If that is the wood I sent you it wasn't standing dead for sure. I have had only one osage bow break and it was my son in-laws bow that he stored in his new house with a fancy heating and cooling system that results in very low humidity levels. I'm betting that is the problem. I couldn't imagine single digit levels. I wish I had some advice on what to do differently, but I hope you figure something out
Yeah, it was one of those staves. By all appearances it was healthy snd happy till the end.
I'll get something figured out. I've got a sinew backed osage that I made in Ohio a number of years ago, and it gained over 10 pounds moving here but still going strong through our elevation and humidity swings. It has birch bark over the sinew and several coats of Massey finish. So this might be a recipe I need to stick with.
This mositure issue also makes natural shafting brittle. I'm trying to stay true but may switch to carbon in the future.