Should I cut or not

[DV IN MN]

I have a piece of Osage on our property that is aprox 20-30 feet straight no branches. Diameter 10 in.. Last year I cut an Osage and got 24 staves that are aging in the garrage. The tree i in a bottom protected and alive . I have plenty to work for the next few years, do I take the chance let it grow and wait or cut it when I am there at the end of March and or April?
Second ? can I cut peal off the bark and sap wood and age as a log? I have storage that would be out of weather and bugs?
With that said would I need to peel the I debarked and peeled the sap wood I would seal the log.

[DV IN MN]

Would I need to peel and debark or can I leave bark on and seal the ends?

[toomanyknots]

I say, wait till the sap runs (late spring, early summer) so the bark will come off clean, and just seal the sapwood. That way you get a nice clean stave with no risk of bugs. I am not of the school that you have to remove the sapwood or it will check. But that is what alot of people will tell you, that you have to remove the sapwood or the back will check. I have a bunch of staves with the sapwood on right now. I use elmers glue to seal the back. None of the backs has checked.

[Pat B]

Cut it now, seal the ends and store it in a protected location. In a few days split the log in half . If you want to remove the bark now you should remove the sapwood(and you will never just peel osage sapwood off) too or it will check and possibly ruin the heartwood. Split out staves first before removing the bark and sapwood. Be sure to seal the exposed heartwood back as soon as you expose it. You can leave the bark on but you better treat it for insects or they will eat your bow wood.  After a month or so, split the staves out of the osage log halves.

[mikekeswick]

Good advice already given.
I'm soooo jealous - I love osage but being in England means there isn't much about (read as non). I've got some saplings growing and they have got to 12 inches tall....so just a little while until they get to 12 inch diameter!

[Eric Krewson]

You can never seal sapwood well enough to stop checking especially if it is thick, it has to come off if you remove the bark.

I would plan ahead, pick a time when the weather is pleasant for cutting, splitting and removing bark and sapwood and put the tree on the ground.

Back in my early bow making days I would try to cut corners, cut a log and short stop the whole process by leaving the trunk whole, bark untreated, bark off but sapwood left on and numerous other osage transgressions. Lost a lot of mighty fine wood to my carelessness.

Everything I cut now gets the complete treatment from trunk to shellacked, sapwood free staves before I put them up to cure.  An osage stave, once collected, is a very special thing to me, I treat it with the respect it deserves.

[osage outlaw]

Well said Eric.  My staves get the same treatment before being put up to cure.


DV in MN, if you have the space to store all of the staves I would go ahead and cut it.  You never know what the future holds.  I don't think you can ever have to much bow wood on hand. Although some of our wives do not agree with that statement 

[crooketarrow]

   If you do cut it spray it with peside. BORES, eggs are only leged of deing wood. The the larve has the dieng wood to feed on. I just get mine at LOWES.  I uselly spray when I cut it and again in 6 months or so. But not sure you really have to do this the second time.
  Ofcorse it you debake and seal the whole stave you won't need to.

[toomanyknots]

You can never seal sapwood well enough to stop checking

But ya see Eric, thats just not my experience. My experience is that it is fine if you seal it good enough. Sometimes I only use one coat of glue. I have never had a problem with the sapwood checking, and I like to make alot of sapwood backed osage bows too. So I have to say that yes, you can. One thing that makes a difference is how you season em I would think. I season mine in my house. If they are just laying out in a barn all for years than yes you have alot of risk of checking no matter what.

[PEARL DRUMS]

You have special osage Toomany. keep your hands on all of that and dont trade it away!

[Sidewinder]

i say cut it. Seal the ends with shellac and then get it home and split it into staves. Then just work through the process of getting them debarked. If its gonna be a while before you can bear down and do the grunt work of debarking then for sure spray with pesticide, other wise you will regret it. My thinking is this, you don't know if the tree will still be there later. Heck, one of us might stumble across it and then its gone. But you sure don't want to waste the opportunity.
 Strike while the iron is hot and Carpe diem.   Danny

[toomanyknots]

I don't think I have special osage, I think it's just dogma. I had altogether maybe 50 osage staves last year. All bark removed and sapwood sealed. Not a one of em checked on the sapwood, unless it was one I sold later on. But everyone one I kept are fine. I season mine inside my house though, where as most people season em in their garage, which undoubtedly can make a difference. But I can do that without too much worry for bugs or having to spray pesticide all in my house because I remove the bark and seal immediately. Leaving the bark on is just asking for bugs IMO. 

[Bevan R.]

I say cut now. Osage only gets better with age.

[dwardo]

We are so lucky here in the UK to have little problem if any with bug damage.
We dont need bugs to eat the wood over here as the damp kills it in no time 

[mikekeswick]

We are so lucky here in the UK to have little problem if any with bug damage.
We dont need bugs to eat the wood over here as the damp kills it in no time 

2nd that