Osage outdoors?

[Jim Davis]

Since people are able to make bows out of Osage fence posts that have been in the ground for a lifetime, can I store Osage staves outdoors, out of the sun without ruining them. I would debark and paint backs and ends. Just wondering because I really don't have room to store many staves in covered spaces.

I know some of you will volunteer to put them under cover for me, but, I'll handle the problem some way/

[PEARL DRUMS]

Bugs would be number one and only concern.

[osage outlaw]

Heat, sunlight, bugs, and moisture would be some things you would want to consider.   

[Eric Krewson]

I think you will be OK, especially if you remove the bark and the sapwood, I would cover the wood with a tarp. I stored a bunch of staves under my deck with the bark on, powder post beetles were a problem for a while until I got a toxic concentration of insecticide built up in the bark.

On another note; I stored a pile of bark on green osage staves behind a shed one time in the sun, I didn't look at it for months. When I checked on it months later it looked like a pile of twisted snakes, it had checked so badly I threw it all away.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I left a pile of staves in my garage in summer for a week, ruined every one. Sure, I can pick through and find a few sections with no checks, but very few. It's junk. Anymore, I try to just get 3-6 at a pop and store them right.

[BowEd]

A lot of guys do store them outside.A friend of mine Grant gave me one that was 20 years old once with the bark on.Those wood wasp larva ate 10 to 12 rings into the heartwood.Cracks too.
I like to cut my osage in the fall after the first frost for sure.Even winter time.If I want to build up inventory.Debark them.Sapwood too.Shellac them back and ends.Let them dry slowly during that time of year.During cooler weather.Then by spring and summer when it gets hot they don't crack at all.Their already mostly dried.Prime ready to go staves come from that.

[Jim Davis]

Thanks everybody. I got flooded with staves (most barely usable, a few good) because I had to cut down several 10" trunks that were entangled with the canopy of the tree I really wanted. Of course, I couldn't let anything usable go to waste, so I have half a pickup load of new stuff. I'll work them down and paint them. Then tarp them outside--probably under my deck as Erik mentioned.

Jim

[Pat B]

Tarping might hold moisture under unless it is otherwise ventilated.

[Jim Davis]

Tarping might hold moisture under unless it is otherwise ventilated.

Yes, it will be off the ground and not seal in by a tarp, just keep the rain off.

[Eric Krewson]

If you have a deck you don't need a tarp.

I made a rack under my deck to hold staves, it was once full.

[Jim Davis]

Hey Erik, does it matter that the deck leaks? Or is the main thing to keep the sun off? It would be a great place to put these staves--lots of space going to waste there.

Jim

[Eric Krewson]

My deck is covered.

[bradsmith2010]

I think if you take off the bark and seal them,, they will be ok,,
I have had osage outside exposed to the elements for years,, and then make a bow,,
but it is like gold,, so if you can protect it a bit that is the best way to go
people find dead logs laying in the woods and get good wood from it,, fence post etc,,
and I don't think it would hurt to seal the whole thing,, or paint the whole stave,, to prevent checking,,

[Danzn Bar]

+1 Brad......but I've only have about 5 years experience with some stored outside and some inside.
DBar