how to choose an osage stave?

[islandwoodwerker]

I live in southern California. I checked the lumber yard out her (Frost Hardwood) they only carry Hickory as well as some exotic hardwoods. Is ther any other woods cable of becoming a bow? Or is there a place on-line that caters to bow making?

[JW_Halverson]

"Spilt staves automatically follow the longitudinal fibers"

I have a green ash tree (Fraxinus pennsylvanicus) that I cut and then split on the same day.  When I de-barked the staves a year later they all had horrible twist to the grain, even though they split straight as a laser.  One 8" wide stave has such bad grain run out on the sides that I can only draw about 40" of line on the stave before it runs out!  I have to bite the bullet and feed it to the fire, no bows in there for me! 

But that is ash, with Osage your mileage may vary.  If you have any concerns with a split stave following grain, you may want to pass on staves with the bark still on them and go with staves that have been taken to a single growth ring.

[mobow]

Good grief Mark,
How can you believe anything a person says if they drink Dr. Pepper.  lol.  keith

[George Tsoukalas]

JW, thanks for pointing that out. Point well taken. Even when stave is split it's a good idea to follow that long. grain when drawing your pencil line. Jawge

[yazoo]

ash does not have a very strong longututal grain . like cherry,, what I mean by that is that they will not follow the grain as osage, osage has a very strong grain and is very perdiciable, I have split many ash and cherry and sometimes cedar and they will split cross grain, I have seen this in some hickory before,but it is rare,,  that is why osage is my favorite wood to split,because it has a very strong grain..

[JW_Halverson]

How about comin over next weekend Yazoo...I got some elm I wanna split, could use your help       

[Sidewinder]

Mike,

I think you have a good point on early to late ratios. Too thick of early means the over all mass of the stave is occupied by less than dense wood. Having said that, poor osage is probabley as good or better than most woods that are out there. The right design considerations would be more critical than with regular osage. I am living proof that even with some design flaws you can still end up with a good shooter. I love the stuff myself. I too have been blessed to not have to deal much with bad osage. I still get excited when I cut one down and its got nice evenly spaced 3/16 rings and the early growth is barely a 32nd. It means I can be a little lazy with my ring chasin and still come out ok. Mostly what I try to cut though is whatever is straightest and let the rings fall where they may. So far I have not been dissapointed. Maybe Kansas just won't grow no weak osage, I don't know.  Danny