Osage from different states

[Badger]

      All the osage I have worked with I purchased. A good share of it from e bay. Just wondering if any of you have formed opinions about states that grow the best and worst osage. The best I have had came from Illinois, ohio, tennesse, indiana, the worst I have had came from many of the midwest states, missouri, kansas, iowa. All the southern states seemed good. Prairie grown didn't seem as strong for some reason. Any opinions? Steve

[fishfinder401]

i think the osage from Rhode island is pretty good, but i think i used the only one
noel

[jturkey]

i am proud to say i am from the south and wish i have had a chance to work with wood from the midwest but since i have a rare stash of osage for around my parts in mississippi i can say it is all i work with maybe it has something with the heat and humidity down here.idk maybe it is our sweet tea and catfiishing could be the amount of wind or just plain luck.lol but i would love to here more on the subject as well  maybe someone else with experience with the others states wood can chime in and hopefully it is the sweet tea
john

[PaulN/KS]

Well...
The Kansas osage is pretty good around my place. I think that's due to the fact that it bends so much in the wind while it is growin'... it's already pre-stressed.
 

[JonW]

I live in Arkansas and I think our Osage is pretty good stuff. It has very good early/late growth ratios and a high RPI count.

[gstoneberg]

I've used osage from IL, NE, KS and TX, most of which I cut.  By far, the Texas osage is the worst, full of wind checks, tight ringed and twisted as all get out.  Irregardless of state, the best osage for me has come from field hedges where it at some point was used as a live fence.  There it grows close together and every now and then a tree will grow with fewer branches and straight up to get to the sun.  Those make great bows.  Having said that, I've made good bows from osage in every region.  I don't even look at ring thickness or early/rate ratios.  I find yellow wood and build bows.  Osage has never let me down, though I've messed up and insects have sometimes conspired to ruin bows.  I need to go cut me some more.

George

[Eric Krewson]

Cut an awful lot of osage in the last 15 years. My opinion is not so much state location but individual location and tree selection. I have cut some osage in N Alabama that was light and splintery as pine, some that was hard and heavy as a hickory knot and every other possible type in between.

If you cut an area with tight ring stuff most trees will fall in that category, same with wide ring.

Here is part of my stash today. Imagine what it looked like before I use about 150 staves out of it. What is shown in the pictures is about half what I have stockpiled .

[jimmy]

i think it mostly just depends on the tree itself.  i live in southern Kansas and i have worked with very different types of osage, all cut in this area.  the good stuff is darker and tighter ringed ( and seemingly heavier ), while the mediocre stuff is pale yellow and wider ringed.  that's not to say that the pale stuff is not good.  it will all make a very fine bow.  it's just that the dark, heavy stuff is more like spring steel.  it also seems to me that smaller trees yield better wood ( 6" to 8" diameter or so ).

[JackCrafty]

The osage I have harvested myself has been limbs with mostly sapwood.  They all worked fine for the kids bows I was making.  These came from central Texas.  In my opinion, Texas osage is light in weight and the further north you go, the heavier it gets.  I prefer heavy osage for bows.  Light osage can be used for tool handles, foreshafts, etc.

[toomanyknots]

I live outside cincinnati ohio, and have gotten osage from kentucky once right across the river. I can't say there was any difference between performance or nothing, but this stuff looked significantly different than the osage around me outside cincinnati, the kentucky stuffs bark had somewhat of a tiger stripe look and the bark itself was thin, where as the osage around where I live has real thick rugged looking bark with no pattern, and typically has moss all over it. The wood itself seem exactly the same, except from being very tight ringed. It was way way way up in the hills though, I didn't think the van was gonna make it up to the freaking guys place. It was a cool drive though.

[Ryano]

I agree with Eric. Like any other bow wood it tends to varies a lot from tree to tree even out of the same hedge row.

[Badger]

         Sounds like states don't make that much difference. I have to buy all mine so I tend to try and purchase from sellers I have had best luck with and occassionaly try a new one. Really not much to base my opinions on besides luck. Nice to hear that all the states seem to have good osage. Steve

[Eric Krewson]

In my last picture you can se a wide billet piece with black spots on it. I left this piece outside with no bug treatment for an extended period of time. I went by it one day and saw it had been attacked by powder post beetles. I fired up the propane torch and gave the beetles a house warming, no more beetle damage. Luckily the holes only went in about an inch, made a good bow from the billet.

[snag]

.."a house warming"! haha  I have osage envy.