I have a couple general questions for you all. What do you consider a ring violation? In thick ringed osage how badly can you nick/gouge a ring and get away with it?
TroutGuide
Its not a violation in my book until I can see the ring underneath. I have gouged some thick ringed stuff in the past and never went through.
Like Pearlie said, an under ring shining through. If you get into a ring but not through it smooth that area out so there is no abrupt change in the woods surface.
Thanks, that is what I thought but I started qustioning myself. My staves have very thin early wood so it makes it hard to avoid a little scraping or gouging of the late wood.
TroutGuide
One way to help eliminate the problem is to remove the wood down to the early ring and sand that off just before finishing the bow.
You can gouge but you can't go through. Sooner or later it will break there. Jawge