First osage harvest of 2015

[Sidewinder]

I thought I might share with everyone my first osage harvest of 2015 as well as a small photo tutorial of what debarking a stave is all about for those of you that haven't had the opportunity to do it yet. I'm sure this has all been covered before and for you old timers on here please bear with me. The first photo is of the tree that was posted on Clint/Osage outlaws posting a couple weeks back about reading the bark. I nick named this tree the telephone pole because it was so danged straight and tall before it branched off.



This is a picture of the mechanical help I recieved from my friend Chris. His is confined to a wheel chair but when we get him in his Cat loader he can do the work of 10 men with that thing. The tree came off his folks property and he offered to haul it out of the woods for me so I obviously said yes.



Here are the two logs that I got out of this tree. It was about 12"-14" at the base. Just the perfect size I think.



Here is the close up showing the rings



Here is the initial haul of splits. 11 really nice ones and it looks as if I will have 3 sets of billets once I get the belly splits off of the one with the big knot at one end. Some of these initial splits will produce belly splits as well but for now we know we have 11 good ones.

[Danzn Bar]

That's great haul ........ You've got a real good friend to do all of that.  Looks like excellent early to late ring ratio.  Make sure you seal those ends up good an quick.  Are you going to remove the bark while it's green?
Again good haul
DBar

[Sidewinder]

Here is the first stave I picked out to debark. It sure looks straight to me. Has a slight twist at one end that should be easy enough to take out when the time comes.



Once I start debarking the stave I like to take it down to the 1st ring of heartwood past the sapwood or the last sapwood ring before the heartwood. In this case it looks like the last sapwood ring.



This shows the difference in the straight up sapwood and the one thats transitioning into the heartwood. Notice the color change. The full heartwood will be much darker as you will see when I show you the end shot of the stave when its fully debarked.



Here is the stave fully debarked and sealed on the back and ends with shellac. I like to use shellac because it seals better than just about anything and you can see through it to identify the rings on the end. Some guys use glue or paint and thats fine, but I like the shellac for this purpose.



And here is the end shot. I busted the belly split off of this one already. I got a 1 1/2" thick and about 1 1/2" wide belly split off of it. Notice the thick ring 2 down from the top. When it comes time to chase a ring and rough this one out, thats the one I will chase to.

[Sidewinder]

Yeah Bill I try and get em debarked in the first couple weeks while its still wet. Much easier than waiting till later I think. I seal the ends with shellac as soon as the tree is down and get em at least quartered while I'm still in the field for a couple of reasons. 1) It reduces the mass of the log and helps prevent the checking that happens almost immediatley on a large log thats holdind a lot of moisture 2) I usually have to carry them out of the woods on my shoulders so it makes it easier to handle them

[Danzn Bar]

Sounds like the way to do it........you've done this before, huh 
Looks like primo staves, have fun..
DBar

[osage outlaw]

Nice haul.  I'm glad you got that tree out finally.  It sure has some thick rings on it. 

[tlow13]

This is a great post for new guys like myself! I am moving to Texas in June, and a simple and clear post about harvesting like this is so helpful, it's one thing to have someone type it out in words, but it's completely different to see the pictures. Thank you!

[Sidewinder]

I'm glad its helpful tlow. You can do it. The main thing is finding the ones that are worth cutting then the rest of it is all grunt work. I'm good at the grunt stuff. I learned to harvest my own stuff before I made my first bow. I figured by the time I learned to tiller a bow I would need some materials to fuel the addiction. I recommend every aspiring bowyer to do the same if you can. Start with board bows and learn to tiller and by the time you get a couple bows under your belt you'll be ready to butcher a couple staves

Thanks Clint, I told you I would post pics. I'm pretty sure I will end up with about 15 staves once I do the belly splits. This one had a big knot on the other side that you couldn't see in the original pic. I just split the back half off of that log and was able to pull one nice stave off of the side of the knotted one and then cut the knot section off. Its about 6inches across and about 6 inches deep and around 4ft long. Those will make some nice billets and the belly splits will make billets too. I don't do much with billets but I have a few nice sets just case. In fact I just did a trade with Manny on a matched set of billets.  He's gonna make a takedown with em. He's gonna send me a guava stave from the Islands.

[Badly Bent]

I'll take 50 of those.
Wow, looks like some premium staves Danny, gonna make killer bows for sure. Good post, I always like the harvest photos.

[jeffp51]

I would be happy to help you with one of those too. Wish the stuff grew out here.

[mwosborn]

Nice looking hedge!  I have never found one that straight and long!

[Eric Krewson]

I have pealed over 200 osage staves, sure is nice to see someone tell it like it is and show the right way to do it.

I cringe when someone says they stripped the bark off and left the stave to cure.

[lebhuntfish]

Nice haul, and nicely processed to! Congrats on both! Patrick

[Sidewinder]

Badley Bent- I'm glad I dont have 50 to process. Thats alot of work. Been there and done that. Now Clint, he's a beast and I think he has developed an easier way to debark.

Jeff, were do you live?

Mitch- They are rare around here too. Not osage but straight ones. I look at hundreds of trees before I find one worth taking the time on. I don't need any marginal staves, I've got plenty of those. Ive tried to restrict myself over the last couple years to only cut what looks like Primo.

Eric- Thanks, I won't even cut one unless I know I can commit to processing in the week or two after.

Patrick- Thanks

[steve b.]

Nice.  Party time.