My first osage

[Cuban Missile]

I wondering around in the woods behind my dad house yesterday stumping and found a dead osage that has been there for what looks like a good 4 years!  So I ran back to the house and grabbed ol' Jezebel, (my problem child of a chainsaw) and looks like she's pretty solid.  I didn't get a chance to take pics but they will come later.  Seeing that its my Osage I am going to need some help!    

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Osage logs in whole form can lay for years and still be very good providing the bugs haven't started working on them. If the wood is bug free then I'd say you struck gold. Get em split and see what ya got inside, you might have just hit the lottery. Good luck!

[Cuban Missile]

I split it the other day too.  Its my first so I'm not too familiar with identifying a "good piece"  Its not chewed up so thats good but I have some straight and a some twisty.  I guess pictures would help but Im not near them right now I'll have to take pictures tonight when I get home.  Also I don't know if I should split the staves out and then use the draw knife to get it to a stave or saw them to size.  I just don't want to ruin what i got with my lack of Osage experience.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

If bugs had laid their eggs on it you would see the damage starting just under the bark. I guess I should have specified worms or larvae because that's actually what causes the damage when the eggs hatch. They start to burrow through the sapwood then into the heart wood leaving a trail of sawdust poop as they eat their way along. You'll know it instantly when you see it cause it looks like somebody drilled a hole through the wood with a crooked drill bit. I find the most damage around knots because it seems that's an easy place for them to start eating their way in? Not sure, but that's where I run into most damage cause by the larvae. If you remove the bark and it looks fairly clean you might have gotten lucky, but there's no guarantees you won't run into a worm somewhere inside the heartwood once you go to work on the staves.
It's pretty much a crap shoot.

[mwirwicki]

Cut the tree into 6' (or longer) sections.  Start from the end of the whole log with an axehead positioned to split the log in half, through the pith (center).  Drive the axehead into the end.  Place a wedge in the side of the log where a split started just passed the axehead.  You will likely need 2 or 3 wedges depending on the girth of the tree.  More girth; more wedges.  Drive the wedge into the side of the log at the split.  The split will travel down the length of the log.  Take a second wedge and do the same.  Continue hopscotching the splitting process until you reach the end of the log.  Quarter splits are nice.  If you have good girth you can split them again.  Seal the ends with cheap polyurethane, paint or wood glue.  This will help slow the drying process and avoid checking.  Gary Davis has a new DVD out available from Three Rivers Archery in Michigan.  Gary shows the whole process on the bowmaking DVD.  If you follow it, you can't go wrong.