Canadian Osage

[Marc St Louis]

I bought some Osage from a local a few years ago that used to make bows many years ago, he got it from his brother in-law in Southern Ontario that had some growing on his property.  The wood is about 20 years old and it was the sawn quarters of a log that looked to be cut from an 8" or 10" tree.  The stuff was a bit gnarly, probably why he didn't use much of it.  I managed to get a decent stave out of one of the quarters and made this bow out of it.







The wood is fairly fine grained and the bow has a bit if character to it with the top limb being a bit concave on the back and the lower fairly well crowned.  I tillered the bow with a shallow D section limbs to take some strain from the back and it turned out well.  The bow is 64" long overall with limbs 1 3/8" wide tapering to 3/8" nocks.  I tillered it out to 50# @ 28".  I didn't do any heat modifications to the bow and even though it's fairly short it didn't take hardly any set at all.  I guess Canadian Osage is pretty good stuff.  Now I just need to find some that is not so gnarly

[lesken2011]

That one turned out nice, Marc. Good job!!

[Pappy]

Another nice one Marc,got to love gnarly Osage. The wood looks old and from my experience with Osage old is a good thing.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

Very nice, Marc. Interesting that you have osage up there. There is none in NH. Jawge

[SLIMBOB]

Very nice!  You mentioned the concave back on one limb, always given me fits.  I'm guessing the rounded belly compensated???  Sweet bend.

[Northernsport]

I like it, and definitely a rare wood for us even here in southern Ontario.
Skeet from Sticks and Stones wilderness school has a bunch of Osage from around Windsor. He got it from a fence row someone had planted and then decided to clear for bigger fields. I am sure you could work out a trade. Send me a PM and I will give you his contact info.

Shawn

[Sidewinder]

Nice bow Marc. I'm guessing that osage is good no matter where it comes from.   Danny

[Marc St Louis]

The round belly does help Bob

I have a fair bit of Osage on Hand Shawn, thanks anyway.

Most Osage will make a good bow Danny but some are better than others.  I got a piece of Osage from Glenn Doane a couple of years ago that was very strange.  It was noticeably of a lower density than other Osage I have worked but it was extremely elastic wood

[Badly Bent]

Very nice bend on that bow Marc. Looks like your getting all the energy out of those limbs, my guess is that it delivers an arrow with
some authority. You put that osage to good use.
Greg

[beetlebailey1977]

She looks pretty nice.....what kind of finish did you use?

[blackhawk]

That's got "hunting" written all over it from every angle. Love it 

[Marc St Louis]

Thank you guys.

I pretty well always use the same finish on all my bows and it's the same one I've been using for about 10 years, Shellac and Tung oil in layers.  I do occasionally use another finish I picked up from Lee Valley a couple years ago called Tried and True Varnish Oil which is a mixture off Pine sap and polymerized Linseed oil but this is a penetrating finish and I don't feel it works well enough on high density wood.

[BowEd]

Very good looking bow Marc.The lines you get from top view profile are always very nice and smooth.How did this fella get hedge growin on his place or did'nt he elaborate.Here in Iowa the DNR introduced it I don't know when and it has run rapid since all over the place.