$250k r/d caul

[Josh B]

If the price of your tools is relevant to the quality of the finished product, this little bow should be epic!  Lol!  $110,000 dollar trailer behind a $140,000 truck makes for an expensive caul!  I just cut this little bitty Osage limb on Aug 29. It is 53" long and only 2" diameter at the big end, including the bark.  I chopped it down to the pith with my tomahawk and proceeded to figure out a way to tame the full 10" of reflex without a heat gun.  This is the best I could come up with. The plan is to speed dry this for a week in this profile, lightly decrown, and see what happens.  When I say speed dry, I mean speed dry!  I plan to leave this as it is while making deliveries next week.  I suspect 70 mph sustained air flow should dry it out quick!  Wish me luck!  Josh

[Badly Bent]

I bet that'll dry it out very well Josh, may have to pick a lot of bugs out of it though.

[Poggins]

Ingenuity at its finest .

[oldhippy]

   you ain't right Josh
   Hippy

[Eric Krewson]

Hope you have the belly well shellaced or it will check all the way to the back. Fresh cut osage doesn't lend itself well to speed drying.

[dbb]

Nifty solution 
But i hope you secure those steelpieces before you start..i wouldent want to be behind if they shake loose 

[Josh B]

Nifty solution 
But i hope you secure those steelpieces before you start..i wouldent want to be behind if they shake loose 

That was considered.  I have some dowels that will be put in and lashed firmly in place before I hit the road.  I don't want to lose my files especially in somebody's windshield. 

Eric- I didn't seal the belly, but it still has the bark on the back.  I figure I have a 50/50 chance of it splitting it self or not.  If it does check, I'm not out much.

OlHippy- surely you figured that out long before now!

Greg- maybe the bug juice will seal it up so it don't check.  Lol!

Poggins- yes sir, redneck engineering at its finest! Lol!

[blackhawk]

Awesome josh....let us know the outcome....lots of names you can name that one if it becomes a bow....the "kenabago deluxe" ....I'd seal the belly if the pith is still in it,otherwise I'd say you have worse than a 50/50 of it not checking...

[crooketarrow]

  I've put industal fans on OSAGE staves before. Air dos'nt speed dry wood to fast. It still took a couple months. I had to build and finsh drying with a hot box.

  But it's sounds perty small and even though you have the bark on. It still will likely check. MINE DID, MINE WERE 3 INCH STAVES

  I next set a small heater in front of the fan. This dryed staves out in COUPLE 3 weeks. But I had to seal the whole stav. I'm sure it would have checked if I had'nt sealed it.

   Build a hot box, 8'x4'x1" sheet of foam that go's under sideing. Sivler side in. GLUE IT, 3, 25 watt light bulbs. Takes only a short time to but together.
    I'VE HAD MINE FOR 16 ,17 YEARS.

[Josh B]

I cut her down to the pith Chris.  So far its been on the fender for 30 hrs.  No checks that I can see yet.  If it does, oh well.  This piece is so small that i wouldn't even look twice at it normally.  This is more or less an experiment to see what I can get away with. (Even though I should know better)  lol!  Thanks Roy, I'll file that away for future reference.  Josh

[Blaflair2]

Lol nice

[country]

Show us some pics along the way of "Long hauler" 

[rps3]

Great idea. I cut some small pieces like that only pipe straight and long. They checked badly after taking wood off the belly, but I should have cut more off than I did, maybe that would have helped.

[turtle]

Maybe you can patent it and charge by the mile to quick dry staves for other people.

[BowEd]

Good use of space Josh.Hope it turns out for ya.