Chasing a ring

[Bevan R.]

Getting ready to try taking a stave down to a ring. (All my experience to date is with backed 'lumber' bows.)
In reading TBB Vol 1(?) there is a chapter about taking Osage down to a ring and the author said he had trouble until he tried a dull drawknife. I like this idea because that means there is one less tool to sharpen. My question is how dull? Do you 'savvy' ring chasers use sharp or dull knives?
Looking for a little guidance on this BEFORE I ruin some costly stave's.

[Cacatch]

Here's how I make the best sraping tools for ring chasing or tillering that I have ever found. Use an old pocket knife or similar knife with about a 3-4" blade on it. Sharpen it good til it's nice and sharp, and then continue to sharpen but only on one side. If you're right handed, continue to sharpen the knife on the right side, applying pressure as you stroke. Left handed, sharpen on left side. Do this for a few strokes and then feel the edge on your knife. It will not hardly scrape at all if you rub your finger across it one way, but going the other way it will feel like it really grabs your skin. Try that. It's all I ever use.

Note: Once you have sharpened the knife, and then sharpened on one side to make it a scraper, you don't have to sharpen it again, except on the one side. A scraper should never be truly "sharp" as in good for cutting something, in my opinion. My scraper that I use makes wood fly when I want it to, but I honestly think I would have trouble cutting an eighth inch twine string.

CP

[Bevan R.]

If I am understanding you, Cacatch, are you taking a knife and making something like a cabnet scrapper out of it? I do have several scrappers that I use for tillering and I planned on using them on ring chasing but I don't relish going through a half inch or more of wood for a length of a stave with one.

[George Tsoukalas]

Jim Hamm started the dull tool fad. LOL. To each his own. I like sharp tools. Here this may help you.  Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/osage.html

[Bevan R.]

Thanks, George. That does help. Use the Drawknife to get close then finish up with a scrapper. Makes sense to me.

[straightarrow]

I have done only two Osage bows and let me tell ya it is tough wood. I would say the sharper the better. I suggest picking the first good ring and chasing it...Have another good ring as a back up just in case you violate the first. I used a hatchet and a hammer to take some of the meat off...but I really don't suggest that because you risk ruining a good stave. I say start with a good-sharp draw knife...when you get to that thin crusty layer above your ring then break out the scraper. Take your time...and good luck

Jon

[Bevan R.]

Thanks straightarrow.
I have read about people using a hand ax to work a stave but the thought scares the water out of me. I do have a hand adz that I have thought about using to rough out the belly side of a stave but have not tried that yet.

[Pat B]

I prefer a dull draw knife for chasing osage rings. Never could sharpen one worth a hoot so I guess that's why I like to use a dull one. 

[hillbilly61]

Dollar Tree...Everything a $1...Scissors last along time . Plus you get two blades for the price

[gstoneberg]

I sharpen my draw knife with the angle grinder followed by a file.  The only time on osage I use it in the way it was designed is to hog off sap or belly wood.  As soon as I get the bark off I use the draw knife backwards.  For me it is several times faster and much more precise than using it with the bevel up.  Each stave/billet has a direction that the draw knife will work best.  Find it by trying at both ends and go that way as it makes the job easier.  I do not use a scraper except to remove draw knife tool marks.  And, my regular scraper is a big old butcher knife.  I do it this way no matter how thin the rings are.

I'd recommend you try the draw knife the way you get it first.  If it's dull and it works, great.  If it is sharp and it works, great.  If it doesn't work, change it.  Osage and draw knives go together like bacon and eggs.

George

[JW_Halverson]

When I first started out and didn't have the fine control of the drawknife, a dull edge was easier to work with.  Now that I have stronger forearms and better control, I like my drawknife as sharp as it can be.  The guy that showed me how to make bows always used his drawknife bevel side up.  His spokeshave had bevel side up, too.  I flipped them over and they work MUCH better. 

On a spokeshave, the cutting edge is the "toe" and the back of the bevel where it meets the meat of the blade is the "heel".  Once you have some practice and control, you will be digging in slightly with the toe, rocking back onto the face of the bevel for the cut, and then rocking the blade back a little more onto the heel to lift the cutting edge so that it rides along the top of the next growth ring. 

I still use the drawknife to hog wood, but I don't spend a lot of time doing fine work on a growth ring...just get most of it and finish chasing with a knife blade.

[Sparrow]

Hatchet, drawknife, knifeblade, fine sandpaper.  Nice'a, nice'a  '  Frank

[Cacatch]

I see. We weren't on the same page then. When I saw "chasing a ring" I thought you meant when you already have the wood worked down and then need a scraper to scrape the last ring down. If you are still looking at 2 rings or more to take off, then you're still needing to drawknife it. For a draw knife, I'm like George, I always want my drawknife sharp. My reason is, a dull or less-sharp drawknife you have to work harder to take wood off with, and you have to angle it to dig in more and then at least for me, its way easier to go down too far. Also, I mostly make bows of Black Locust and hickory and I've ripped up longer strips of grain than I intended to using a dull d.k. because it would pull the wood up instead of cutting through it.

CP

[sailordad]

when i chase a ring
i use my dras knife to get to one ring above target ring
then scraper to hit target ring
for my draw knife,i prefer an old one,antique is nicer (just cant stand the new style ones)
and sharp,for the same reasons cacath mentioned
cuts thru instead of tearing into,and less work is needed when its sharp

[Steve Milbocker]

Dollar Tree...Everything a $1...Scissors last along time . Plus you get two blades for the price

Thats a great idea.