Osage trees

[Muskyman]

Superdav95, tried to send you a message but it said that your inbox is full.

[superdav95]

Huh that’s weird.  I’ll have a look.  Try my email. superdav95@gmail.com. 

As for the staves if you haven’t got the bark off yet you’ll be ok with just sealing up the ends for a little bit like a week or so till you can go further I would say. When your arm feels better get back at it.  Sooner the better.  You’ll have an idea what your dealing with and what you got with the bark off and sealed up.  Best of luck and hope your arm gets better.   

[Eric Krewson]

I would soak the bark on staves I couldn't get to right away with diazinon, this would give me 6 months of bug free staves, after 6 months the protection would gradually wear off.

I learned the hard way not to cut more osage than you can handle in a week or two. I filled the back yard one time, debarking and removing the sapwood which had my hands swollen like sausages after a month's worth of working at it in all my spare time. I burned out and didn't care if the remaining staves ruined from neglect and they did.

This is a gag picture; I am pretending to be passed out from exhaustion from splitting osage for a month. The trunks in the picture are just part of what I cut that I ended up walking away from when I couldn't go on.

[superdav95]

Lol. So true. Getting old sucks. Especially if your brain hasn’t caught up

[Muskyman]

That’s funny Eric but not far from the truth.  Now that log by your left arm is about the size of the one that I cut and I couldn’t hardly move it.. did you have help getting that or maybe a piece of equipment or are you just a stud.
Picture of the two I have done

[Muskyman]

Also got some more done today, arm wasn’t to bad.. split one of my logs and turned it into two staves..
I took my circular saw and scored it before I tried to split it..
Also tried a idea I had and some of you might laugh at this but it worked out pretty good.
I took a small chipping hammer and sharpened up a 1 inch bit I have for it and it peeled the bark and a lot of the sap wood of pretty easy.. saved me a lot of work with my draw knife and didn’t do any damage to the stave.

[Eric Krewson]

You are OK scoring the log with a saw to split unless it has snaky grain, if you score a snaky grain log you may cause grain runout that will ruin a stave. I halved the bigger logs with a chainsaw so I could handle them, then split everything from there with wedges to make sure I followed the grain.

I am pretty sure I end over ended the larger log in the picture from a hedgerow across a field I couldn't drive to in my truck. Once I got it leaning against my tailgate, I could slide it in the truck. I had a Ranger pick-up at the time that was lower to the ground.

[Muskyman]

That’s impressive Eric, I’m might have been able to do something like that years ago but not now I don’t think. I was able to get a few more of these things cleaned up today and might be going to get a few more logs Saturday..

[Eric Krewson]

My laying by the log picture is over 25 years old, I could do a lot more at 50 than I can now at 75.

[Muskyman]

Hear what your saying Eric. I’m almost 67 and nothing is easy like it used to be. I thought I replied earlier today but don’t see it on here.. I looked for diazinon on line and it appears to be banned in the States. Any other suggestions for insecticide to keep them off my Osage if I don’t get the bark off..

[Eric Krewson]

Anything will do, I would buy some premixed stuff for home bug protection and treatment like you will find at Lowe's.

Something like this;

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Spectracide-Bug-Stop-Home-Barrier-1-Gallon-Home-Pest-Control/50040952

[Muskyman]

Thanks Eric. I was looking at that yesterday and wondering about it.. I also remember seeing something where a guy put some kind of a fuel oil mixture on them. I’m not going to do that for sure..
I’m hoping I can worry my way through what I get and tuck them away to be reborn in a year or so..
Thanks for all your help

Mike

[bradsmith2010]

looks like lots of bows,, congrats

[M2A]

Almost positive the EPA made diazinon a restricted use product, so can't purchase without a license now.

When I get in over my head with too much to do and not enough time or just plane tuckered out I'll settle to debark 1 stave a day or every other day, so long as I keep at it even at a slow pace. Provided the ends are sealed and I can get them out of the weather till they get done. Like Superdave said, get the ends sealed and you should be good.

I do think removing the bark and sapwood is best. 1 time I had a load of hickory come in show up at the firewood processor that was cut that day. Spent days splitting and with the growing season just about to start knew I would not have time/energy to spend removing the bark. I researched boron products(like you stated above). Timbor and Boracare are made for wood boring pests. Forrestry forms have a some good information about those products, just google to find. On a side note Timbor seems to be the same active ingredent as borax and solubor(an agricultural micronutrient). Coverage is key, just like a diazinon. You can find the SDS info online but the boron products are as safe as anything and provided the staves stay dry it will remain active. Worked very well for me. Of course you always want to follow the label 

Good luck with the rest of your project, looks like some killer staves.
Mike                     

[Muskyman]

Thanks Mike, I got all of them done and I sealed them with marine varnish 2-3 coats and tucked them away in my shed up in the rafters. I might try to get another log before it gets to cold and have one more go at it before I retire from Osage harvesting. Might get a hickory tree next year when it gets where you can peel them so I can keep the backs nice and clean. Found a tree out back that looks like a winner with 4-5 nice straight sections.. we’ll see
Thanks to everyone,
Mike