No, sometimes you don't. This piece looked perfect, with no knots or anything, but I found more knots as I took it down.
Yes, I understand that, I'll try to watch it as I continue.
I know this has not been very informative to any others, so I will try to make up for it by doing it now.
Chasing a ring:
On the stave, you will have to remove the bark and sapwood(light colored wood in front of the heart wood, which is the darker, stronger wood in the center)
There are two 'types' of growth rings; 'pithy' weak rings separating the good hard rings. you want the hard growth to be the back of your bow. When taken down to a single growth ring it should look like the first picture. (it also shows how the wood grows around the knots: whatch for this and follow the grain as it does.)
Working around knots:
On this stave, all of the knots were already compensated for by the tree growing around them. All I had to do was cut straght across the belly and they were stiff enough to be safe. If they are straight across on the back, make the bow wider in these areas and the thickness also. The second picture is how my bow looks on the belly.
I hope I've explained this all right and that this will be of help for other people trying they're first osage character bow.
BTW, I'm by no means an expert, if you have anythig to add or think I got wrong in this short explination, say so. I wont be ofended.
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