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« Last post by Eric Krewson on February 21, 2026, 09:59:23 am »
For me it has always been wood density what determines how a bow performs and osage density varies a lot. We all have had that one tree that made bows that were head and shoulder above any other wood we have used.
This is a billet bow was was made from very twisted but hard as rock osage with tiny early wood rings. It took at least a dozen heat correction sessions to tame it but it was a super performer as bow. I put two billets of this wood back for to make my personal bow out of but old age got the best of me and my bow making journey fell by the wayside.
The bow was just getting it's skins in the picture. Another strange thing about this bow, I made it as a 65# bow for the buyer, the billets had been in my shop for years, I have a pinless moisture meter that is spot on all the time, the wood was bone dry.
The owner called me about 6 months after he got the bow and said the bow felt more like 70# than 65#, I checked it and he was right, I dropped the poundage to 62# for him. The owner stopped at a public archery range on his way home from work, and put 100 arrows 4 or 5 times a week through the bow so it was well broken in.
Through the years the owners health declined and he had me drop the poundage several times, first to 57# then to 52# and finally to 47#. The bow never developed ANY string follow and continued to be a performer. I am still scratching my head about this spectacular wood. In 26 years of bow making I had one other bow gain poundage after it was finished and shot in, I suspect it is from relieving stress from the wood with a heat gun and having the stress come on its own later.
I have straightened the heck out of some hickory staves with heat only to come back to them later and find that they went back to their pre straightened crooked condition several days later. I have one hickory stave that I have straightened at least 6 times and it always goes back.
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