Hickory vs Osage which is best

[Justin Snyder]

No betters, just different.  If you are where it is humid, you need to seal hickory really good and have a hot box to put it in to dry it between hunting trips. I think they are both great woods. If you are on a budget, hickory is absolutely the way to go. I don't think you will be unhappy with either.

[Jesse]

osage is better  than nothing      "joking "  Between the two I would take the osage.

[Pat B]

I love osage and it tolerates me!  Hickory is a favorite also but I love osage.

[Gordon]

I build a lot of white wood bows, but given a choice, I'll take osage any day.

[72shane]

I build a lot of white wood bows, but given a choice, I'll take osage any day.

X2

[Badger]

  For my climate I prefr osage, if I lived in a different dryer climate I would prefer the hickory. My osage puts on weight when it gets dry and I have broken a few that were tillered out in a higher humidity. Maple has become one of my favorites seems to tolerate a bit higher moisture than hickory, We average around 65% humidity in my area and I don't care for giving wood special treatment hot boxes etc so try to stick to woods that behave well for me here. Steve

[Rich Saffold]

It's all about location and the particular piece of wood from my perspective.

 I've seen what bows of both woods do in both extremes, and in a bone dry environment I've seen the finest osage bows blow when the hickory bows were lighting it up, and I've taken my fastest hickory bows to mojam, and I gave them away when they lost every bit of speed I toiled to get out of them and the osage bows don't feel it a bit. Made an osage backed osage English longbow recently  . Osage works great glued to itself and I highly recommend it, plus  it allows for a lot of creativity since it bends so easily when heated.  

So I love both of them the same since where I live I can get both weather extremes within a few hours..The hottest place ever recorded in North America was in the local harbor of 139 degrees..It was a dry heat... Only a few bow woods can handle this, Hickory is one of them..

Rich-no agenda

[riarcher]

I don't think riarcher is trying to start a fuss, I asked a few as a newbie and unwittingly did so...

Absolutely NOT trying to start a fuss.
I'd like to try my hand at a bow later. Some hickory around, not much for Osage though.
I've been eyeing maple because it's everywhere (like oak).
Learning is all. Sorry if it sounded different.

[DanaM]

Bubba if you have acess to osage use it, I'm guessing alabama is fairly humid so its a good choice but I wouldn't shy away from hickory either,

If you have some osage cut and split, I would get the sapwood off of a few staves and seal the back and ends good with shellac,
put em up to start drying, I think osage does better if it dries naturally for a while as opposed to force drying it. One other thing is
you need to pay attention to the grain on osage when laying out the bow, violate the grain to much and it will break.

[Lombard]

Why I get a warm fuzzy feeling anytime I get wood that will make a bow. Ash, Elm, Oak, Maple, Hophornbeam, Pecan, Osage, Persimmon, Red Mulberry, etc... I haven't used Hickory yet, although technically, Pecan is in the Hickory family. Get some wood man, and just do it. Be warned though that it is like Cashews, one is never enough. 

[woodstick]

i like osage , i think cause i live in oklahoma and thats thick as ticks down here, plus we have 100 % days down here. hickory is good just not my choice. and mullet it is good on a big ol steak.

[PeteC]

Osage can take humid conditions much better than Hickory,due to it's oil content.I have osage bows,(bowfishing outfits), that have literally been braced,and used all day, in the rain, that suffered very little.One in particular has taken large game,small game and hundreds of tilapia over the last 10 years,not to mention practice shots,that has literally hundreds of thousands of shots through it.I live in east Texas and it's humid here,so,when hunting with hickory,or any whitewood bow,I'm simply more considerate of the weather.I don't use the whitewoods when humidity is questionable.That's the osage's day.  Just build you a few of each,then you'll have it covered.  Good huntin', and God Bless

[adb]

I live in  a very dry clmate, so both are good for me. Funny thng... hickory backed osage is my favourite wood combo, but if I had to choose, it'd be osage all the way. It's such a tough material.

[George Tsoukalas]

YOU GUYS ARE BORING! Osage sucks and hickory is wicked awesome! Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

The magic is not in the wood but is cradled in the arms of the bowyer. Jawge