Osage help

[feral]

Hey all,
I found a stand of osage on my mother in law's property. I cut some and they all appear twisted.
Is it possible to cut them into billets and join them and do they make a good take down bow.
Osage is classified as a pest in NSW. And the old girl hates them cause they are blocking access to her river.

[simson]

you can heat the twist out. from the whole stave, or from billets - both should work.

or send it to me ...

[feral]

  Well if I cant do anything maybe I can find a slow boat to take them over

[Eric Krewson]

I have cut the twisty stuff in half and made it into manageable bow blanks by offsetting the splices a bunch of times. Instead of huge heat corrections I will end up only needing minor ones.

[occupant]

I have heated staves to untwist them. Almost every Osage stave I've made into a bow had at least a little twist to it when I started.

[JW_Halverson]

How much twist in two meters of stave are we talking?  45 degrees?  90 degrees?  Both are not too much to take out. 

Start by taking the split staves and hogging off all the sapwood until you got bright yellow wood all the way up and down. Then paint, shellac, wipe down with wood glue, or coat with grease...anything to slow the moisture loss thru the back of the stave.  Double or triple coat the cut ends! 

Let 'em set a year before you rip it down to bow dimensions, let it dry another couple months and you should be ready to get to work.  When that wood is close to the final dimensions of making a bow, it takes much less heat and force to make the corrections.  You are going to correct a little at a time by heating 12-15 cm at a time and cranking it into the shape you want.  It might take a couple days and a whole bunch of little corrections to eventually add up.  Some think it is too much work, I kinda enjoy it!  But then I have this disease of bowmaking baaaaaad!

[feral]

It's not too twisted. I was going to cut it down tomorrow. A year to dry?  Rats, I'm keen to get into it. Hahaha

[JW_Halverson]

There is no reason that you can't force things a little, either.

Take the wood down to a single growthring of heartwood.  Follow the grain carefully and define the shape of the bow from the front view.  Saw or use a drawknife to rough it out close to the lines.  Then take wood off the belly until you are down to about 2 cm. thick in the limbs and 5 cm thick thru the grip/handle area.  Some of us with a lot of experience can do this to a stave in a couple hours even if we take our time. 

If you do not have that experience and confidence then just get yourself down to the yellow wood.  Coat it with a sealant.  Next time, chase a ring.  Recoat.  If you don't get it fully chased in one go, recoat with a sealant.  Just take it all in stride the same way you eat an entire elephant....one bite at a time.

But once you have the stave reduced to 2 cm in the limbs and about 5 in the handle it will dry much faster.  You want to dry it slowly at first, like the first month or so.  After that, you can stand it in the sun during the day and bring it back inside at night.  With the air movement and the sunshine, it will lose 8-10 grams a day sometimes! 

That brings up another option.  Weigh the wood daily and when it stops losing weight it has come to equilibrium with the local humidity.

[feral]

thanks.
I sphit one half and then sealed it.
The other twoI sealed and left in the shed.
Does the darker wood take longer to dry.?