Everyone who's working with osage knows it comes in a wide variety of colors, from bright yellow, orange, red sparkled, golden to brownish. Osage darkens in the sunlight to a fat dark chocolate brown after years. I have staves or lets better say blanks (ring chased and worked down to nearly dimensions) in my pile from fresh cut to years seasoned. The effect of darkening seems to go into the wood after decades of seasoning. I'm happy to have some of this old seasoned wood.
I'm currently working on several osage bows, here are three of them, all tillered out but no finish on. All have fresh worked surfaces. And here comes the interesting part:
From left to right
bow 1
24 hours before taking that pic this bow had the same color as bow 3. This bow is ammonia treated for one day and had got that rich golden brown. You can get more color when bow is longer in the fuming pipe, or by using a higher concentration of ammonia.
bow 2
on this bow is nothing no stain, no dye, no ammonia. This bow comes from a stave minimum 30 years seasoned. It has some olive color in it
bow 3
this is the usual color, a bright yellow, you get on most of fresh worked osage. I added that bow just for comparison.
Osage is great wood!
