osage staveable?

[H1tman7]

Think this will work? Cut out of a tree we knocked down about a year ago with the dozer to clean up some food plot space. about 80" long now. Bow will hopefully come from only the long curved section not including the end that turns out (far end in pic)

Also estimations on drying time would be appreciated.

   

   

[Echatham]

That wouldnt bother me one bit.  Should get 3 or 4 bows out of that.  Might be biting off a bit much to chew if it will be your first bow though. do your homework on how to care for the staves once you split them out and when you get down to your ring draw a centerline following the grain.  Then lay out the bow around that. All that matters is that the tipps line up with the center of the handle.  You can do alot of magic with a heat gun to help get it there

[H1tman7]

Yep this will be my first swing at a self bow. appreciate the response.

[canopyboy]

Is that a 200T?

And I like your helper in the back window!

[H1tman7]

Not sure on the Kubota model # it's their diesel RTV, family just picked it up a few weeks ago.

My helper is Landen (2.5 yr old son), this was taken just before we went to harass some turkey together. He LIVES for weekends at the farm with dad.

[okie64]

The best ring ratio is on the top of that log in the top pic, the rest of the rings look pretty thin with lots of earlywood. The end is showing you where it wants to split so drive a wedge in there and try to get that top to split out clean. Dont get greedy an try to get too many staves out of it or you could end up with none.

[H1tman7]

Split it out today, forgot how tough osage is even when I flowed that exhausting split.
I'll be happy to get one solid stave out of it!

So far so good

[Eric Krewson]

On a questionable log like that one I usually billet out the straight pieces and splice them for some really nice bow blanks.

That is not a good piece of osage for your first bow. I have made 145+ bows and would have trouble making bows from full length staves from that log.

[H1tman7]

Ok after getting some sage advice from the awesome bowyers here at tradgang I decided to go out and pick a different trunk to make staves from.  Its about 10 feet, straight as can be, pretty much knot free and looks to have much better growth rings.

   

     

   

[scrub-buster]

That one looks better.  I bet it split easier to.  Looks straight grained and very little twist.  You should get several nice staves out of that.  You should go back and cut a few more like that if you can.  Store them away and let them be seasoning.

[John Scifres]

That is definitely better but the ratio of early to late wood (light rings to dark rings) is not good.  I would recommend making the bows wider.

The upper right quadrant has better rings, likely from being on the compression (downhill) side of the tree.  Try to quarter it to take best advantage of the wider rings and better ratio.

[Eric Krewson]

10' will give you a bunch of bow staves and some nice billets. I use the tight ring stuff with less than perfect early/late ring ratio for bamboo backed bows.