Well, I've been lurking here for ages, reading, learning, and blowing out three bows (I think) and learning more. I was going to post after my first successful bow, but that has yet to materialize. And I've never posted because most of the questions I've had are pretty easily searchable, with many great answers from long time members to other fledgling bowyers.
I'm based out of Juneau, AK, where the only local woods we can really get are conifers, which from my understanding so far make poor bows (been wanting to try with sitka spruce, but haven't yet). So the medium I've been using is oak, and sometimes pretty poor oak at that. Think I've finally got a decent piece underway, chased a ring all the way through and had a good time doing it, but haven't gotten further than that. I'll make sure to post pictures once I progress.
And now comes the reason why I've finally decided to post. I think my Dad has been holding out on me. He has a 10' long, 8"x4" ish piece of what he called "orange wood." It took a while, but I finally figured out that he must mean none other than osage orange! The straightness of the grains on this are amazing (compared to most of the wood I've been working with) and I'm thinking that I want to buy the wood off him. Here are some pics
End rings
Close up of the wood grains, is this osage?
And a long shot of the piece
So, there you have it, has he really been holding out? If he has, I think I see the potential for many bows out of this piece of wood, but if I do end up buying it, where do I even begin in cutting this out into workable staves?
So, that's me, good to meet ya, and, I hope to be posting around here more often.
Thomas