Well, we are kinda between jobs at work right now so my boss had a few of us out cutting some firewood for him A couple days ago. I made sure I was one of the guys with a chainsaw, so I could put aside anything that caught my eye before it got chunked up. Most of the stuff he had marked to cut down was standing dead wood, but there were a few living trees with a bunch of broken limbs that he wanted taken out. I was able to salvage these two logs.
The two logs yielded a total of twelve staves.
I was able to peel most of the bark off by hand, with only a couple of pieces needing to be gently pried off with my hatchet.
All of the staves have some amount of twist to them, but I think I'll be able to get most of it out with heat. Also upon closer inspection, I found that the outside ten or so rings were pretty thin with high early/latewood ratios. The rings get much thicker with alot more latewood deeper in the staves. Oak is a ring porous wood, so I should be able to chase one of those deeper rings. Looks like I'm going to be able to see what it's like for you osage guys.
Dale