okay,
so last night i reduced the stave to "final" width, with my drawknife, and handled some of the knots in a pretty aggressive manner: saw and chisel. I looked at Pat B's warbow and saw the giant knots in that, and it gave me courage.
Also, i realized that i was still in sapwood on one limb, it's just that it was a darker colour than the rest of the sapwood. So i chased it down some more. I tried to get just one ring, but i think the back's been violated more times than a southern belle with too many male relatives.
This picture shows the stave's twist.
Overall, i LOVE working with this wood! I find that the admonition to leave extra wood at the knots is almost unnecessary, because it's impossible not to! The grain changes direction around a knot, so you are forced to turn the knife and come from the other side. The effect is a natural little mound of raised wood.
So, I just traded a stave for a dozen handmade arrows, painted and nocked...i think it's a good trade.
I'm looking forward to shooting this bow.
No way i'll be able to recurve this one: too much going on at the tips already. But i've drawn the approximate shape of the tips on the sides now...
Slightly different from each other, due to the placement of the knots, but still similar and i think they will look cool.
more to come