odd osage coloration

[H Rhodes]

I recently cut a large dead standing osage.  I just made a sweet shooting little bow from the crappiest looking belly split on the tree.  There is some really fine looking bow wood in this tree, but this particular piece had some strange looking discoloration in patches.  I am guessing that there were periods of standing water or at least heavy moisture near the middle of the tree, or maybe some sort of fungal growth.  Whatever the cause, there are patches of reddish brown colorations in this stave.  I tillered right through these areas and found those places to be extremely hard wood - harder than the surrounding yellow wood.  This bow was mostly an experiment to see how this discolored osage would do.  The bow performs well and took very little set.  I was wondering if anyone else had seen this and if you know for sure what caused it. 

[H Rhodes]

another pic of the reddish patches

[burchett.donald]

Howard,
             I have a bow that is full of the red streaks and was told it was caused by certain minerals in the soil? It is harder wood and sounds different when worked...
                                                                                                 Don

[H Rhodes]

Don, i have seen it red streaked before, but this just looks a little different.  This is even spotted in places.  I know these pics are not the best.  I will try and take some better ones later on so that you can see how this looks.  The entire handle of this bow is a brownish color with some reddish hues.  I have never seen any like this before. 

[Josh B]

I've seen that a few times.  Particularly where the bark has been damaged sometime in the past. Where two trees rub together for example.  Its usually sound wood.  Now if you find a pinkish beige color, that's no good.  You'll know it right off because it's powdery and crumbly.  Josh

[osage outlaw]

I cut a tree this summer that had similar colors.  Seems like good wood to me.

[SLIMBOB]

The 2 I made from the Old Wormy stave was colored much the same way as this one.  Very dense and heavy in my case.

[RyanR]

I have a couple staves like that. The one I have worked seems to be very good Osage.

[JoJoDapyro]

Not in patches but in whole rings.

[Pat B]

The osage that I used for Island Girl(from Gun Doc)has red streaks through it and it is very dense, hard wood.

[Joec123able]

The red Osage seems harder to me too. Id like to know why it is.

[Buckeye Guy]

I don't know all the causes of red in Osage but one of them is fire !

[simson]

I have osage in my pile which is bright yeller, but some is darker brownish striped. A few is reddish and feels fat, I like that stuff. My idea is it had to do with the available water. Could it be the wood is darker the nearer it grows to a river or lake?

[H Rhodes]

Well, whatever the reason for it, this brown/red/spotted up piece is good bow wood.  This tree was dead standing and this was a belly split from the smallest "subtrunk" if you know what i mean.  It was from wood close to the center of the main tree.  I think that if the pith of the original heart of the tree gets spongy and soaks up water that maybe  discolors some of the heart wood.  In another couple of hundred years, it may have become decayed wood (at least that is what those other types of trees wood do! )  Osage just seems to get harder and better no matter the effects of weather. 

[Joec123able]

  Osage just seems to get harder and better no matter the effects of weather.

That's right lol gotta love Osage