Osage color

[Muskyman]

Started chasing a ring on a few billets I’m planning on making into a takedown bow and the first one I chose has good rings but the wood is different colors. Normal? Or is it just a bad piece of wood.

First picture is after applying polyurethane second is before applying polyurethane

[Muskyman]

Picture #2

[Muskyman]

Rings

[Muskyman]

This is the billet I was chasing the ring on. The first ring picture is the second billet I’ll be chasing the ring on

Thinking about chasing a ring or two down to see if the color gets better. Or do you think it’s okay

[superdav95]

It is probably just a reaction to the poly with that piece of wood.  If the rings are good then go for it. 

[Muskyman]

Some of the wood was darker then the normal Osage color and seemed funny when I was chasing the ring. This picture is before the polyurethane

[Hamish]

Terrible wood. Send it to me and I'll get rid of it for you...Hehe.

[superdav95]

Mike. I might also be inclined to get two bows out of that stave. 

[bjrogg]

Mike. I might also be inclined to get two bows out of that stave.

I was thinking the same Dave, but it can be risky. If it splits good it should work.

I have had some Osage with that color that really performed well. It was more streaky than that thought and the streaks seemed to keep growing in size and color once exposed to sunlight.

I hope that’s the case for you

Bjrogg

[bjrogg]

I have noticed that splitting those staves with thick late wood and thin early wood are trickier to split. The ones with thicker early wood usually behave pretty predictably.

The thinner the early wood the more unpredictable the split.

Bjrogg

[Muskyman]

It’s actually a billet. It’s about 40 inches long. I’ve got five of them from when I cut Osage late September last year. Actually just trying to get them closer to size hoping they’ll dry out faster and then I’ll tuck them away for another 3-4 months. The early/lighter wood was the brown color that is showing in the billet. I was concerned that it might be funky..

[superdav95]

This is where I might be tempted to split theses billets.

[Muskyman]

It’s only about 3 inches tall Dave.. I’d be scared to completely trash it and I’ve got five total billets so I’m going to just play it safe.. got the other one chased today. Now probably do a little limb shaping then tuck them away till late summer

[Muskyman]

Was talking these down a little and I’m thinking I might have a bug problem with one of them..

[Muskyman]

Another spot