photo of bad osage

[yazoo]

here is a photo of the osage I am talking about,notice the wood by the 1 this is entirely made up of earlywood, if a stave has this , its very bad,,,, the wood by  number 2 is a little better, but the earlywood to latewood ratio is bad too much earlywood for the amount of latewood,,,    the wood by number 3 is good the earlywood is still thick but the latewood is thicker in relataion to it,

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[bigcountry]

Unfortately, I have some of that #1 and #2.  Still not sure what to do with it.

[smokeu]

Is it really that bad?? I think I build a a nice bow from that log...... You know what, you should send that to me and ill see what i can do with it.

Thanks,

Mike

[Eric Krewson]

If you back osage like 1 and 2 with bamboo you can still make a decent bow, nothing special but OK, better than throwing it in the burn pile.

I helped a young man rough out a bow yesterday that was mostly one and one grain of two, tightest grain I ever chased. It was his first stave, he didn't know to look for when he bought it.

Glad you put this thread up Mike. Lots of people don't know the difference when they are looking at staves.

[Postman]

Thanks mike - very informative.

[FVR]

That's what we need, a Bad Osage build off.

Ya see, cut that thar log up into staves.  Then get volunteers to make bows out of the bad, almost bad, and not too bad wood.

I will sacrifice myself and volunteer for one of the bad staves.

[AKAPK]

There are Dye makers that would love that #1 stuff I sold some shavings to A person here for such works great for dying Fabric and string.

[TRACY]

I've made some out of sucker shoots that look like one and two and are still perfoming. Given the choice I would select rings that I can actually see and chase Good visual.

Tracy

[AKAPK]

Atlatls

[Ohio John]

Unfortately, I have some of that #1 and #2.  Still not sure what to do with it.

axe and hammer handles is a good use !