Staining osage

[Steve Milbocker]

Work is progressing nicely on my first bow. I got the tip overlays on today and there 99% shaped. I have heard osage gets darker with age and I like the looks of dark wood. Does anybody stain osage to help it darken quicker?

[Pat B]

I used to stain all my bows but for the last few years I have come to appreciate the natural darkening of osage so I usually don't stain any more. I would guess that most folks do stain their bows.

[Del the cat]

I think staining wood is a horrible thing to even contemplate unless you have a very good reason e.g You want to use a whitwood bow for hunting.
Let the wood do the talking.
next thing you know women will be changing their hair colour
Del

[George Tsoukalas]

Osage does get darker and I don't stain osage. Jawge

[sailordad]

steve if you want it darker and dont want to stain
lay it out in the sun for a few days,itll darken up some.
the more its exposed to u.v. rays the soner it will darken(from what ive been told)

I think staining wood is a horrible thing to even contemplate unless you have a very good reason e.g You want to use a whitwood bow for hunting.
Let the wood do the talking.
next thing you know women will be changing their hair colour
Del

i hardly even do it on white woods for hunting bows.usually ifn i make someone a bow and thats how they want it.
if you go walk in the woods you will see it is natural to have the so called "white" in the woods

[Alpinbogen]

Bleach is an oxydizer and will darken it a little bit.  Not alot, but it will dull that fresh neon yellow color.  A dilute wash of brown Rit dye dissolved in alcohol will give it a subtle darkening, too.

[Steve Milbocker]

Ok the masses have spoken, no stain. I'm thinking tung oil is the way I want to go, lots of coats for that glass like finish. Maybe not the best finish for hunting but it looks beautiful. Heck I usually hunt in jeans and a sweat shirt anyway  Thank you for the input gentleman. I'm heading over to Home Depot to get supplies. If I can figure it out, I'll get some pics up.

[sailordad]

Ok the masses have spoken, no stain. I'm thinking tung oil is the way I want to go, lots of coats for that glass like finish. Maybe not the best finish for hunting but it looks beautiful. Heck I usually hunt in jeans and a sweat shirt anyway  Thank you for the input gentleman. I'm heading over to Home Depot to get supplies. If I can figure it out, I'll get some pics up.

i use tung oil on all my bows,never had a problem with the so called "shiney finish"
when hunting if you stay out of the sunlight there should be very minimal shine from it anyhoo

[Pat B]

Tung oil and Tru-Oil both give a high gloss finish. On hunting bows I spray satin poly over the Tru-Oil I use to cut the shine. I don't like shiny things anyway.    As for darkening wood for a hunting situation I don't think it is necessary. Every color of the rainbow is common in nature and therefore not startling to animals. By the time you hunt with your new neon yellow osage bow it has had time to begin to darken enough to not be "neon" any more. Movement and being out of place is more obvious in nature. There are plenty of successful bow hunters that carry a quiver full of white crown dipped and fletched arrows into the woods and walk out dragging their quarry.

[ricktrojanowski]

I darken Osage with water based analine dye.  It mellows out that yellow.  I use a very diluted black wanut, also I've darkend Osage with natural Black walnut dye, made from the walnut husks.   I may be the odd man out but I can't wait for Osage to naturally mellow.  The quicker I can get rid of that yellow the better.

[Jesse]

Like mentioned earlier I have used bleach with good results. It darkens it almost instantly

[sander]

Just finished my first osage bow darkened mine with analine dye which doesnt muddy up
the grain like stain. Did it partly for hunting camo plus I think it looks good Understand the
natural sentiment as well I like variety so may choose to leave my next natural.

[oogabogachiefwalkingdeer]

A bath in lye soap water will darken ten years in ten minutes. When I sinew back I wash with lye and you should see the orange oils pour of the bow. Mike Smyth

[Josh]

...how long til you string it up and shoot it after the Lye soak?  Just curious.. I have a bow I would like to try this on.  Did it change anything else about the bow besides the color of the wood?  Any decrease in performance or increase in set afterwards?  Thanks!