osage ring thickness

[yazoo]

hey okie 1 I will post a photo of a one ring bow very soon, I will try to bring one to the tennessee classic ,

[Dean Marlow]

I have cut quite a bit  of Osage myself the last few years. The problem with cutting good Osage is you don't know how it is going to be until after it is down. So we get what we cut. You guys out  there who have made a-lot of Osage bows it would be nice if you could  show a pic of a cross section of an Osage staves growth rings that you consider top Osage wood. I personally have talked and shown several top Bowyers Osage and I must admit everybody has a different liking when it comes to Osage ring structure. It would help a-lot of the young bowyers who are wanting  to tackle a Osage bow.  I have several cross sections of Osage I will try and put on here and we can have a discussion on what we should be looking for  in a good Osage stave. Dean

[yazoo]

I talk about the thick ringed osage a lot , but I have staves from half inch rings to 1 mm thick, In my line of work it pays to have every kind,I have been selling staves since 87 It always amazes me to watch people pick through my staves,what one person tosses aside the next guy along will grab first, one guys trash is a nothers treasure, I study the bark before I cut a osage, with enough practice you can tell a lot by the bark, you want a real healthy looking bark, the bark that tends to be rusty in color and you can rub from the tree with your hand usually no good,   when in doubt cut a small notch from a corner of the tree and look at the rings before you cut the tree down,

[Mechslasher]

it's like what's better, ford or chevy?  each to his own.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

it's like what's better, ford or chevy?  each to his own.
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Amen ta that !........bob

[Okie]

I've been studying the bark on my Osage patch also and just when I thought I had it figured out ... Bam, I was wrong again. The staves that I have seasoned, some of them have a coarser bark than others and the coarser ones have wider rings. So I go out a couple of weeks ago and find a coarse barked Osage and cut it down and it has thinner rings, about 20 per inch. The ones I have cured are about 10 per inch. The smoother barked ones are about 30 per inch. So I guess that throws that theory out.

[Marvin Campbell]

Hey Yazoo,

Did you have a booth at the Kentucky Klassic?  If that was your booth there you really had some good looking staves, bow blanks and hickory back bow kits.  Are you going to be set up at the Tennessee Klassic?

[yazoo]

yes that was my booth, I will be at tn classic

[George Tsoukalas]

What an interesting thought! I really don't have the luxury of a choice though. LOL. Jawge

[Ryano]

Its all good. I like thick and thin ringed wood but some of the most dense osage I've ever seen was very thin ringed and had the red streaks you speak of.....it seemed to be very waxy/oily, heavy, dense, wood and heat bent and held reflex like a champ.

[DCM]

One thing about osage is a pronounced tension side is typical.  Very rarely is the tension wood even the same thickness as the compression wood (the opposite side), and is frequently 1/2 the thickness.  Now this wood was all laid down at the same time, in the same conditions.  Just seem logical that he tension side, being thinner but having the same amount of "wood" in it must be more dense.  In this case the tension side is just about where that saw cut runs out, 10 o'clock.  Seems darker perhaps, too.  Notice the end check that runs perty much perpendicular to the saw cut.  Bust that muther right there, liberate the middle third of that 1/2, you go reflex like a big dog.  And for a lot of people that's the only stave, in this case it's nice and flat and could well yield 2 or 3, on the tree worth foolin' with.  Myself, I use it all.  The other 2 sides will have dogleg.  Mike etal. I'm sure will set me straight, but that's been my experience.

[cracker]

Where I come from any osage is good osage. Cause we aint got us no osage at all.Ron

[islandpiper]

The micro-ringed stave i got from Phil has a true FORTY RINGS PER INCH over most of the length, dropping to THIRTY FIVE PER INCH in the other parts.   Dang......i've about decided not to get the microscope out to chase any one ring, but just try to minimize the number of violations and the rawhide the back.  I'd like to try a 1/4 thick ring structure sometime. 

piper

[JackCrafty]

From an engineering perspective, a one-ring bow should handle bending stresses in a more predictable manner.  Therefore, it should be a better bow all around.  When you have weak areas in a material (like growth rings) the material is unpredictable under stress.

I've had mixed results with osage.  You really don't know what you've got until you start working with it, as some have already mentioned.

 

[Sidewinder]

I just like osage period. Thick ringed means you don't have to pay as much attention when chasing but thin rings are ok too. The thing I noticed with one I have that has 1/16-1/8 rings is the tips sure look cool from the side because of all the rings. I personally love it when I cut and the rings are in the 1/8-2/8 size and evenly spaced. Just makes for a nice symetry in the way it looks finished. I am still a very novice bowyer. As far as performance goes I just want it to be smooth, balanced,durable and fast enough, ya know, not sluggish. As long as it is zippy and smooth I'm a happy camper. If I was going to use my deductive reasoning I would figure that a strong late growth and thin early growth would make for good density. I would think that if there is more early growth, thats the punky stuff and would make for less density.  These are all just semi educated guesses of course. What do you guys think?   Danny