Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: jchunt4ever on May 29, 2009, 07:15:00 PM
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I've been wanting to try my hand at this for a while, so now here goes. I cut a few Osage logs about 1.5 years ago, partially split most of them, then put them up in my parents barn for drying. This particular stave is the first I chose to work with, as it seems to be pretty decent, fairly straight, and it happens to be the only one I have completely split out so far. Here are a couple of pics of the "chosen one".
(http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ePUtTQGSHVA/SiBlrbgcPyI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/UEXiMPdQ62w/s800/IMG_4988_1.jpg)
(http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ePUtTQGSHVA/SiBlhsICq5I/AAAAAAAAB2I/w2q21ZUPP5E/s800/IMG_4983_2_1.jpg)
(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ePUtTQGSHVA/SiBlamnp6LI/AAAAAAAAB2E/k8aculS9Qv0/s800/IMG_4982_2_1.jpg)
And this is a shot of what the rings look like...
(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ePUtTQGSHVA/SiBlWNa3WJI/AAAAAAAAB2A/BpJeaK-EGD0/s800/IMG_4981_edit_2_1.jpg)
My question is, should I try to go down to the ring indicated by the blue arrow? If its not thick enough then how about the ring indicated by the red arrow? Or maybe there is a better choice somewhere that I don't see?
Keep in mind I don't have any power tools so everything I do will only be with rasps, scrapers, and drawknife. Oh and right now the dimensions of the stave are 69.5" long, 3.5" tall, and about 3" wide at the ring where the blue arrow is.
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Being this is your first, it would be great practice to get to the ring in blue, and fall back to the red one, if you violate the first. But heck you can always meet two dissimilar rings in the handle if ya have to. There are some nice rings about four or five down from the red arrow too.
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that is going to be tricky to work down to one ring..but it can be done. Get a gooseneck scraper and that will help you a lot.
You'll have to go very slow. You're in for a character-building experience. :)