longitudinal grain? UGH!

[riarcher]

Okay, follow / chase a ring. that's one thing.
But on a maple stick(?) longitudinal grain (LG) it seems not as easy at all.
Once it's barked I can vaguely see about where to go with it. However, once I got started I'm not so positive that I acually am still on the right path. 
Roughed the belly in pretty easy with a machetti and feel comfortable with it so far. It is green and just want to rough it in to dry quicker.
But, when I went for the sides I sort of feel lost. It's all looking very much the same to me.
What am I missing?
Admittedly, this is a sacrificial (not expecting much) experiment. I kind of see the LG but it's not as defined as ring chasing and not so absolutely sure that what I'm looking at is other than a imaginary "hope it's right" thing.
I'm sure there has got to be a better way than by guess & by gosh?
Would it show it's self better when dry to the knife?
(Short version,,, I think I'm lost  )

[yazoo]

I made some maple blanks this week,,longitutal grain hard to see,,If you are working a stave that has been split,,split it down to a 2in wide stave,,center your bow in that 2in stave,,,mark a center line from tip to tip layout your bow out off that mark and your longitutal grain has been followed with out ever actually seeing it

[riarcher]

Thanks Yazoo.
I almost went that way, but figured it was too easy to be right. 
Going to give it a whirl in the morning.
Thanks.

[George Tsoukalas]

You do the best you can. May be this will help. This is hickory. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/layout.html

[riarcher]

Thanks George.
Thinking Maple may not have been a good choice to begin with.
I can see grain on that hickory pretty good. 

[islandpiper]

OK, I've got my hard hat and eye protection on, so I'll ask this question:

Did our Native American predecessors "chase rings", did they sit in dim wigwams or in variable outside lighting and fret about each bit of annual fiber, scraping away with a piece of stone without the benefit of bi-focals?  Or did they simply start with a nice split of wood, smooth the back, scrape the belly to get an acceptable tiller and go hunting? 

Not being a smart A$$ here......just really curious if all this lost sleep over a maple stick is worthwhile?  What you give to drop back a thousand years and sit around the fire with a N.A. Bowyer and watch him work? 

piper  (sorry i have been out of sight here for a while......lot's of things happening here )

[George Tsoukalas]

It depends on which wood they used, islandiper. I've seen photos of osage bows scraped to a heartwood ring (Hamm's Encyclopedia of Native American Bows and Arrows Vol 1).  Whitewoods like hickory don't need to be brought to heartwood ring. Take off the bark and make a bow.  As for the long. grain, tey didn't use saws so it would split along that grain. Als, they used saplings a lot so again long. grain would not be an issue. Jawge

[gutpile]

on maple you don't have to chase a ring anyway..just remove bark and walla..there is your back...Native Americans usually used sapling for their bows not trunk staves....splitting the stave will show you the longitudinal grain..gut