Whats the advantages and disadvantages to working a belly split Osage stave?

The only advantage is you get 2 for 1 when most think its only good for one. There are no disadvantages to using belly splits. Its just another chunk o' golden wood to use!

What do you mean two for one Pearl?

Is there a correct way to chase a ring? Should you start at the handle and work towards lower and upper limbs separately? Or start at the end of one limb and work in one direction towards the other?

Most folks will look at a stave and see a bow. Experienced eyes will look at a stave and gauge its depth thinking he/she can get (2) bows from one stave.

Start at an end and work the length down. On a very gnarly stave I will work from an end to midway, then start on the other end work to it. Its a judgement call at the time.

The staves I have are pretty straight. One is a belly split. The other two staves were chased to one ring already by Fred Arnold. These staves were cut about 4 years ago. The ends were sealed and they were kept in the house. I have one hickory stave I'm going to practice on before I try one of these Osage. I have only made three self bows. first one was Sassafras. 2nd one was Ash that broke. The third is a Hickory sapling bow that's still shooting. I want to give it a go again. Thanks for answering my questions everyone.

I miss Fred. That wood has mojo oozing from it. If those other woods are all you have experienced, then you will be blown away with osage. Its the king of bow woods.

I like belly splits when the fro splits it off and it follows a growth ring... giving you a ready to go back that only needs some cleaning up and sanding. :)

It is surprisingly easy to start chasing a ring from both ends and not be in the same ring when you get to the center of the stave. I almost always work from one end to the other.

Fact is, if you have two different rings when you get to the middle, it doesn't matter, as long as they are not real thick rings. Even then it would work, but it would look funny. This is thinking from a rigid handle perspective. A bending handle is a different animal.

What is belly split?

Does it still include sap wood outer and heart wood inner?

The advantage to a belly split is that you don't have to remove bark and sapwood. All you have to do is chase a ring. I get belly splits whenever I can.

neuse - a belly split is a log split from the inner part of a bigger log split. When reducing a log to bow staves, one of the intermediary steps is splitting the log into usable sizes. If the tree is of sufficient diameter, often a log split will be deep/thick enough to split again giving one 2 usable pieces. the belly split is the inner piece which will have no bark or sapwood.

The belly split will sometimes follow the growth ring so well that there is little to no scraping of early wood.

If I load the picture properly, an example of a belly split is on the left and comes from the underneath/inner side of the piece on the right.

Jim is right abut it not mattering if you are in different grains when you meet the center of the stave, unless....... you are an OCD craftsman like myself and everything has to be just so.

great explanation Darren!

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