I got me some yeller wood

[Steve Milbocker]

I had the good fortune of harvesting two osage trees yesterday. They are about 6'' in diameter and straight as a string. They split like they were walnut, right down the middle with 3 or 4 hops of the wedges. The only thing bad was the growth rings are quite tight. I sealed the ends with some clear poly I had and split them in half.I figured to leave the bark on and let them dry like this for a while before reducing them further. Does this sound like a good plan?

[Eric Krewson]

While your staves are green the bark and sapwood will come off real easily, not so after they dry. Almost all my stash of osage has had the bark and sapwood removed and had the backs and ends sealed really well with shellac, did it all while the staves were fresh cut. Sure is nice to have grab a stave, do the final ring chasing and be ready to make a bow.

Lots of folk seal a stave with wood glue but shellac is the best, 3 or 4 coats.

[Pappy]

Yep,sound like a good plan to me,I like tighter rings,as long as I am not after to heave a bow and they are thick enough to chase. Congrats. I would give it several months then take the bark off and chase a ring and be sure to seal the back when you do that.It takes Osage a good while to dry and even longer to season.I usuall won't try and make a bow from Osage less than a year old and rather it be older. When I say heavy I mean somewhere in the mid to low 50's.If I were going more than that I would probably back it with rawhide depending on the rings.
   Pappy

[RidgeRunner]

This is how I do mine:

Seal the last 6" of the ends all the way around with three coats of poly.  Seal the ends on the bark side as well.
Let them dry, in a covered building, off the ground, for about 6 months.

Then take (one) out and peal the bark and sap wood off.  Do this in as little time as possible.  ( You are not chasing your final back ring at this time that will come later.  ) Keep it out of the sun and wind as much as possible while you are pealing it down.  Then seal the back and reseal the ends.  Apply three coats of poly to the back.  Put the one stave up to dry for another 6 months.  

After they have dried for this second 6 months I place my staves in the attic for a year or so.  Osage dries slow.

It sounds like you have some great staves.  Don't let them crack on you. Seal, Seal and Seal some more.

David

[gstoneberg]

If you don't remove the bark and have to store your wood outside or in a non-bug-proof building, you might want to spray an insecticide on the bark to keep the wood borers at bay.  Down here in Texas the borers really go for osage.

I'm old school.  I seal the ends and let them season with the bark on for 2 or 3 years.  When I finally split them the bark falls right off.  Even then I only split staves off as I need them.   My favorite bow wood is old fence posts, the older the better.

George

[CraigMBeckett]

Once again I am jealous, you lucky dog, not much Osage over here.

Craig.

[Steve Milbocker]

Thanks for the tips guys. I put some TB3 on the ends last night and to say the rings are tight on some of them would be an understatement. Would my best bet be to back those staves?

[Pat B]

Steve, I like thin ringed osage but I usually back it with rawhide. I think the stuff with thin rings has better zip than a stave with thicker rings.

[Eric Krewson]

I use osage like this for bamboo backed bows. Mater of fact this was cut off the end of my latest attempt. The piece is only about 1" thick, doable rings on the belly side but mighty tight on the top so I flattened it and backed it with bamboo.

[Steve Milbocker]

Pat, do you attempt to chase a ring even if you are going to back the bow? Eric that is what I am dealing with as well. Too bad  because these logs are as straight as walnut.

[Pat B]

Eric, those look like wide rings to me!
  Steve, I always at least try to get a good back ring. Generally with the thin ring stuff the ring gets violated around knots and other irregularities. I do my best with the back ring then sand it smooth and add the rawhide backing. If the violations are severe I will add the rawhide early on in the tillering process. If not so bad or for "just in case" sake I'll wait until final sanding before adding the rawhide.

[Steve Milbocker]

Thank you gentleman.

[gstoneberg]

You guys have covered this well, but I did have a picture of tight osage rings on the bow I'm now working on (well, it's drying a little now).  These are the tightest I've ever followed a growth ring on:



Sadly, I did go through it one time and have to do the whole fun again on the next ring down.  The good news is that I won't lose much limb width on such thin rings.  I would prefer not to back this bow.

George

[Lombard]

Holy crap George, if you are able to chase rings that fine, you have mad skills. Like Eric if they are tight like that, I decrown and back the wood.

[gstoneberg]

Well, I went down through the first half dozen to get to the rings that had a little more thickness.  Also, I did goof and go through that ring and have to do it all again.  So, I hesitate to say anything given how much Murphy loves me.  I normally would back a bow like this too.  Fun to try the hard ones.

George