Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Dakota Kid on July 08, 2015, 12:23:58 am
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I recently found a piece of 15 yr old standing dead wood while doing yard work at my folk's place. At first I thought it was attached and part of a crab apple tree as they looked to share a stump. When I pulled it, it split right down the middle revealing a golden yellow wood. The closest osage tree that I know of is ten miles away so I figure it was more likely black locust. If it is, it's the yellowest one I've ever seen.
The log had no bark left and hasn't sprouted a leaf since they moved in. It isn't a 100% when an ID is based on wood appearance alone, so I did a little research on the subject. It turns out both osage orange and black locust both glow green when exposed to UV light in the dark. The locust glows a much lighter green like lime, almost yellow. The osage on the other hand, is more of a mossy drab green. None of the other bow wood I have on hand showed any UV reaction.
I think planning on a night time glow shoot should commence immediately.
Pics on the way.
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Pic one normal light : half the log raw on the left followed by the other half roughed out and my daughter's osage bow I call sliver because it was a splinter in the scrap pile when I built mine.
Pic two and three are with the black light on.
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You can't really see the glow on the osage that well. It's almost non existent compared to locust.
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That's pretty funky 😆
Not that I think I would usually need UV to distinguish BL from other woods, but it might be very helpful to ID ancient bows in archeological research.
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That is too cool!!!!
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Osage seems just a little luminescent compared to a lot of woods but then locust is just like AYE BABYYY, LOOKA ME I'M GLOWY!
But like joachimM said, it's pretty easy to tell the two apart if they're freshly worked so I don't see myself relying on my UV light...
Still fun though ;D
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Pure heart glows orange.
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If you scraped the osage down to bright wood it might show under the UV light better. The natural UVs have already changed the color of the osage by darkening it.