Kentucky Coffee Tree - thin rings - back it or not?

[kiltedcelt]

I bought a stave of Kentucky Coffee Tree and while it's pipe-straight with just a slight amount of reflex (mostly towards one end), it has thin rings. I chased and chased and chased yesterday until I finally got what looks like one good ring all the way down the back. However, the rings seem so thin that I think in some spots I might have gone down further than others with my scraper trying to get all traces of the early wood ring off. Now I'm wondering, before I start tillering this bow out should I back it with some rawhide just to be on the safe side? Some of you might remember me posting my epiphany regarding staves versus boards. A couple guys were going to help me out with some donations of staves to work on but none of that has happened yet so I had to buy some staves to get myself started.

I have this KCT stave, a hackberry (nice fat rings on that one), and an osage (bought from Clint/osage outlaw). I plan on ring chasing on that osage today, mainly because it's the most seasoned piece I have, and if I need to back that KCT I'll need to buy the rawhide (probably get it from Echo) which means I'll need to wait. As these are my first ever attempts at stave bows I'm hoping not to blow anything up, especially since I had to pay for this stuff and it isn't exactly cheap. I was thinking of slightly overbuilding the KCT anyway - going about 1 7/8" (that's as wide as it is), at the fades out about to two-thirds the limb length and tapering to 1/2" nocks - sort of Meare Heath-ish looking, kinda like the bow design Badger was talking about recently. The stave is about 70" long and my draw length is about 28-29". Thoughts?

Matt

[Hamish]

A high percentage of early wood. A good candidate for rawhide. Sure it might do alright without a backing, but thin ringed wood is susceptible to dings and scratches, in a finished bow and rawhide will stop that happening in the first place.

[wood_bandit 99]

If that was osage with less early wood that would be I nice stave! I know nothing of kct but what I have heard and just looking at the rings, I would back it with rawhide but you could probably do a linen backing too if that was more available for you(it is for me!) but I would definitely back that.

[Poggins]

I'm working on a KCT now , went with a Molly style .
I left two sapwood rings on ( the sapwood on my staves are thick enough that if I didn't take it down there wouldn't be any heart wood left on the limbs ) and heat treated the belly , the heartwood turns purple when heated . I'm backing mine with spoonbill skins .
When I chaced the ring for the back on mine I didn't try to remove all the early wood with the scraper , with the slight unevenness on the back of mine I used a gooseneck scraper and sandpaper to chase a lot of the back to keep from going through a ring .
Mine is 60" NTN and pulling over 50# at 28" , it gained weight after heat treating but my batteries died in my scales so I don't know exactly what it's pulling right now .
Hope this helps you a little .

[Danzn Bar]

Not to high jack this post but Poggins, I'd like to see the bow and hear more details of the bow your speaking of...

[Poggins]

DB , it's titled " My first Molly " , I updated the post a while ago . I added pics of the skins I'm adding to the bow as well as a couple of pics of the bow while I was out hunting today , the bow is for our self bow club's trade and I need to get it finished befor Feb 2 , I'll have to get my brother to shoot it for me because its going to be longer than my draw length of 25" , when I pull it back close to where it will be it feels like I'm going to take my ear off pluss I miss my target while trying to shoot it that way , I can keep a fair group out to twenty yards and keep it on the bag target at thirty .
I should be able to get the skins on next week IF the weather holds out ( I have to go in at midnight tonight because the weather men say we could have freezing rain tonight ) .

[Danzn Bar]

OK thanks I'll check it out ...don't know how I missed it
DBar