Lost a bunch of osage

[osage outlaw]

         I learned a painful lesson today.  Summer of '08,  I found a big osage tree that had fell over and into a dry creek bed.  I cut it up and hauled out 3 nice logs ranging from 12"-10" across.  It was in the 90's that day and it almost killed me getting them out of that creek.  I sealed the ends,  split them in halves, and stored them in the garage.  I split a couple of pieces into staves and debarked them right away.  They turned out fine.  The other day, I pulled out one of the remaining half logs and split it into 3 primo staves, two of them could have been split again.  Today I started removing the bark and sapwood from them.  I noticed that the bark pealed up really easy in big chunks.  It was like the bark had separated from the sapwood.  I started to remove the sapwood and the staves are full of drying checks all down the backs.  I have carried 4 staves to the burn pile today.  I only managed to save one little stave.  I still have two half logs that I haven't touched.  I don't even know if I should bother with splitting them.  Maybe I should have bon fire and start from new. 

[DEllis]

OUCH
Sorry to hear that.......hopefully some of it is still OK.
Darcy

[Elktracker]

Sorry to hear that, I dont know about Osage but with Vine Maple I have had a couple staves develope drying checks very small ones but all over the length of the back, it didnt effect the way the bows made from them shot in any way. The only thing I had to make sure my finish (spar urethane) penatrated into all of the checking cracks so water was unable to penatrate the wood. I was working with John Strunk yesterday and showed him and he also said they were fine and wouldnt hurt anything. Here is a pic of what im talking about

[gstoneberg]

Are you sure the cracks go deep enough to render the stave not usable?  Even in my very old weathered fenceposts, the deep fissures only go down about 4 growth rings into the heartwood.  Below that it is good wood.  I've made both unbacked and sinew backed osage with longitudinal cracks and the bows were fine as long as the cracks didn't go clear through or run out the sides.  It is very odd that it cracked like that unless it was exposed to the elements for quite awhile after falling.

George

[1776J]

Good Lord man!!!!! 

I hope somehow something is salvageable?

[osage outlaw]

gstoneberg, I'm sure you could wrangle a few bows out of them, but I don't think I can.  The cracks go pretty deep.  It looks like some of them go all the way to the bottom of the stave.  I think when the bark loosened, it let the moisture escape under and caused them to split.  I coated the one good stave with about 4 coats of shellac.  From now on, I am going to remove the bark and sapwood and seal them right away.  Hauling osage logs out of the woods by hand is too much work to end up throwing them away.

[sailordad]

if the cracks go length wise
chase a ring,cut your profile
heat up some gel super glue and ooze it in there
make a bow 
youd be suprised at what osage with a few cracks can do
its worth trying it,after all you went thru all that work of collecting them
a draw knife is quick,even on dry osage bark

[gstoneberg]

I agree.  Cracks that run the length of the bow back are just character.  Cracks on the belly are trouble, have to wrap the limb if you get them there.  Cracks or insect damage that go across the back (or belly) side to side must be removed by going down heartwood rings until they're gone.  I've gone in as many as 10 heartwood rings before.  I did ruin one bow by taking too much off the belly before I got to some borer damage on the back and by the time I'd gotten it out I didn't have enough limb left to make a bow.  It is a rare piece of osage that won't make a bow if you really want to.  I've passed on a few pieces though for sure.  I really hope you can use most of it.  Like everyone says, it's way too heavy to haul home, split the long way, and then burn.  I usually procrastinate getting the bark off mine too.  Hello borers...

George

[DV IN MN]

I have some osage that dried and was stored in the rafters for 15 yrs has the checks running the full length. Some of the checks are deep, on one bow I thought he stave might just split right in half. I ended up backing with sinew and turned out ok. I think they will make bows. I am no expert by any stretch having made 5 bows. But I would try it before burning after the labor already invested. Good luck
 

[luke the drifter]

can you make any billits and splice anything

[Pat B]

It don't take much osage to make a hunting weight bow. That's why I very rarely throw any osage away. Even with checks all the way through I'd at least give them a try. In this case for sure let the wood tell you what it wants to be!