Trees from clean up

[silverfox]

A buddy told me that his Grandpa had a dozer in to clean up his fence rows and some small areas. If he remembered right, he thought there was some small osage, hickory, and oak trees cleared off these areas. He said they didn't cut them down, they pushed them over and then pushed them up into a couple piles. The tress have been piled up for 3 or 4 years.   I didn't know if they would dry properly like this or not.  My questions is, would these logs and limbs still be good to cut and split into staves?

[huisme]

Only way I know to tell for sure is to try to cut and split them into staves 

[Weylin]

The osage is worth checking out for sure. I wouldn't touch the whitewoods though. They're likely to have decayed.

[J05H]

IMO the hickory and oak are questionable but the osage should be fine. Its very rot resistant. It may have some wood borers though. Like Huisme said, only one way to find out.

[J05H]

Oops, Weylin beat me to it.

[Poggins]

I've cut osage out of dozer piles several times , some had set for over five years and most of the other wood had rotted away . You may have to plan your splits and there will be more waist but its worth it .

[silverfox]

 We are going to go next weekend and look at the wood. I have no experience with staves, I have only worked on board bows so far. I know the only way to tell the condition is to cut into it. I was just wondering if wood that lay out and dried like that, laying on the ground with the bark still on. If the wood  would still have the spring to make a good bow. Thank you to everyone that took their time to reply, the people on this site are awesome.

[Pat B]

Only the osage would be suitable for bows. Be careful in the push-up because some of the wood could be in tension from when they were pushed up.

[Poggins]

When you cut the logs cut them longer than you normally would , if there are any cracks in one end of the log and not the other then you can cut the extra length off that end .
Another thing to watch out for is cracks between the growth rings , the dozer may have twisted the trees when they were pushed up , you may not see them till you split the logs or start working on a bow .

[silverfox]

We went today to see about cutting some staves from the piles. Someone had come in sometime in the last few months and cut the trees up for fire wood. The trees was in a remote location, far off the road. My buddies Grandpa didn't know who did it, as he hadn't gave anyone permission to cut the stuff up. Thank you to everyone who responded and gave advice.