earlywood /latewood raio photos

[yazoo]

we will start off with  the bad osage,,this first stave I would only use for firewood,,very poor quality wood,,notice in the left corner how there is not any latewood showing,,even in the right side of stave the earlywood overtakes the summer growth,, on a scale of 1 to 10   this is a 1

[Pappy]

Yep,that's the way I see it.Some think that if it's Osage,that all that matters,there is bad Osage just like any other wood,mabe even more. Thanks Mike for this and the other thread also.

   Pappy

[Josh]

i would use it for tool handles and handle risers for laminate bows before I would burn it... All those rings would look good in a non bending application.    But I totally agree, not good bow wood. 

[yazoo]

some times its just one half of the tree that is bad,,the other side will be great,, I will cut down the biggest tree in the woods for 1 bow,,I know its a little wasteful but all farmers i know want them all cut anyway,,

[gutpile]

I see a serviceable bow in there on the right side half way down..good ratio there and a nice ring....what does the other end look like...guut

[yazoo]

now this log is a little better wood,,still some good and some not so good in the same log,, this wood has some nice thick rings,,but the earlywood is a little thick,,  on a scale from 1 to10 I would rate this wood a 5,,,this wood is from tn like to see some rings on staves from other states,, show us what you got,,

[bambule]

if you build a bow from the inner side of the tree you can build a limb with the use of only one ring - so who cares about earlywood? 

[Eric Krewson]

A stave like the wood in your first picture is what I turn into a bamboo backed bow, works just fine, the bamboo is doing most of the work.

Here are a few pics of pretty good wood. Don't know what happened to the tree that supplied the middle sample, good growth then at least 20 very tight rings in the last years of it's life.

[yazoo]

it almost looks like the tree came under some stress the last few years,,maybe sunlight , water etc..that wood toward the center is what I would call a perfect 10

[Dean Marlow]

Here is some Osage that I cut a few days ago in Illinois. I personally don't like wide growth ring Osage. It seems like my bows are more sluggish than on Osage that has 1/4" rings for some reaso.

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[yazoo]

that is some great looking wood,,there is some very dence osage in illinois,,I am sure just like here in tn the good ones are hard to find

[El Destructo]

Osage in the Texas Panhandle is like High Altitude Yew...you can't barely distinguish one ring from another...with the Low Moisture and the Heat....these Trees don't put on a 1/4 of an inch of Growth for a whole Year

[Lombard]

I heard somewhere that a couple guys at the Tennessee Classic are going to do an experiment on thin rings/ thick rings and test the difference in performance.

Eric, I think, even a ham handed galoot like myself could follow a ring on that center piece.

[FlintWalker]

A stave like the wood in your first picture is what I turn into a bamboo backed bow, works just fine, the bamboo is doing most of the work.

Here are a few pics of pretty good wood. Don't know what happened to the tree that supplied the middle sample, good growth then at least 20 very tight rings in the last years of it's life.

Eric, I've noticed that a lot of the osage I cut that has multiple trunks feeding off the same root system have rings like that.  My theory is that while the tree is young and maybe the only trunk...it grows fast.  But after it suckers out and sprouts a few other trunks the growth slows. One root system is still feeding the cluster of trees and the food is spread thinner, making for crappy rings.

[Ryano]

The thing is even "bad" is osage is still better than most other bow woods..... As long as there's a ring in there thick enough to chase I'll make a bow out of it..... and I would agree that semi thin ringed wood does seem to make the best bows..... seems more dense to me....