Slow grow narrow ring osage staves

[richpierce]

One of the logs we recently split into staves has growth rings so narrow they must be over 25 to the inch.  So the early wood to lae wood ratio is not favorable.  Chasing a ring would be super tedious and I don't know if it would help.

Question:  is this bow wood if backed?  Or is it not as good as a nice piece of oak board, etc.  I assume it must be backed.  If you used these staves (I have 4; they are 8' long and straight) would you make the bows wider?

[Pappy]

I don't do backed bow but I would say if you backed it it should be fine.I like close rings but not that close.I have cut some like that and usuall give it to someone that wants to make a Boo or
Hickory backed bow.I don't know about the wider but my guess would be no if you plan on backing it. Not much help  Some one will check in that knows I guarantee.
   Pappy

[tom sawyer]

I think even osage with rings like that, is probably more dense than oak.  So I would say that it would make decent belly slats for a backed bow.  I've used some less than great stuff for backed bows and they've turned out well enough.  I don't think I'd widen things much, I personally think the recommended 1.25" width has some built-in safety so you can use a range of wood quality and get what you want.  I generally go a couple inches longer if I want a better safety factor, rather than wider.  With a wide backed bow you run into the problem of a very thin limb, which brings with it a very small thickness taper that is really touchy when it comes to getting it to bend evenly.

[Pat B]

I have built bows with thin ringed osage from 49" to 70" and from flat bows to ELB style to shorty, bendy handle bows. They seem to take a bit more set but shoot fine. I usually back these bows with rawhide(or wood backings) but brown paper, silk, linen or other such backing materials will work well. There is no such thing as osage that won't make a bow!

[Adam Keiper]

If you have at least 1/32" of latewood and the ratio or early wood to late wood isn't too bad, you can make an unbacked bow from it.  If it's a little worse, you can rawhide back it.  If it's much worse, you can possibly hickory back it and keep the design conservative.  If the edges look more white than yellow with all the early wood, you'll do best to warm your feet by the fire with it.

[330bull]

Back it with some Cherry Bark and that will really make it pop!

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[TRACY]

I have some staves like this right now. I enjoy using sinew to back staves like this, but I would definitely back it unless you're just experimenting and testing limits. Give it a try

[mullet]

  I've backed staves like that with sinew also.As hard as Osage is to come by here I couldn't imagine using it for firewood.

[Glenn R.]

Man thats a beautiful bow above with the cherry bark backing.

[Hillbilly]

Are the rings that thin all the way to the center of the tree? I cut an old osage tree once that had crappy thin mostly early-growth rings in the outer few inches, but down toward the center the rings were better.