Reducing chatter marks when ring chasing?

[TacticalFate]

I'm new to ring chasing, and the one and a half BL staves I've chased so far have given me lots of trouble with my scraper (Mora knife held at 90 degrees) chattering and leaving marks on the summer ring I'm after. These staves were in my garage with the bark on for three months, and I removed the sapwood a week ago. Is it that my wood is still too wet to chase a ring decently? If not, does anybody have any ideas on how to reduce tool chatter?

[JW_Halverson]

See if you can induce a little "tension" in the blade by bending it slightly as you work.  Keep the blade at your 90 or so degrees and alternate between angling slightly to the left, followed by angling slightly to the right.  If the blade is parallel to the chatter marks, all they will ever do is accentuate the chatter.  By angling the blade lightly, the blade will ride over the low spots and knock down the high spots.

[osage outlaw]

I would suggest getting or making a good scraper.  My workhorse of a scraper was made from a circular saw blade.  Put a good bur on what ever you use.  And like JW said, angle it a little left and right and it will remove any small washboard areas.

[hedgeapple]

Also, reducing the amount of wood you take off will help with some troublesome wood.  If the particular stave is  a tuff one, I will work the left side 3 to 6" then work the right side 3 to 6" then work the middle.  Less surface area to create chatter that way.

[mikekeswick]

Buy a good cabinet scraper to start and then keep it super sharp, you should be able to 'wipe' paper thin shavings off with just one hand and very little pressure. Sharpening cabinet scrapers properly is a bit of an art  Dean Torges has a great chaprter on it in his book Hunting the Osage Bow - it's the best description of the process i've read.
As for using it do as the others have said. Also if you do get any chatter then stop immediately and use a file to flatten off the high spots.
Also as you say those staves won't be dry. The 3 months with the bark on will have made little difference to the moisture content. Try and get your ring chased and then rough out to floor tiller. It will dry a lot quicker then with less chance of checks forming.

[cdpbrewer]

I love using scrapers.  The sight and sound of curls being peeled of is second only to those of a  spokeshave.   The foregoing tips should help solve the chattering problem- especially angling the scraper and using light downward pressure that a sharp scraper allows.   

What's harder for me to avoid than chattering are the dips caused by a scraper digging into  early wood rings- especially when doing Dean Torges' bevel tillering method on wood that has wild grain and/or thick early wood rings.  I guess it's a "FG mentality" issue but the divots look bad and feel even worse when one runs fingers down a limb to assess thickness. 

Following the scraper with a file or sandpaper backed by a chunk of wood helps get rid of these type divots- and any marks from chattering.  Attached is a pic of what's becoming a favorite tillering tool.   It sure doesn't sharpen as easily as a cabinet scraper (use a diamond hone!) but it stays sharp much longer and the length helps in maintaining a consistent angle on the bevels and flats.   A big plus with me is that I don't have to search for where I left the scraper or file.   :embarassed: 

c.d.