Ring violation or color change?

[mikekeswick]

What I would be more concerned with are those pin knots to the right side.  You have to be very careful not to violate the ring at the peaks of those pins.  They look to be as flat as the area around them, which indicates to me that you may have cut through the very top of them.

Agreed.
When you see a pin knot mark it and don't work over that area with a scraper like you would on the rest of the limb. Be very careful and keep them raised.
Chances are they will be ok BUT the grain is violated there. Only a little but....

[Eric Krewson]

I never have a problem with small pin violation failing on the back of a bow or on the edges for that matter. A small violation does not mean you are looking at an impending failure, if your violated pins were much larger you may have a problem but the tiny ones, naw. Soak them with a little superglue before you apply your final finish for a little security. Myself, I don't worry about the little ones but do try to follow the grain over them if at all possible.

I just stepped outside and took this picture of a cluster of small pins on the edge of my #1 bow, there are 4 more pin clusters on the edges of the same bow at different points on the limbs. Over a year of heavy shooting the bow has not caused any problems to surface.



Perhaps Alabama osage is a little tougher than most but I doubt it. I have a lot of osage bows under my belt (100 or more osage only) and this has been my finding.

[bradsmith2010]

I agree with above, and it looks pretty good, it would not hurt a thing to put a thin rawhide back on, and then the pins would really not be an issue,, but as stated ,, if you dont push the limit of the design, the pins should be ok,, you could do just a smal rawhide or sinew wrap on the pins,, and not have to back the whole bow,,

[osage outlaw]

If I had to deal with those pin knots I would put some thin superglue on them and then lightly sand it smooth after it dried.  Then I would continue making the bow like they weren't even there. 

[Hamish]

I respect Outlaw, he makes a nice bow, but I find his advice to make it as if the pins weren't there to add more risk into the equation.
Admittedly I have seen many bows where this has been done and the bowyer manages to get away with having an uncompensated flaw.
When a bowyer is learning, or making a narrow bow, or one with a heavy draw weight, or performs near the staves limits for its design, these small flaws that have been left unattended are usually where you start to get problems, or even an outright break. This can easily be avoided by leaving a little extra wood in the width of the limb to compensate for the pins.

[Danzn Bar]

Staves limits the design is a real issue....just starting out building bows it's hard to tell what the "limits" of the stave is.....
Pending the type of wood the design/style of bow...... it all depends.  Some try to make a bow from a stave that just can't handle what the builder has intended it to be ...   I've heard it from some of the good bowyers here many times say " the stave will tell you what the bow will be".   It also reminds me of what an old football coach once said (not about me!) you can't make chicken salad out of chicken $hit you've got to have a little chicken to start with.      Experience is gold......
DBar

[osage outlaw]

Hamish, my statement was based on my experience with pin knots.  I don't leave extra width or islands of rings around them.  I scrape around them carefully and then sand them smooth.  My go to bow for the last 3 years has knots on it like that and on the edge like the one Eric posted.  What works for me may not work for everyone else.  That's why when I share advice I try to say something like, "if it were mine, I would do this".  There is always more than one way to handle a problem. I'm just offering my view.  I would still be more worried about that discoloration hiding an internal flaw than the pin knots. 

 


On a side note, from my experiment at the Classic this year I think minor ring violations aren't near as fatal as most people think as long as they are sanded really smooth and coated in superglue.  I want to do some more testing to see what happens on a better quality piece of wood before I will know for sure.     

[Emmet]

This bow was bending nice and shooting fast.
 I posted  this stave a while back asking about pin knots.

[osage outlaw]

That's a bummer.  I don't see anything wrong with how you worked the pin knots though.

[SLIMBOB]

Ditto Outlaw and Eric.  Osage pin knots are typically a non issue for me, back or edge.  I've made many that I cut clean thru them when drawing out the side taper and never an ill effect with it.