There is one thing I'm not understanding about some osage bows.
Some are very "snaky" due to following the grain.  I would assume that on this bow the desired ring is reached and the grain/ring is followed mainly on the side.?
However, I've seen some where the bow pattern is drawn out before the ring is reached or the grain can be determined, or at least that is how it appears.
What am I not understanding?

Some violation of the grain is tolerable, although not necessarily desirable.  Some osage has straight grain.  If a fella lays out his bow before he gets down to the final back ring and the grain is not straight then there will be some risk the grain violation my cause trouble.

Grain and ring are not the same thing. Ring is the growth ring that you see when you cut a tree horizontally, eg. felling a tree.  Grain actually runs vertically.  Some trees have a fairly straight grain, others wavy, others even corkscrew around the tree.  At least that is what I was taught.

It can be a real problem with some wood, if you lay the bow out before you chase a growth ring. Here's an example. These two staves used to be one, the bow on the left was a belly split off the larger stave on the right.

As you can see they are not very close in character, these were also cut to shape with a drawknife which followed the grain. Needless to say I would always chase a ring first before laying out the bow, just to be safe.

Pastor, if you look closely at a stave you will see the grain runs end to end on ALL woods not just osage. Think of it as following the crown. When you draw your line down the middle those grain lines have to be followed. Jawge

Hoooweee Dano!

If you taper the limbs from say 1-1/4" wide at the fades to 1/2" wide tips don't you have to violate the grain lines regardless if the stave is snakey or dead straight? It seems to me the only way to keep the grain lines intact would be to make the limb the same width over its entire length and I've never seen that done.   :confused: