Standing dead Vs. Seasoned

[JoJoDapyro]

So, I have been thinking. Why is standing dead bad, but an aged stave ok? I have even seen people using staves that have sat out in the weather for years be acceptable.

[Pat B]

It depends a lot on the wood and the area you live. The main job of fungi and bacteria is to decompose organic materials and they are very good at it. Woods like osage, locust, mulberry, yew and a few other woods are decay resistant. Is some situations these woods can be used for bows if they are standing dead but be prepared for the worst if you use them. Whitewood decay very fast after they die. I would never use a standing dead whitewood and that includes the oaks, maples, birch, beech, HHB, hornbeam, hackberry and many others.

[Tyke]

What about russian olive pat

[Eric Krewson]

All this osage is standing dead wood, split by hand in 100 degree heat, none of it made a decent bow.

[loefflerchuck]

Tyke, Russian olive is an invasive tree that people in the southern part of the state set out on a campaign of cutting down every tree for miles and burning the stumps to try and fight them back. It is a beautiful tree in its own rite, but don't feel bad about cutting any live one on BLM or any other land.

[JW_Halverson]

All this osage is standing dead wood, split by hand in 100 degree heat, none of it made a decent bow.

WHAT??? Say it isn't so!  Osage that did not immediately make a perfect and powerful bow? Surely yew jest?   

[osage outlaw]

I've had great luck with standing and laying over dead osage.  Several deer and bear have been taken with some of it

[JoJoDapyro]

Chuck, I have permission from the city I work for to cut all the Russian olive I want. We get a good sized log that was dead, just wondering if we should work it, or burn it.

[Drewster]

In addition to the fungi and bacteria attacking the wood when a tree dies as Pat described, the wood starts to dry out......in an uncontrollable fashion.  When the trunk loses moisture content, it shrinks radially more than in other dimensions.  Cracks and fissures open up that degrade the wood for use as a bow.

But, when a living tree is harvested and staves or billets are split out promptly, you can seal them to control moisture loss.  The environments you store them in can also help control moisture loss in a manner that will yield good, seasoned wood from which to build a bow.  You can control or eliminate the problems caused by radial shrinkage.

And, a dead, standing tree will often attract a host of insects which bore into the wood and render it useless for bow construction.

So, it's a huge gamble to harvest standing dead timber for bow building, at least not in our eastern forest.  Maybe once in a while you could get lucky, but it's usually not worth the effort.  That's my 2¢ worth. 

[Pappy]

You probably have a better chance with standing Osage than most any other wood I know of,but it is still a little risky,something killed it and that usually ant a good thing for bow building.  I would say with most any white wood you are wasting your time. I know someone will come up with an exception but as a general rule it is a bad idea. IMO.
Pappy

[missilemaster]

Paulsemp has been building bows out of dead standing lately and I have to say that it makes one beautiful bow that hardly takes any set. But then again its Illinois osage so it may have had an edge from the start.

[NeolithicMan]

All my white woods I cut, split and seal immediately. Osage, finding a standing dead or an old downed tree limb can mean an easier time getting a few staves.

[Pat B]

I've used dead standing osage, osage that was laying on the ground and I have a stave Josh sent me that was laying on an island in a river in Kansas(I think) that I plan to make a cool bow from. Like I said above, there are a few woods that can be OK bow wood even dead. Whitewoods are different story and IMO most dead standing whitewood is not worth the time and effort it takes to build a bow so I stay away from it.

[osage outlaw]

This osage tree was laying in a creek bed for years.  Ozzy straightened out a stave from the smaller log and made a great bow out of it.  He killed an 8 pointer with it last year. 

[Danzn Bar]

Yep, I'm with ya Clint....seen that bow of Ozzy's many times...   I think it was nickname "Banana" 
DBar