Osage Orange, hedge in Arkansas and Texas

[RAU]

This is gonna be an odd question but I’m gonna ask anyway. I’m driving with my family down  to the cotton bowl in Arlington Texas from north east Pa. the day after Christmas. I’m in need of self bow wood and pretty sure Texas is native Osage range. I’ll be coming down through Md, Va, Tn, Ar, and finally Texas. Anyone think it’s worth me packing chainsaw with hopes of coming home with an Osage log? I told my wife I’m gonna strap the log to the roof of her pathfinder like Clark griswold did with the Christmas tree!! Ha!! Any advice or guidance is appreciated and Merry Christmas everyone!!

[wingnut]

Most land in Texas is private.  You might get shot cutting trees.

Mike

[RAU]

Wonder how hard it would be to get permission. I def wouldn’t just cut and take a tree without talking to someone

[Huntschool]

Why dont you just buy a stave from one of the self bow builders out there and remove the risk and dry time wait.

Just sayin

[RAU]

Cause like Dean Torges said Osage you cut yourself means more to you (I paraphrased that) Also Osage isn’t cheap. I’ve bought several staves and even cut some of my Own in Lebanon county Pa but it’s just real hard to come by for me.

[McDave]

Ironically, where and when I grew up in Texas, it was considered a weed, and I’m sure most people would have given you permission to cut one.  Probably would have paid you if you had cleared out more than one (just kidding; probably not).  Things change, and might be different now.  Still, nobody is going to shoot you for asking.  If it were me, I would carry a big tree pruning saw rather than a chain saw, less mess and would be adequate to cut down stave sized osage orange trees.

I would imagine that most of the cost of osage staves is in splitting the staves, drying them, and selling them, rather than the logs.

[Ratatat]

I live in Fayette County PA and it is plentiful here.  It grows along many of the back roads and fence rows.

[Gdpolk]

Southern AR has lots of it. I’ve had several folks offer entire old growth trees to me for free if I just promised to remove all the mess and have the stump ground out. Whatever you bring make sure it is SHARP. Osage can kill a saw blade quickly. Another thing to be aware of is that Osage frequently checks/splits as it dries and ages. There is a considerable amount of loss due to this and it really benefits from a slow aging in a kiln. Finding someone set up and willing to let you kiln dry some trees can be problematic.

[Eric Krewson]

Yikes, no offense but GDPolk's post is way off base, nothing that I have experienced in 25 years of osage cutting. I did have a lot of checking before I started treating my osage staves correctly, none after. We don't kiln dry osage staves, never, never.

I have sped up the curing in a heat box but found I had to air dry staves to 16% MC before they went in the box or they would check. Even then I only set my box on 90 degrees. 

I have a lot of of osage cutting under my belt.

[RAU]

Man that’s a beautiful pile of staves Eric!!!!!

[Gdpolk]

Yikes, no offense but GDPolk's post is way off base, nothing that I have experienced in 25 years of osage cutting. I did have a lot of checking before I started treating my osage staves correctly, none after. We don't kiln dry osage staves, never, never.

I have sped up the curing in a heat box but found I had to air dry staves to 16% MC before they went in the box or they would check. Even then I only set my box on 90 degrees. 

I have lost of osage cutting under my belt.

Maybe I just boogered it up the few times I’ve cut some. There’s a right and a wrong way to do everything and perhaps my bad way yielded bad results. Would you mind sharing your process either publicly here or by phone with me? I have no interest in pulling out staves for bows but would really like to harvest some for dimensional lumber and knife handle materials sometime.

[RAU]

Mr Krewson is better self Bowyer than I’ll ever be but I’m pretty sure he’s gonna tell you something like this........... seal the cut ends of log with shellac, polyurethane, wax, glue or something similar, split into staves, treat for borers,  and dry slowly indoors.  If you peel the bark and sap wood seal the back of stave (where the bark was) too.

[Eric Krewson]

I find it better to strip off the bark and sapwood while your staves are green right after you split them, this way you won't have bug problems. I use shellac, 3 or 4 coats on the ends and backs, lots of other sealers will work as well. After your staves dry you will be patting yourself on the back for getting the sapwood off, it is much easier to remove from a green stave than a seasoned one.

If I just don't have the time for the above I soak the bark with a strong bug killer, this will keep the bugs at bay for a few months but hasn't been permanent in my experience. 

The other day a guy said he left the sapwood on and only removed the bark and had no problems with checking if he used a product called Anchor Seal which is used in the logging industry. This sounds promising if you can find some.

If you remove only the bark and use any of the normal sealants your wood wil check through the sapwood and sometimes deeply into the heart wood.

[Gdpolk]

I find it better to strip off the bark and sapwood while your staves are green right after you split them, this way you won't have bug problems. I use shellac, 3 or 4 coats on the ends and backs, lots of other sealers will work as well. After your staves dry you will be patting yourself on the back for getting the sapwood off, it is much easier to remove from a green stave than a seasoned one.

If I just don't have the time for the above I soak the bark with a strong bug killer, this will keep the bugs at bay for a few months but hasn't been permanent in my experience. 

The other day a guy said he left the sapwood on and only removed the bark and had no problems with checking if he used a product called Anchor Seal which is used in the logging industry. This sounds promising if you can find some.

If you remove only the bark and use any of the normal sealants your wood wil check through the sapwood and sometimes deeply into the heart wood.

Thanks for the tips!  I'll try them out and see if I get improved results.