Osage harvest

[superdav95]

Nice haul indeed.  Looks like some great Osage there.  If you are looking for more friends… sign me up! 

[Pat B]

Kind of like the good old days, Clint. I bet it hurts more these days.  Nice haul. 

[osage outlaw]

Kind of like the good old days, Clint. I bet it hurts more these days.  Nice haul. 

It sure does Pat.  Apparently there's muscles that I only use while harvesting osage.  I felt them all the next morning.

[Burnsie]

One of my stashes

[JW_Halverson]

Remember the post where the guy saw osage had been cut and he stopped by to see if he could have it...and the guy with the backhoe used a tooth on the bucket to split the staves? LOL! Free wood, split for you without so much as a bead of sweat, then loaded for you without even having to bend over? 

Sometimes the sun does shine!!!

[osage outlaw]

One of my stashes

I used to go through a lot of osage.  I would do this much or more every spring.  They are all gone now.  I have a smaller stash of staves I'm keeping for myself.   Maybe when I retire I'll get time to work on them. 

[Burnsie]

I feel so inadequate - 

[JW_Halverson]

I fell so inadequate - 

You'd swoon if you saw the barn I saw a year ago last winter. Guy had a stack 5 ft high and 24 ft long, all cut and split osage.

Problem is, they left the sapwood on it when they sealed it and every single stave was checked down to heartwood. Also, 95+% had poor to terrible early wood to late wood ratios. I spent 5 hours digging through the stacks to find a dozen staves that I rated at least a C, the best was B- (On a scale of A-F). That's what happens someone that has never built bows and is thinking any straight-ISH osage is bow wood. This also explains why Osage Outlaw is held in such high regard. If he sent a stick, it was bow wood!

[wooddamon1]

Man, I'm jealous. JW, you're not kidding, I've gotten my paws on a few here locally from a guy getting out of the game and it's the best stuff in my little stash.

[Will B]

That’s a really nice batch of Osage. I have a tough time finding straight, clean Osage here but I’ve managed to make some decent bows from tight grained, knotty and twisted Osage. I believe I got a stave from you awhile back, and it was really nice to work. Best of luck with them. Your friends are very lucky!

[Muskyman]

Nice little haul. I remember when you cut and split the big huge Osage tree. Forget how many staves you got from it. I seem to recall you had a contest guessing how many staves you’d get out of it.

[osage outlaw]

Nice little haul. I remember when you cut and split the big huge Osage tree. Forget how many staves you got from it. I seem to recall you had a contest guessing how many staves you’d get out of it.

Yeah, that was a special tree.  I've been wanting to go back down into that valley where I cut that one.  I remember there was a few similar osage trees growing down there.  I don't have the equipment to get them out and don't have the desire to do it by hand anymore. 

[osage outlaw]

I split the logs in half tonight after dark.   The biggest log split super clean and straight.  Looks like zero twist.  It was hard to see the others.  It did look like I'll get a stave with a very long hole.  It will make a split limb bow if it holds up.  It was cool to see sparks fly off the wedges when the hammer hit them.  You don't see that in the daylight I guess.