How old is the Osage? Beautiful color on it.
That is very old seasoned osage (more than 30years), but to be honest the pics were taken in the evening sun which added a good rich reddish color. I'm happy to have some really old stuff. At the moment I'm working on piece, propably as old as this one, but with a complete different color -it's a greyish olive. Osage is the king, like Chris once said.
Wow Simon... Such beauty! Did you do any dye to color the wood or was it that color, so rich. Thank you for all those close photos... I love to stare at your work. Well done Sir! Jim
no color and no stain added
Looks like some thin ringed yet good early to late wood ratio osage, the kind that really makes nice shooting durable bows. You did a knock out job on it Simon, beautiful bow.
Greg, you're right - it's a good ratio piece of sage. It is very dense.
Very nice! I've always wanted to try that groove on the back of the nocks but worry about mucking things up.
Try it! It isn't that much complicated. A chain saw file (the tinest you can find) will do best.
Its not perfect, probably. I just can't see any issues at this time. 
Yes is was a nearly perfect stave.No knots no twist, but a big windcheck (delamination between rings). I filled the crack 10" long with thin super glue and warmed up the bow before. Everything went o.k. and it holds up just fine. You can see the filled crack if you look cloosely to the first handle pic, right side.
Gorgeous Simon, what type of finish did you use?
I always use my homemade mixture of hardening oil, at minimum 8 coats.
Wann schläfst du denn überhaupt? Nice work. some day my skills will come close, I hope.
Inbetween the work on two bows,
ALL: Many thanks for your nice comments and compliments
