I would try to find the least knotty osage specimen I could find if I were you. I'm sure that with the proper application of force using nothing more than a hatchet or axe, some wedges made from a dense hardwood, and maybe a hammer I could break a small tree into staves by opening up a crack with the axe/hatchet and making that crack expand through the wood by pounding wedges into it. Some steel wedges are obviously more durable, but you can split wood with wood wedges and something to hit them with.
