Material advice (updated)

[PW]

    Been studying bow making  here for several months. Thanks for all the time spent and information made available. Found this large Osage limb laying curbside waiting for trash pick-up. Must have been  to big for em , thought it was for me too , but I finally wrestled it in the truck. Limb layed in yard several months before making it to curb. No  sign of critters on wood.  The limb is very straight with no knots. Is that too long to lay on ground unprotected. Also would  falling from the tree damage the wood. I have the miniuml  tools an dont want to split unless theres a chance its good. Any opinions would be appreciated.     

       Man, what an experience. A roofing hatchet .railroad spike and one small wedge  are not minimum tools . Bought some wedges and finished the job today. Didn't know bark was an indication of how straight grain is. Very snaky. Also termite infested in the heart, but managed to get 2 possible stave's . Was very rewarding work regardless as I would hate to treat a good log the way I treated this one.  Gonna carry on working the wood , using these stave's as a learning experience. Will post pics when there cleaned up a little  . Thanks very much for the help an support.PW                                     

[attachment deleted by admin]

[coyote pup]

Should still be good. Osage is one of, if not THE most rot-resistant wood in North America. As long as you don't see any cracks or splits in it, I would split it, debark and seal right away. Looks like a good find. Good for you.

[Kegan]

All I see is about a half dozen bows SCREAMING to be released

[sailordad]

Should still be good. Osage is one of, if not THE most rot-resistant wood in North America. As long as you don't see any cracks or splits in it, I would split it, debark and seal right away. Looks like a good find. Good for you.

even if you find cracks after splitting into staves, it could be ok yet,aslong as the cracks run length wise down the staves,just fill them with glue and tiller away
doing a hick stave like that now

[TRACY]

You won't know until you split it and remove at least the bark if not all of the sapwood. I've made good bows from already downed osage and mulberry in the past. You may find wood borer damage, but if you have enough wood you can chase a ring below any damage. Billets are also an option if full length staves aren't good. Good luck!

Tracy

[Hillbilly]

Looks like at least some good billets. I have used a piece of osage that lay on the ground for over two years and it was fine.

[Pat B]

I see snakes in that limb!  Good advice above.
   Jay Massey wrote about talking a farmer out of a 100 years old corner post in his fence. He replaced it and made bows with the 100 year old corner post. 

[smokeu]

If it will be your first i would recommend making a few trial bows from some whitewood saplings 3-6in first because of the ease of removing bark and having a back as opposed to chasing a ring right off the back. or even a board bow.  It will give you some valuable experience. I personally started useing Black Locust right off and wore myself out preping the staves and chasing rings only to blow up and ruin some really good wood.  With the saplings you dont have to take a lot of time for preping the wood. I have really enjoyed my work on them.  However some may say a sapling is more trouble than a stave but i have found that they can be fun to work on and wil teach you a lot. Just my humble opinion, I want to see all of us succeed at this exciting endevor of the ancients.

Best of luck and you are in good hands on this site, for sure.

Mike

[Bullitt]

PW, how about a pic from the right end so we can see the growth rings? I would say take a drawknife to the left end, snakey area to get a feel for it.Good info on here ,but you don't learn chasing a ring on osage  with white woods. Work with it and you'll understand. Osage is fun to work. Keep us informed on your progress and ask all the questions you can.