the biggest thing I am looking for is quality of the wood,by this I am looking at earlywood late wood ratio I don't care is the wood is crooked or twisted,,snakey,, the only thing that matters is early wood latewood ratio,,every thing else can be fixed,,but if u start with bad wood there is not much room for improvement,, the best way I tell before cutting is the bark,, good wood has healthy bark,,once you see in you will recognize it,, another way is to cut a small wedge near the ground it wont kill the tree,,and you can see the grain,,i am headed to cut some osage now I will post u a pic of healthy osage tree and a photo of the rings,,will b later tonite b4 I post pic,,,hope this help
