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Chasing a ring

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Muskyman:
I was trying to use a piece of a split I had left over from my staves to practice chasing a ring. The piece had really small rings and I kept going through to the next ring. On something like that do you use a scraper or something else to keep from doing that? As with most of the bow making process this isn’t exactly easy either.

Thoughts,
Mike

Eric Krewson:
It is all about experience and learning to use your tools which takes time. I can chase any chasable ring with a big debarking drawknife because I have used it for 26 years. I don't use it exclusively on tight rings, I take off enough wood to start seeing patches of the early wood and do the rest with a scraper very carefully.

On the tightest ring I ever chased I only used a scraper; it took me 8 hours to chase the ring from one end of the stave to the other. On these types of staves, I use a round nose scraper quite a bit, particularly around pin knot clusters and in valleys on the back.

Learning to put a proper sharp hook on your scraper is imperative. I have used a variety of things to roll the hook and used a screwdriver shank for years. A while back I bought a real scraper burnisher rod, this was daylight and dark compared to my screwdriver shanks, I can get a good hook very easily now.

Muskyman:
I have a burnishing rod but only bought a rectangular scraper and I know I’m going to have to get some others, a round one etc, etc.. I have watched a few videos of people showing how to chase a ring and was actually just trying to practice a little bit with this piece of wood. I can’t help but get better at it but found out after a few attempts that a draw knife is not going to be the only answer for me.. I feel confident that with time and some practice I’ll get better but after a few tries though I’d ask on here and maybe get some advice I haven’t thought of..  I’ve got some scrap pieces that I’ll keep practicing on and hopefully get tuned into it a little better.. trying to learn now before I start trying to work on a nice piece and destroy it. Going to try and find more videos that might help and keep practicing on my junk stuff. If I ever succeed with it I’ll be happy and very careful with my good staves.. I’d rather spend a week on one as to turning it into firewood

George Tsoukalas:
My site may help.

http://traditionalarchery101.com/osage.html

Jawge

Eric Krewson:
I only use the scrapers in the picture for ring chasing, I have never liked the gooseneckk ones for the task. The big heavy debarking drawknife is my ring chaser.

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