If you had only ONE block of Osage

[Aussie Yeoman]

Osage is pretty rare here, but someone has been extremely kind to give me a piece.

It's a milled board  2 7/8"wide, 1 5/8" thick and 38" long. I believe it is already seasoned, and has a density of 1027 kg/m^3 (64 lb/ft^3). So of course I will have to splice it or make a takedown. My inclination is for takedowns.

The grain makes it unsuitable for a selfbow, so it will be backed. Most likely with bamboo.

My quandary is how to cut it up. I could be brave and try to get four limbs out of it, by cutting it in half along both axes and thus having four limbs slightly less than 1 3/8 by 3/4 inches.

Or, I could be less selfish and just go for two great billets, with perhaps a little left over for accent strips on other bows. Or thin belly lams.

If one bow should come from this chunk, I'm thinking a deflex, reflex recurve backed with bamboo. If two bows, then one like that and perhaps a plainer deflex reflex takedown. Two bows would mean I'd have to build up the riser section.

I'm deliberating over this quite a bit because while the Aussie bow woods are easy to come by, and I've made scores of bows with them, this is the first time I've ever had the privilege of making an osage bow.

Would appreciate opinion of those more closely acquainted with Osage than me. So, pretty much anyone on these fora.

Cheers,

Dave

[H Rhodes]

I don't do a lot of board bows, but have made quite a few osage stave bows.  It doesn't take much osage in thickness or width to make a hunting weight bow of 45 - 50 lb draw.  In your shoes I would try to get two bows out of that piece.  Osage backed with bamboo is good stuff.  I think you will like the deflex/reflex recurve design with osage.  Good luck with it. 

[blackhawk]

IF you have good sharp,tuned saws n know how to use em then you can rip the width first,and then rip the thickness of those two pieces in half and make 4 lam bows with it...that's what I'd do,but I got plenty of hedge laying around too.

[bubby]

IF you have good sharp,tuned saws n know how to use em then you can rip the width first,and then rip the thickness of those two pieces in half and make 4 lam bows with it...that's what I'd do,but I got plenty of hedge laying around too.

X2 I'm with bad Chris

[paulsemp]

You should of seen all the osage that went into my stove last weekend

[bubby]

You should of seen all the osage that went into my stove last weekend

Your baaad pauly,

[missilemaster]

You should of seen all the osage that went into my stove last weekend

Your baaad pauly,

.
 Cleaning out the corner of shame are we?

[bubby]

You should of seen all the osage that went into my stove last weekend

Your baaad pauly,

Nice burn Cody
.
 Cleaning out the corner of shame are we?

[Badger]

  38" is long enough to get 4 bows out and still keepat least a 3/4" thick splice joint at the handle area. Split the boardsthickess in half, now split the width in half. Draw a line down the center thickness of each 3/4" piece. Mark another line on side that would allow for the handle and fade. Go to the other end of the board and draw the same handle and fade line comming out the opposite side of the board. I start my fade about 4 1/2" from each end of the board.

[paulsemp]

You should of seen all the osage that went into my stove last weekend

Your baaad pauly,

Nice burn Cody
.
 Cleaning out the corner of shame are we?

No, I just have that much

[bubby]

I know Paul, I've seen the pics

[Aussie Yeoman]

Thanks Badger, that's a really good idea.

But if I take into account material lost to kerf, would there really be enough thickness left over (just about 8.5 mm thickness per limb) to make decent limbs without going tri-lam?

Dave

[surfarcher]

Osage is pretty rare here, but someone has been extremely kind to give me a piece.
...snip...

Damn jealous here Dave. I'm in South Australia, the softwood capital of our country.

Getting hold of half-decent aussie hardwoods for bowmaking is like doing your own dental work. Blindfolded. Using only a rusty spoon.

[mikekeswick]

I'd go for two bows cut as you suggested in your first post.
You will like bamboo backed osage very much 
R/d recurve.....umm my favourite design! I'm looking forward to see what you come up with 

[Springbuck]

Osage is rare around here, too.  Only made a few bows from it, but     

If you are familiar with laminated bows and know about power lams and all that, you have plenty enough for 2 bows there.  Very strong woods like osage and massaranduba take very little thickness on a R/D profile to get good draw weight.  I have made hunting weight, 70" long BBO's with 3/8" of osage and 3/16" of bamboo, again, with a powerlam.

 Early on it worried me, and i remember spoiling some decent osage bought off ebay by putting 1/8" bamboo, about 3/16" of boo flooring, and 3/8" of osage.  i could stand on that thing between uprights and bounce when it first came off the form.  I ended up withMAAYBE 1/8" of bamboo in the thinnest places and it took a lot of set.

The ONE caution I have is that I have had some very bad quarter and rift sawn tropicals and osage before, and it's hard to see.  Several backed bows in a row died on me, because the boards came thin, and I couldn't see the grain on the sides.  It turned out the radial grain went back to front at about 15 degrees, and under strain, the belly lam would fracture by slipping, separating along the grain and raising a lip, kind of like a spalt or spall (sp?) fracture.  Sio, look at what is really there before you saw it.