Sold on 'sage

[Kegan]

When I first built "Firestick", my Osage ELB from an excellent stave I got from Pat B, it seemed that it was jsut a bit easier to get it over built, and had a few other benefiets at the time. A good wood, but I didn't see any reason to claim it as the king as I had seen elsewhere.

Until a couple days ago.

I was shooting and came in to unstring the bow. My hand slid down and I felt a low spot in the taper. I immediately began to panic and looked for frets or chrysals, as I would expect from the white wood bows I use, and that would come up at such low spots.

Nothing.

The bow has been holding 76# at 27", shooting every day about 60-150 arrows for about four months and only has about 2" of string follow.

It shoots hard and fast, despite all the abuse and mistakes I've made. I'm sold. Osage is definately tops as far as bow woods go !

[Pat B]

    That's why I like it so much. The way I tiller I need all the help I can get!

[Kegan]

I think that makes it 'king' enough for most of us !

And I haven't forgotten about you Pat, I'm jsut gathering up the last little bit !

[Pat B]

I ain't worrying about it Kegan. I know where to find you!!!      Pat

[brownhillboy]

I just got my hands on my 1st stave of osage and I hope it will be forgiving to me.  It was too expensive to mess up!  It's not so bad when you break something you didn't have to pay for(except for all of the time invested).

[Ryano]

Read my signature.   

[Jbell]

The stuff is unbelievable, it will take alot of crap. My first selfbow was made from an osage stave that I decrowned, cut through 3 rings. Oh and it was only 52" long. I took that thing back to full draw 100's of times now my son shoots it 7 years later. Osage is king!

[Ryano]

Oh boy, where's all the white wood guys?    lol..... Seen this all before. 

[Badger]

     Pretty hard to keep from putting osage on the top of the list. I try like hell but keep going back to osage. Steve

[YewArcher]

I like Osage 

I have made it do crazy stuff. I have maxed it out and it still does not come close to breaking.

Steve

[DanaM]

Yup osage is good stuff but like any wood it can break and can be finicky in its own right.
Would use it more but seeing as it don't grow up here it makes it tough, and buying staves just ain't an option.

[Justin Snyder]

Would use it more but seeing as it don't grow up here it makes it tough, and buying staves just ain't an option.

Yep, just because it is yellow doesn't mean it is worth its weight in gold.  Too pricey to buy for sure, especially since you see so much trash wood when you buy. Justin

[Ryano]

Yup osage is good stuff but like any wood it can break and can be finicky in its own right.
Would use it more but seeing as it don't grow up here it makes it tough, and buying staves just ain't an option.

Thats why I cut my own. Its worth a days drive and another days work to cut and split a truck load every couple years. Trust me if it weren't "all that" I wouldn't go threw the trouble. I've got pretty much any other kind of white wood for making bows growing in my back yard. I'd love to say that one of them was as good as or even close to as good as osage, but I just keep comming back to osage like Steve said. You just can't do with other woods what you can do with osage. If you want it bad enough you'll find it one way or another.

[DCM]

I personally would not pay hard cash for osage, but luckily if you live in areas where it doesn't grow more than likely the climate is well suited to other choices.  The one trouble with good osage is it's easy to overbuild a bow.  And for light draw weight bows it's tricky to get the outer limb small enough and still be practical.  In fact most bowyers don't really use osage to it's true potential.  When you get into really short, heavy draw weight bows is where it shines.  Also obviously in higher humidity environments.  Not suggesting other species can't be used, shouldn't be used or are even better for particular applications but for the majority of bowyers and shooters, osage simply has working properties better suited to this task than most other species.

[Postman]

I just got my hands on my 1st stave of osage and I hope it will be forgiving to me.  It was too expensive to mess up!  It's not so bad when you break something you didn't have to pay for(except for all of the time invested).

BrownhillBoy - you should have some old osage fencerows down there in Ferrum - bug some landowners or check alongside rt . 81 and 11. lots there too, i would guess.