Will this osage orange be any good?

[Greatgoogamooga]

I got a call from a friend of mine with the deal of the century.,...or maybe not.  His brother in law needs help clearing out the back 40 and there is a fair bot of osage Orange growing back there, in the 8" diameter range.  The property is in Quantico Va., just south of Washington DC.  My take on it is, this may not be the deal he thinks it is.  Isn't OO best when it's high altitude, slow growth?

TIA

Goog

[mullet]

To me, it's all good.

[sweeney3]

Depends.  Cut some cross sections and check ring width and early/late wood.  More dark colored late wood is better.  That said, it makes fine firewood even if you can't make a bow of it.  Rough on a chainsaw though.  Tough stuff!

[bowmo]

I live in IL. I've never cut a piece I couldnt make a bow from. Some is certainly better than others, and where I cut it it can vary greatly even in the same small area, but I'm with mullet it's all good.

[osage outlaw]

I believe you are talking about Yew being best at high altitude with slow growth.  I have found better osage near water or as second growth from a stump.

[Eric Krewson]

I have seen slow growth osage that have rings so tight that they are just an indistinguishable blur. This type of osage makes an OK bamboo backed bow but I wouldn't choose it for a selfbow.

Here is a picture of some good osage. The piece in the middle was growing great then went through some really bad times the last 10-15 years as indicated by the blur of rings I mentioned. Remove the extra tight rings and you have a really great stave.

[Stingray45]

Hey Great,

I'm about 20 miles Northwest of D.C. in Reston. Feel free to drop off any Osage you feel isnt worthy ;-) haha.

[Greatgoogamooga]

Hey Great,

I'm about 20 miles Northwest of D.C. in Reston. Feel free to drop off any Osage you feel isnt worthy ;-) haha.

I'm sure he would LOVE to have more help harvesting the Osage...and any other brambles that happen to be in the way.

Thanks for the help everyone.  I'm much more encouraged about this wood now.  Sounds like It will be worth the labor involved.

Goog

[gstoneberg]

Wow Eric, those are the fattest osage rings I've ever seen.  They're almost like mulberry rings!  Most of our Texas osage is pretty fine ring'd, at least for the last few years.  However, even in a good year I've not seen a ring over an eighth inch in thickness.  Must be wetter your way.  I agree though, there's never been osage I didn't think could make a bow unless it was too crooked, checked too badly or had too many borers.  Osage is always good.

George

[sulphur]

i have always found that young osage trees have the fattest rings.  the bigger the circumference of the tree the narrower the rings will be.   Not too much, but noticeably smaller.  I have taken several trees in east texas with 1/4" rings.  ANY osage is good osage.   lots and lots of uses.  I even saw  guy carve a soup ladel out of it.

[gstoneberg]

I went back and took a look at the last osage I photographed and this surely supports your conclusion that young osage has thicker rings.



This was a small stave, so the largest ring on there's just over an eighth inch.  The other thing about the Texas wood I've cut is the incredibly thin sapwood.  Up north it was many rings, this particular tree had just a few and they're mighty thin.  Interestingly, different parts of the same tree had differing thicknesses of sapwood.  Anyway, it is great wood.  I had a guy who made duck calls take my scraps off the ends of too long staves.  I'm sure they made good calls, but he never showed me one.

George

[II BYRDS]

i have read lots about growth rings and dont know if it is true. so maybe someone here can tell us for sure. growth rings will be wider and or smallier from weather side from none weathered side. is this true ??  some of the growth rings in these pics look large.