Trash or Treasure? (Pile of osage gold)

[Matt Heppe]

A buddy of mine owns a landscaping company. I put him on the lookout for good bow wood - especially osage. In Eastern PA we don't have a lot of osage. What we have was planted by farmers 150 years or more ago. Well... he showed up today with....



12" diameter, straight as an arrow, 7 1/2 feet long.

The downside is that the wood is somewhat damaged. The bark around 90% of the trunk was rotten and easily pulled away. There was a lot of bug larvae underneath.



On the bright side the damage appears to be very shallow.



So do I have trash or treasure? How do I best preserve this log? I was going to take off the soft wood, split it in quarters, shellac it, and put it in my shed. Good? Bad?

Thanks for your help!

[Gus]

Treasure!
No Doubt...

It won't be perfect obviously, but it will be worth your while to skin the staves down to good rings and make Bows outa them.

The Wood Bugs here in Houston have about twice the warm weather in which to work their Nastiness.
Yet if that log were laying on my driveway I'd get after it with Wedge, Sledge and Draw Knife.

I would still seal the ends and Backs of the staves once you get them cleaned up as if it were still green, as it will still need to season a bit...

Regards,

-gus

[Joec123able]

Treasure

[Poggins]

There are some bows there , they may be snaky and have knots in them.
Look at your knots and if there is a side that you can get one or two clean staves out split them out first , you can strip the bark and early wood off after you split it , seal the ends now .
How long is it?
You can split though the big knots and leave the smaller ones in the staves .

[Matt Heppe]

How much time to I have? The tree was 2/3 down by wind for a year, but still mostly alive. It was cut today. Do I need to split and seal it tonight? Or will a day or two not do it any harm?

[osage outlaw]

Seal the ends with several coats of poly, shellac, or something similar.  I would split it in half or quarters and then on down into staves when you have the time.  If there are bugs in it you might want to drawknife if down until you remove the damage.  You could also spray the log down good with some insect killer.  How hot does your shed get?  If it gets pretty hot in there it might make it check worse. 

You don't have to rush to split it.  I've harvested staves from trees that were cut and laying in a creek bed for over 5 years.  The wood below the bug damage was good to go.

[Gus]

Seal the Ends and any Green living sapwood that is exposed Now.

Then Split, Skin, Peal and seal it as time allows.

The sooner you get it split, the faster it will dry.
But you have plenty of time on the splitting.
But the Bugs will work on it as long as the Bark is intact, or there are live larvae in the wood...

Best to get the Bark, sapwood and bug damage off as soon as time allows
where the bugs are concerned.
And seal the Backs of each stave as you finish getting down to good healthy Yella Wood.
Wouldn't hurt to put another coat of glue or paint on the ends when you seal the backs...

-gus

[warpath]

That's definitely trash!!! Send it to me and I'll dispose of it properly for you. 

  G

[TEE TAW]

better seal it asap

[Hillbilly]

I wouldn't toss any osage unless it's really nasty. Your log, IMO, is a bunch of mediocre wood with maybe some really good staves in the middle. To me, it looks like the best part is definitelyin the very center of it. On the outer parts, the earlywood/latewood ratio is pretty even, but it's a lot denser down in the middle of the log. I think your "piggyback" staves will be the best ones.

[Danzn Bar]

Might be a few belly split staves in that log.  Blackhawk would pitch it in the camp fire. 

[Postman]

Congrats on getting that log, looks like you have a lot of sealing to do. You can mix shellac 50-50 with denatured alcohol to stretch it, and it goes on easier IMHO.

[Matt Heppe]

Thanks for all the help. I pulled off the bark and sealed the ends and the green exposed wood. My shed is in the shade and doesn't get too hot. although air circulation isn't great. I'll have to wait a week or so for the splitting and complete removal of the dead wood.

[rps3]

If I have osage where the bark is off, I also remove the sapwood. Word is it checks very easy, and I dont take the chance.

[Badly Bent]

Send me a belly split stave Matt and I'll get back to ya with a opinion of the quality.