Okay I'm dome with chasing the practice sapwood ring. As you can see, I've fully caused a very thin sapwood ring on the back if the stave and, with the exception of a small area in the middle, I did not violate it. In the second picture, the discoloration on the piece of the stave in the foreground is only due to the fact I applied TB II on that area last week.
The ring was very thin and I used a rasp for most of it, applying less pressure when trying to take off the early wood. I'm going to now take off the sapwood and then go down to the fourth heartwood ring. I thought the first ring would be thick enough but when I sanded the end and wet it down, I saw that I did not see that the first ring was merely two thin rings.
Do you think that I should go ahead with trying to chase the heartwood ring? Or should I do something else before?
