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Primitive Skills / Re: stinky gelatin/hide glue
« Last post by WhistlingBadger on November 26, 2025, 12:32:34 am »Good to know, guys. Thanks.
Recent Posts
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Around the Campfire / Re: Annual Give Away Prize Pot
« Last post by WhistlingBadger on November 26, 2025, 12:04:05 am »Wow, this is quite a selection! Here's my humble offering: A set of pronghorn rawhide backing strips. Each is 2" x 38". Pronghorn hide is very thin and easy to work with, almost transparent when dry.
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Bows / Re: Fire Hardening
« Last post by willie on November 25, 2025, 09:34:00 pm »
My original curiosity was more about whether Osage benefitted from doing the same type of heat treating/fire hardening as is done with hickory - as an example. Sounds like it can - but needs to be done more carefully than other woods if I'm understanding correctly?
time and temperature in various proportions
nobody does it the same and each have their own expectations for success
there is some evidence that heat treated wood is resistant to moisture uptake, as it is used in some places to replace chemically treated wood to prevent rot (moisture is needed for rot)
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Bows / Re: Fire Hardening
« Last post by Burnsie on November 25, 2025, 07:11:56 pm »Not sure what you mean by "fire hardening". Heat-treating is essentially the fire hardening of wood. If not done properly though "heat-treating" can be nothing more than changing the surface wood's structure and that really does nothing for a bow. Proper heat-treating of a bow is a process that takes several hours to do. Osage and BL certainly benefit from heat-treating but they react a bit differently to heat and you have to keep a close watch on what's happening with the wood, I suspect it may have something to do with the oils in the wood"Fire Hardened"
Just using the terminology many have used online to describe the process of hanging a bow over a bed of coals and baking the belly of the bow (usually a white wood) pretty substantially. I guess it is just another form of heat treating? I will defer to you Marc, you have learned and tested more with heat treating than most everyone here combined.
My original curiosity was more about whether Osage benefitted from doing the same type of heat treating/fire hardening as is done with hickory - as an example. Sounds like it can - but needs to be done more carefully than other woods if I'm understanding correctly?
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Around the Campfire / Re: update pics of my head
« Last post by sleek on November 25, 2025, 06:25:31 pm »What are the exercises? My wife got a concussion years ago, She cant bend over to 90° without getting dizzy.
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Bows / Re: Tiller check
« Last post by Fox on November 25, 2025, 01:50:32 pm »Thanks y’all! Appreciate the help! I was getting in my head about whether I was close or not 
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Around the Campfire / Re: update pics of my head
« Last post by Pat B on November 25, 2025, 11:52:18 am »Thanks, Marc. I went to my Dr last week and he gave me some exercises for the dizziness. After 3 sessions of the exercises the dizziness disappeared. I'm on my 12th session now. I'll talk to my Dr today to let him know how well it worked.
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Bows / Re: Big Osage tree
« Last post by osage outlaw on November 25, 2025, 11:50:50 am »The sled
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Bows / Re: Big Osage tree
« Last post by osage outlaw on November 25, 2025, 11:45:34 am »I’m having trouble attaching pictures
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Bows / Re: Big Osage tree
« Last post by osage outlaw on November 25, 2025, 11:41:30 am »Here is a picture of my splitting stand. I didn’t like bending over all day working on them. I would split them into chunks small enough to handle right after cutting. I sealed the ends multiple times with glue or polyurethane. I would leave them stacked in my garage and split them down into staves when I had time. I would recommend removing the bark and sapwood while it’s fresh. It gets much tougher once it dries. Seal the backs a couple times as well. If you leave the bark on you risk borer damage. I made a log sled to pull behind my UTV. It made them slide over the ground much easier.