... instead you want to leave wood above the line on the other side, so you can flip it around and cut to it with the saw, again, at a beneficial angle, or finish bringing it to the line with the drawknife. Maybe I'm not making the best sense of this. I can post a picture or two if it would help.

Makes pretty good sense to me Jeff The stave has a bit of natural reflex in itt and is relitively flat horizontally save for the one dip in the growth ring. I was planning the second bow in this stave to be for my son who helped work it so I know I can go a lot thinner on it and laminate a handle to it if necessary or even just a stacked leather handle..

I was thinking the same thing about following a growth ring across the stave with the bandsaw, I am very comfortable with my bandsaw. I feel on this stav with the saw I can cut it end to end likely only violating two rings through the center of it, three to one edge. Think I will do that, as I don’t have access to any wedges without buying them anymore.

The shavings coming off the bow have no wetness to them, and I just hit it with the moisture meter,, a whopping 6.2% of course I have no adjustment table for Osage and like all meters it is calibrated for Fir. I was told by the person I got it from they had it dry in a barn at least 7yrs and it was an “old” stave when they got it, he guessed 10-15 total years since harvest if I remember right. I have had it a year, heck half of the exposed growth ring is already turned that beautiful bronze. Slow with the knife on my part, but the bug is biting at me again, glued up my first laminate in 9 months yesterday, may glue up another kids bow tonight.

Thanks for the input and help, I will work a bit more cleaning up this ring then Saw the stave and lay out my profile.

Belly splits can come off real clean if you use multiple wedges and only go a little bit at a time. Clean up the sides and just slightly tap in small wedges all along the same growth ring. Some people use screw drivers, make up some mini wood wedges you can tap in once you get the split started.

Thanks Badger hadn’t thought of small wedges, have a bunch of junk chisels that could easily fit the bill for this. Hmm... decisions now.

Okay been back at it finished chasing the ring then jut sawed it in two with the bandsaw. Laid a couple of possible centerlines following the contour of the split edge. Here is the question I have a small violation that I can cut out or if I keep it I will have enough wood on this piece for another bow. My Brain says go with the single best bow off this piece possible. Then the other half of me says hey there are two bows just looking at you, one 1 1/4-1 1/2 the other would be 1”. What say you?

That violation will fail, you don't really have any choice but to cut it out. Unless you have enough thickness to chase down another ring

That was my guess I will cut it out of the bow.

I never allow ring violations. I either chase to another ring or cut it out. Jawge

It has been my experience that some minor ring violations don't cause a failure, especially on tight ring osage. You could give the area a good soaking of superglue and leave a little bit of a puddle. I have violated the ring on pin clusters a bunch of times and never had one fail, minor violations but violations nonetheless.

The most violated ring bow I have ever seen was on a guy made out of a piece of really wormy osage, it had wood wasp tunnels all over the back. He said he made the bow just to see how long it would take to blow up. A year or so later it was still shooting.

I have seen violated pin knots fail, I don't think any violation is worth the chance. Loosing confidence in a bow puts it in the same class as a broken bow.

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