Splitting osage, not so straight

[gstoneberg]

Thought I'd do a little stave splitting aerobics tonight with the new osage we got yesterday.  The wood looked reasonably straight from the outside, but when I split it in half...not so much on the inside.




I should have quit there, but I was too curious if it would split into 4ths or whether I'd just have a bunch of billets.  The first half split nicely.  The second...not so much.




Anybody want a fresh osage stave that tapers from 4" to 1/4"?



If I know Murphy, they'll start twisting now so they're more fun later.  That second one from the right looks pretty good, might have to take that one in and try to keep it straight.  I'll split the rest of this batch in half.  They sure looked straighter when we were in the woods. 

George

[JW_Halverson]

Hey!  I know this goofy guy down in Texas that seems to fall in love with the worst pieces of wood.  You could probably sucker him into buying it all.

Lemme see, I got his information here somewhere...let's see, AH! Here it is, his name is gstoneber...uh, never mind!

Well, at least you still got that slingshot, right?


 

[gstoneberg]

Very funny.   Sure, I still have the slingshot.  It's way over on the right side of the pile, I won't get there for a couple weeks at the rate I'm going.  I'm not sure there's enough heartwood to even split that one.

George

[Pat B]

George, can you cut them up and re-piece them as billets?

[Pappy]

The straightness wouldn't bother me as much as the big knots where limbs were.I am with
Pat,looks like you might get some pretty good billits.
   Pappy

[gstoneberg]

Yes, some of those will have to be billets.  I'm not a great splice cutter, but passable.   I try more crooked wood than I used to these days, but some of those limbs are too big to work around.  This osage was in an abandoned farmstead and looked to have been planted in rows right in the yard by the road.  The man who cut it for me said they commonly did that years ago so they'd have a ready supply of fenceposts.  He was cutting to fill an order he had for 2000 posts.   The trees were far enough apart to really bush out.  I saw some really crooked limbs  which would make cool snake bows if they aren't too full of knots.  Hope to go back in a couple weeks.  The farmer wanted to see a completed bow and like an idiot I forgot to take one with me last time.

George

[Pat B]

George, pick one stave out and challenge yourself with it. Make a bow! Don't worry about weight but concentrate on working through the problems and get the limbs bending as evenly and as together as you can. You will be surprised how much wood like that can teach you if you let it. 

[gstoneberg]

I certainly will Pat, thanks.  I have 2 osage bows I'm working on now and both have me scratching my head at the tillering.  Since neither one has to be done fast I've been working a little and thinking about it a lot.  Hoping to learn from both of them.  After these two are done I think I'll splice together a nice straight one for a change.    I promised I'd build one for the Care Center in town's fund raiser auction and don't want to put it off too long.

George

[gstoneberg]

Good news, I finished splitting the staves from this log fetching endeavor and got 1 really nice straight one:

I'll be impatiently waiting for that one to cure for the next year.

Also got a unique split out of the slingshot stave.  I tried to split it in half to see if the split would go down one of the branches.  Best laid plans...the split rotated 90 degrees and perfectly divided the 2 branches in half.


George

[Pat B]

George, that last one is going to make a fantastic character bow!   

[gstoneberg]

I'm not sure there's enough heartwood in the limb to make a bow.  That's where I wanted the bow to be and why I brought that piece home.  Is that what you were thinking?   I'll know better after it seasons awhile.  It will be very crowned too as it is was a small tree.

George

[osage outlaw]

Can you make an endless loop sting with 3 loops? 

[Pat B]

George I was just kidding but you will be surprised how little osage it takes to build a good bow. Just peel the bark and make a bow with sapwood and heartwood on the small stuff.

[Del the cat]

George, that last one is going to make a fantastic character bow!   

Yeah, but how do you make a string with 3 loops ?
And on a 3 limbed bow do you have the extra limb top or bottom?... Just askin' 
Del

[gstoneberg]

Aha, good.  I wasn't seeing that good a bow in there Pat.  But, I would put the extra limb on the bottom, Del.  Then, I could splice another chunk of wood down there and use the bow as one of those multi-footed canes when I need help walking in the woods.

George