I learned this craft working on Bois d'ark staves. We cut our own wood for the most part, so that meant selecting the trees, cutting sealing, splitting, storing, ring chasing, so on and so forth. My first white wood bow was a snap in comparison. Hit in on the floor to knock the bark off, draw and cut it out, and then tiller. Much easier for a beginner. True, Osage is more forgiving of poor tiller than most white woods, but nobody aims for a poorly made bow. We all shoot for well crafted finely made bows. So yes, Osage may get a beginner a "barely holding together but still shootable bow" where a white wood would fail. But only if he first got all the other stuff done correctly. That, is what makes Bois d'ark "The King"! That same stave in the hands of a great bow maker can be transformed, from the barely serviceable shooter it might have been, into a "Great Bow". Not because it was easier, it was not, but because the quality of the wood made both extremes possible.
