Sold on 'sage

[Papa Matt]

RyanO~

Just curious, if osage is the best, what's #2 in your opinion? (I.E. some exotic bug invaded next week and all Osage trees died out.)
 
~~Papa Matt

[OldBow]

   That's why I like it so much. The way I tiller I need all the help I can get!

At my age, I need all the tiller I can get - OldBow

[YewArcher]

 :Dlol.....if all the osage trees dies out Ryano would retire.

Plant some seeds in your back yard Ryan!

Steve

[JackCrafty]

I really like osage too....but here in the dry country, hickory is looking better and better.  Still, you can't beat the natural color (and beauty) of osage.  Jury is out on this one....

[sailordad]

i am curently working on my second piece of osage, and gotta say as personal preference,i like this much more than other woods.
doesnt grow anywhere near me so when i get a piece i cherish it and try to get as many bows as possible from a stave,even if this means settling for 2 kids bows versus one adult/hunting weight bow.just love the things you can to do/with this wood.

i think ipe is also just as good,but i prefer to work osage. much less allergic and easier on tools.hickory i find difficult to work with,harder to tiller ect.
but like said buying a stave gets spendy,hard to trade for real good stave too.especially when you dont have access to woods to cut trees to get other woods that people would be interested in trading for.
yup next year i start sucking up to the local tree trimmers

oh yeah soon i will be getting some black walnut

                                                                                     tim

[Ryano]

Papa, not really sure. All the other woods I've worked with have there high points and low points, so to speak.  All the white woods have a way of sucking up moisture like a sponge, which I don't like. Black locust is moisture resistant but is a little bit more fragile than some other woods and tends to very quite a bit between specimens. I've only made one bow out of mulberry and it exploded. I really don't have any experience with any tropical hard woods, I'm sure there are some good ones out there but they are hard to get in stave form so a selfbow made of tropical wood is unpractical to say the least. There really isn't anything out there that compares as far as I'm concerned.

As far as white hardwoods go I like Hop hornbeam, Elm, Hawthorne, Hard maple, and Wild apple. Not necessarily in that order but those would be my current favorites.
(notice I didn't mention hickory I have no idea how it got such a good reputation for bow wood I hate it. It does make good smoked chicken and backing strips though)

Soft woods, I've made bows of Yew and Erc.  Of those two I like yew better. They are both pretty moisture and rot resisant which is a plus. Cedar is pretty unpredictable. It almost has to be backed with raw hide or sinew or it can blow into a million pieces at any given moment with out warning for aparently no reason. Yew is good bow wood but it doesnt like to be heat corected and it is still a soft wood which in my opinion makes not as durable. It dents very easily, and its pretty hard to get unless you live in the north west.

Steve, I got a osage orange sitting on my bar drying up right now. I'm planning on trying to plant some again. I tried it before and they all died. I'm not much of a green thumb. Don't worry I wouldn't retire. I 'd just be very upset.    When was the last time I even posted a osage bow? Dang, I don't think I've even worked on one for almost a year.    I need to get some yellow wood shavings a flying! I'm just putting the finishing touches on a HHB short bow right now. I'll be posting some pictures of that pretty soon.

[Papa Matt]

Ryan

I basically agree. I should say, the two most accurate, and fast shooting bows I've ever had were Osage and Hickory. And since Hickory loves to suck water, that only leaves one.

On a side note, in my experiences I have noticed a white wood that doesn't seem to suck much water- White Ash. However, I've not seen it shoot even as fast as a Hickory that did. Have you messed much with WA?

[robbsbass]

What about black locust, I'm asking, from what I've read it's next to osage for durability, but is a pain to tiller as I have found.

[DCM]

Ryan,

It's the hickory you have.  The Southern stuff, while it still sucks moisture, has a lot more "wood" in it.  From the one stave I got from you, I'd rate that hickory closer to Ash than some of the higher sg stuff we have around here.

[Papa Matt]

Black Locust is the East Coast Osage from what I've seen. It doesn't take moisture and is very similar to Osage. The problem with BL is exactly what you said, it is a pain to tiller and in my experiences with it, is a pain period, which is where osage gets the advantage over it. I'm done making BL bows from staves split out of logs, from now on if I make a BL bow, it will be from a sappling. All the BL bows I've made so far have twisted on me after drying the staves for 8 months. And the log was straight when it was a tree to begin with.

As far as actual performance I'm not really sure if a well made BL bow can be as fast as a well made Osage bow or not. I would think so but I've not had enough experience to say. I've just now figured out (through trial and error) what the optimal shape and tiller is for a fast BL bow and have yet to put it into practice.

~~Papa Matt

[Ryano]

Papa, I haven't worked with white ash since I first started making bows years ago. My first impressions of it were not good but I really didn't know what I was doing back then. I always just assumed it was just about like hickory which I don't like.

Yes, Black locust is up near the top of my list for available locally bow woods. Its no harder to tiller really, it just won't handle any mistakes (hinges) or overly stressed designs. (short narrow bows) and it seems to very a lot from tree to tree.

That could be David, but I've used stuff from other area's in Pennsylvania and I still wasn't impressed. You just can't make the kind of bows I like to make from hickory.

[david w.]

all of you osage lover s need to come by me.  There is TONS of it

[Kegan]

all of you osage lover s need to come by me.  There is TONS of it

I smell a summer road trip !

[Ryano]

Yes, is that a official invite?