Sometimes

[barebo]

Badger beat me to it - the wood poor would be bowyers would love to have a log like that!

If you don't have a timber lot, buying quality staves can get pricey. Board bows can be an alternative, and darned good bows come from boards, but there is something almost sterile comparing a board to a bark covered split from a log. I've been fortunate to have a few friends with acreage that took bows in trade for trees.
Another lucky day was when the power company was clearing high tension access and let me grab some decent stock.

It's plenty cold here in central NY state and up in your neck of the country I'm sure it colder. You can't beat wood heat to warm your bones, so you gotta keep your chains sharp.

[jeffp51]

I find that the exercise I get with my draw knife keeps me as warm as a fire would.  just sayin. . . .

I'll try and run that one by my wife and say it was your idea 

Well I suppose you can try and tell her if she is cold, she should just work harder. but even if you say it was someone else's idea, I bet it doesn't turn out well for you.  Let me know how that doghouse feels.

[upstatenybowyer]

I'm sitting on a sugarbush myself and often find myself in the same dilemma. When it comes to sugar maples I go by the following order of importance...

1) heat 
2) syrup 
3) bows 

[BowEd]

I have the same dillema with hickory here.I'm in the Pat M outlook on an issue as this.I try to burn mostly dead standing snags or storm broken trees.A short section of 6' would'nt heat you very long but a bow would last longer.Especially if plenty more wood was there available for firewood.

[DuBois]

since starting bow making I have gotten a lot of firewood from grabbing "bow wood" when I could and then on second inspection, it was not really that good so it went in the cut pile. (Did help to justify all my excursions to the wife)
"Look at all the firewood I collected honey."

[Marc St Louis]

I've burnt a few staves myself that weren't up to par.

I cut a Maple a few years ago specifically for bows, sadly it wasn't quite as nice as this tree.

It's not worth my while, with the amount of work involved in getting a log out of the bush and then splitting it, to sell wood.  A log of Maple that size weighs several hundred pounds which I would have to manhandle by hand to get it out and it was some 30' from my trail.  If I could get to my wood lot in the Summer time it wouldn't be so bad but I'm surrounded by a swamp and the only time I can get back there to get firewood is in the Winter.

[bodark]

Thank goodness most Okies don't burn Osage.

[bradsmith2010]

just do what you need to do,, I am sure you gonna make plenty of bow, need to stay warm to make it too summer,,

[Hawkdancer]

Sometimes, life gets in the way!  It would be a tough decision, either way, but as you said, Marc, getting the log out would be a lot of work, even with pulleys and a "come along"!
Hawkdancer

[Springbuck]

I have second thoughts about cutting up a tree for firewood.  I took down a 12" Sugar Maple this morning and started cutting it up into stove lengths.  As I was looking at it I had second thoughts.  The first 6' was pipe straight with no branches.  It was a tough decision but I need firewood more than I need staves right now

But what about the rest of us, Marc?  Thinking only of yourself?      I mean I live in Utah and wrestle bows out of scrubby, lumpy elm saplings stolen from vacant lots, spliced at the handle with scotch tape.  A straight 6' trunk of hard maple would make me cry for joy.

[willie]

I agree Springbuck, there looked like some deadstanding firewood possibilities in that peek a boo pic. I think he is trolling us.

[mullet]

I’m the same way when it comes to burning or throwing out Osage. I don’t need to burn it to heat the house but I hate to waste any of it. I save the smallest pieces knowing I can make something with it

[Marc St Louis]

I have second thoughts about cutting up a tree for firewood.  I took down a 12" Sugar Maple this morning and started cutting it up into stove lengths.  As I was looking at it I had second thoughts.  The first 6' was pipe straight with no branches.  It was a tough decision but I need firewood more than I need staves right now

But what about the rest of us, Marc?  Thinking only of yourself?      I mean I live in Utah and wrestle bows out of scrubby, lumpy elm saplings stolen from vacant lots, spliced at the handle with scotch tape.  A straight 6' trunk of hard maple would make me cry for joy.

OK but then your not here to help me take it out of the bush 

I agree Springbuck, there looked like some deadstanding firewood possibilities in that peek a boo pic. I think he is trolling us.

I think there is a standing dead Balsam Fir in that pic.  If I had to start burning Balsam on a cold day I would have to sit in front of the wood-stove and feed it all day long 

[BowEd]

The hardness is an aspect I forgot to consider as to what type of wood is best for firewood in your area.Trouble is most times the more dense the better the bow wood too.Getting firewood here is just a part of life and helps keep a person in shape yet.Seems if there is a will there is a way.
I think I've only been caught once in 38 years with not enough firewood cut and split but still managed.This year I'm helping a young couple with 2 children who moved here who own a resteraunt business in that dilema for their house.Not enough firewood.They bought an old Amish built house in the country.I found large dead oak and maple limbs laying on the ground not that long in a pasture to get them by this year.They are from a warmer climate[California] and really did'nt know exactly how to run their own wood stove too which wasted a lot of wood.

[gfugal]

Why not just burn poor bow wood such as pine, most other evergreens, aspen, poppler, and willow? I guess it depends on where you live, so maybe you don't have those trees to burn. In which case I say you are lucky. I'm with springbuck here in Utah. Most the trees we're surrounded with are either unavailable or crap trees.