And again, I am not feeling hurt, and nobody owes me an apology or anything, but thanks for the replies. I respect each of your knowledge and abilities.
Just to clarify a bit.... I started doing this primarily because i tend to screw bows up in the rough-out phase. Green elm tears out badly, I'm suddenly too thin on one side of a knot, propeller twist has me cutting too much off one side, not enough on the other, etc...Also, because when I'm teaching a local lad to make a bow, it creates an ordered step to move toward thickness tapering and floor tillering.
I got the idea watching a build-along on Stickbow.com, where a guy measured ELB thicknesses by drawing measured circles with a stencil on the side of his stave to establish thickness taper. I flipped it around, but it's basically the same idea.
Badger: I am most often working with wood from small diameter trees because that is what is available to me. I have followed rings on the belly, but usually I am looking at growth ring lines of a half split to start. If I followed one ring down the middle I might end with a stave stave 1" thick on one end, and 2" thick on the other.
I am also oftern doing this with green or partly green wood. This is how I get a stave prepped to 1" thick plus a handle, no muss no fuss so I can sclamp it to a board or wall stud in my garage to dry. sometimes I don't want to flex the wood either because I know it is too green, or I know it is too thick.
Bubby: I think this method could be adapted to a jig and a saw. You've seen a miter saw, with the stiffener on the back? A very simple jig could be made to stop the saw 1" from where the back of the stave rests.
PatM: It works especially well on elm, and other stringy white woods. red elm is so ragged when you split or machete or even draw knife it. Sometimes twist will wander 20 deg one way, then come back to center, and then the other way 10 deg., or a propeller twist will extend 30 deg on an otherwise beautiful stave. I can correct that with heat, but only if the limb is fairly wide and flat. On straight wood that isn"t lumpoy and knottt, i often chainsaw the staves, then drawknife to drying or starting dimensions. Part of the deal is that the holes are drilled where the split wants to be, following the grain rotationally, without all the tear-out and wandering of a regular split.
Pappy; no problem. It was mostly just in case anybody could see a use for it later. One of the reasons i come here is to read your (youse-guyses) posts. They stick in my head now and then, and when I hit a problem, i say, "I wonder if that thing Pappy was asking about two years ago, and then found an even better way, would work here.?" And a lot of time it does.
I hope I diidn't put anybody too much on the defense. I'm glad i found you all again after paleoplanet dropped off. Merry Christmas!
