Holy Osage Batman!!!

[Oliverstacy]

Okay all you Osage fans out there look at this.

I mentioned this spring when I meet JD that we had some Osage on our farm, being a bowyer his eyes lit up and he said "really"!

I got to do some hunting this fall with him and he showed me around his shop...wow does he build nice bows...anyway one day this fall I showed him the fencerow of Osage.  There are probably 100 live trees in that fencerow and they are as big as 3 feet across.  What I didn’t see and he did were all the dead ones, the road commission had widened the road around 5 years ago and cut the tops off a bunch of them.  Many were just the trunks of the trees and they were 10-15 feet tall.  They’re completely seasoned and ready to go, take a look at the photo’s he sent me…this is his second load of just the dead stuff.    

I wish he had waited to let me help, but said there is a ton more out there just like this so I’m planning a trip back there soon.

Look at the load in his truck at the end!    

This huge chunk is going to the mill to be boards for lams, veneers and risers.

   

   

   

   

   

   

Wow what a load of wood...going to be some good looking staves!

Josh

[wisconsin wood butcher]

im drooling think of the sawdust and chips to be made.

[longbowjim]

That was a good day of wood cuttin'.  I have only hit about 1/4 of the fence row.  The one piece that I split into staves so far is ready to work.  The bigger pieces going to the amish sawmill are giong to be pretty gnarley.  One of the piecest that I put in my truck was about 2 1/2 feet long and 250-300 pounds.  This is some of the tightest, most colorful osage that I have ever seen.  I can't thank you enough Josh.  JD

[Holm-Made]

The stuff that has been standing dead for a while seems to have the best color.  At least that is my limited experiance anyway.  Good score.  Chad

[Mike Hames]

Good firewood.     If do some fancy measuring and sawing/splitting, you might get some staves without too many knots.
Good luck.

Mike

[ron w]

Looks like some snakey things to come!!! Take lots of pics.

[kctreeman]

I worked in the utility industry and found that dead hedge made really good wood for bows. We would put herbicide on the fence row and go back later after the trees died and seasoned while standing.. Sreful with the wormholes.

[Danny Roberts]

Wow ! No osage 'round these parts.

[Sharpster]

Originally posted by Mike Hames:
Good firewood.        If do some fancy measuring and sawing/splitting, you might get some staves without too many knots.
Good luck.

Mike

You ain't kiddin Mike! Any of the knarly knotted stuff that won't be good for bows should go into somebody's firewood pile. Osage burns so hot it'll melt your stove!

Ron

[2fletch]

Danny, there's osage all over Kentucky, especially around Lexington. I've also seen it in Providence, and south of Louisville. It's in a lot of the fence rows there in the area of the large horse farms. I have some osage trees growing in my back yard from hedge apples that I got along the interstate near Lexington.

[Oliverstacy]

Originally posted by Mike Hames:
Good firewood.        If do some fancy measuring and sawing/splitting, you might get some staves without too many knots.
Good luck.

Mike

As a bowyer he doesn't have to use it all for staves...his main goal was to get wood for risers and lams/veneers, the straight staves were a great bonus.  There are a ton of straight 4"-8" trees out there also that can be used for staves but the others are going to be used for bow material.  If you're looking for a Whisperstik that has "Michigan" osage in it he'll be ready soon.

Oh and yes I'm sure the extra will be in his wood stove!   :D  

Josh

[Oliverstacy]

Here is some pics from this summmer...there's a lot of Osage in that fence row.    

 

 

 

 

Josh

[longbowjim]

I already got 4 good. straight, staves out of the first truckload.  I plan to go back for more this week.  It seems that the farther north that you go, the tighter and yellower the wood.  I will post some pics of the burled stuff after I get it milled up.