Osage

[Wolftrail]

Does Osage have anything in common with other species of woods.?  I notice that black locust is similar in color but softer wood.
In Canadoo  we have many species of evergreens and white woods and some quite close in grain and color.  Of course yew takes precedence.

[scrub-buster]

Black locust and mulberry have some similarities to osage.

[Bvas]

Dean the s-quad bow I just finished is black locust and black walnut if you were looking for a color comparison.

[Jerry Gille]

Mullberry reminds me of osage to a degree. Not sure if they are related or not.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Mulberry and Osage are essentially cousins and have similar properties. Essentially treat mulberry like low density Osage. Black locust has very similar grain structure. I have about the opposite experience with black locust. My scraper dulls much faster on it and when flicked has a ring to it. It just seems harder but more brittle. Especially once it’s been heat treated. My bandsaw blade scraper is completely dull after one locust bow when I start scraping at first brace. The same edge holds up for a few Osage bows.

Kyle

[Forwardhandle]

I don't think there is any wood equivalent to high quality osage at least for self bows. Just my 2 cents !

[Bowjunkie]

Black locust, mulberry, and osage are similar in that they have a thin band of sapwood, and much heartwood. They're all decent bow wood, osage being the best imo. Once cut and reduced to heartwood, locust and mulberry especially, can be confused for one another. But one distinct characteristic of black locust is that it's fluorescent under a black light. It glows like it's radioactive... especially when freshly exposed with a cutting tool.

[michaelschwister]

In BC you may have vine maple.  Never used it , but I hear it makes a fine self bow. Another good canadian wood is hop hornbeam (might be only eastern Canada, but not sure of range), aka ironwood.

[skeaterbait]

When I was recently in OK at the Cherokee Nation, they referred to Osage as Yellow Locust.