I'm still playing Devil's advocate, theoretically if you had a wider stave of the same crap osage, and you gave the bow wider limbs, you could get a safe bow, with better performance and less set. Same principles from Tim Baker's extensive experiments with various woods. Rawhide backing for extra insurance. It may not ever be a favourite bow, but it wouldn't shoot like a total dud either.
That was crap osage but how many bows from other woods are going to survive if you overdraw 4". Hickory and white oak might have a good chance, even good osage might not survive, but ash or maple and many others would blow.
I think OO's experiment shows is how good even a really bad piece of osage is, when compared to other woods. Yep its still a long way from an average piece of osage but it surely must be similar to an average piece of ash or some less dense timber. Really thin rings are not good in any ring porous timber even when they aren't violated or have a better early to latewood ratio, but a wider limb and rawhide would get around those deficiencies.
