tennessee osage

[osagejack]

that is some nice looking second growth osage,,very dence ,,  seems like to far north the rings are thin to far south to thick,, seems tn is just right,,of course I might be predjuice,,,,that is some nice looking osage eric,,

[Bryce]

Good lookin sage!!!

Does everybody take that sapwood off?  I was taking sapwood off of some seasoned osage yesterday, and the stuff seems to have some great tension strength.  Why not leave it on?  Just because of the bugs and the checking?

I like osage sapwood as well. So many cool things you can do with it. Make it look like overlays and cool handle risers.
It does seem to check within minutes of removing bark (<--exaggeration of course).

[Hamish]

 Some nice osage there.

Osage sapwood is fine on a bow provided: the ring is good and thick: it was collected in the winter when the sap is down; bark is removed, and the back well sealed.
Sapwood seems more susceptible to developing rot, if harvested in summer, especially in high humidity, or rain, or is left outside before being processed.
I think the not using sapwood practice developed when guys just cut it, left the bark on to season. When you process wood like that bugs and or fungus usually gets in and makes the sapwood useless.

[Bryce]

That makes sense. Same reason to take the bark of juniper and such. Those darn insects

[Joec123able]

Some nice osage there.

Osage sapwood is fine on a bow provided: the ring is good and thick: it was collected in the winter when the sap is down; bark is removed, and the back well sealed.
Sapwood seems more susceptible to developing rot, if harvested in summer, especially in high humidity, or rain, or is left outside before being processed.
I think the not using sapwood practice developed when guys just cut it, left the bark on to season. When you process wood like that bugs and or fungus usually gets in and makes the sapwood useless.

I don't think the thickness of the growth ring means anything the Point of having the back to a single ring is to have a nice uniform surface where no splinters can lift the thickness of the ring shouldn't matter