Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Timo on March 16, 2009, 08:32:50 am
-
Had my eye on this hedge row now for the better part of 15 years.Well the owner decided to bulldoze it out. I talked him into cutting out the premo stuff ,and selling it to me before the dozer ruined it. He called yesterday and had the logs I had marked landed up by the house.
I'm going to have several of these logs sawed into slats for all those who need them,mainly the ones with those real tight rings. I was thinking on having them sawed into 1.75" thick boards and then working them up from there, by myself,(less waste). Trying of coarse for more quarter sawn.
I've never had any custon sawn before,so any addvice would be helpfull.
I'll get pics tomorrow.These are large logs.
-
You best have your hernia doctor standing by! ::)
-
What no pictures :(
-
Hopefully pics tonight.
No hernia stuff for this boy.Tractor and loader, and a 16' trailor! I ain't doin this by hand!:)
Decided to saw them into 5/8" thick boards,then I can cull out the bad and rip everything to 1 3/4" in width. Should have a good supply of slats for all those bbo builders!
-
As promised.
This is the haul for tonight.The two on the end of the trailor are for bow staves, and there is one in the front that I have decided to keep for staves also. All the others will be sawed into slats for backed bows. There are a few more in the row that have yet to be cut and landed to the house.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/bow%20build%2009/011.jpg)
After closer inspection I decided that I might better keep this one for bow staves? ;) Surely someone out there will take the time to count the rings?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/bow%20build%2009/009-1.jpg)
-
I got 86 years old, give or take a couple years ;D
That is some good looking wood. I see lots of fine bows laying there ;)
-
i ounted 82 rings,may have missed one or two
some are small makes it hard to count in a pic.
do we get staves for trying ;)
-
Wow! That's a haul and a half. :) Jawge
-
Well I have to admit,I counted 86.Gonna call this wood "Grandpa tree".All the staves from it will be titled as such.I know,Kinda cheesey,but nice for historical purposes.
A few more trees and that is all that will be left of this row. It's a shame to see them dissapearing here. I try to get all I can from these old rows,makes some good flat backed bows. That tree is 22" on the butt end.The one my arm is on is bigger. Going to the band mill in the morning.
Lots of bows in that top portion.Ain't looking forward to working it up though. :(
-
I'd say its closer 90-95 years old counting the sapwood rings.... :o
You guys that have osage all over the place make sick..... :P ::) ;D
-
I counted the sapwood rings ;D
-
:o :o :o 8)
I'm with ryano...jealous
-
Nice osage. The last osage log I sawed out I had it sawed into 2" thick boards as much as I could out of it. My thinner boards wanted to warp on me more. You can always saw them thinner when they are dry. Dean
-
Timo,
Nice load. Nice rings too.
I bet there's umpteen loads of prime firewood left on that row, and a right smart of bow wood. Shame.
We have similar on Donna's place, 100 yo hedge rows. Most likely the majority will become fence posts.
-
Ryan, I like blondes. I am jealous of those who live in malibu! O:) O:)
Dean did you sticker your lumber after you sawed it?
Mims, All the other wood that I can't/ don't have time and energy to get, will be cut into firewood/fence post. The owner is getting $100 a cord!
-
Timo I stickerd as much of it as I had room for. Some of the big 2" thick boards I layed up on my bow stave racks and they dried just fine that way. 2" thick slab boards 12" wide will will make you grunt though moving them around. Dean
-
Dean, I have a 10x20 shed on the back of my shop that is inclosed/non insulated. It gets perty hot back there during the day. I was going to make me an area in there to stack and forget about this lumber. I have lots of sticker wood and some railroad rails to weight it all down. Time will tell. Gotta learn sometime? :)
Been reading up on this a bit. Doesn't look like to much work in building a lil dryer?
Thanks for the advice.
-
Tim a friend of mine built a solar kiln out of old patio doors, he put a adjustable vent on one end and a fan on the other.
Works good :)
-
So you just went for the young stuff this time huh?
My friend Jimmy called again and wants me to cut with him this weekend. I said yes but I'm already regretting it. I still have six splits from a big log I cut this winter, wrapped in a tarp and laying on the back patio. I can barely pick some of them up. They all need 'knifed yet.
I had a log cut for slats a couple years ago. It wasn't as big as your logs and had a lot of wind checks. Didn't produce that much usable stuff when all was said and done. I stickered the wood in my garage, didn't have any problems with the drying just the wind checks that were there to begin with.
-
Just back from the mill. 4 hrs of sawing. Some good, some very good, and some....well there is some waste.:)
Pics later...after the ibuprofen have kicked in.
:)
-
Looks to me like you better get a big bottle of Ibuprofen. keith
-
Man that a serious haul of wood :o And even more bows ;)
Congrats on the score!
-
A few more pics from today. The first is an Amish boy named Avery.Realy nice fella and did things the way I thought they should be. He had a hard time with it, and changed the blades often.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/slats1.jpg)
The load after sawing.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/slats3.jpg)
Some really nice stuff here.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/slats2.jpg)
This is the best stuff,stickered and under roof to air dry.Should be ready by Mojam?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v86/Timotoad/slats4.jpg)
-
Well Timo, I think you should bring some of those pretty blonde boards out here to the beach. There is more than a few of us bow nuts out here.. Great Pics!
Rich
-
Good haul Timo. I like to call those biguns " Elder osage". I have recentley decided to take my time off of being out of work to start scouting and cutting and sellling choice osage myself. I live in Kansas and Osage is all over the place. Problem is I'm a stave-aholic and am always looking for the straightest stuff. I have looked at hundreds of trees in the last week and am gonna take only about 8 of them. I'm glad to see that you were able to take wood that otherwise would be firewood and give it a chance at a second life. I'm sure the guys that like to do composite bows will be very glad to see ya.
I'm headed out in the morning to cut some more of the 10" diameter ones and bring them home and debark em, then I'll enlist a little help with the 3 20" ones. You cannot believe how nice these are. straight with no twist for at least 8ft. Creek bottom born and bred and lived a shelterd life. I have'nt laid a saw to any of the big girls yet but I'm gonna guess and say they are at least 60. It'll be fun to see.
Does anybody else get excited about this like I do. I mean, its like...when you look at all those trees and most of them just have too much wind drift or are too darn knarly to dull a blade on and then lo and behold there she stands in all her glory and you realize that you are in the presence of a rare and precious thing. Pipe straight osage, no major knots, thick ringed. Just makes me grateful to be the one that gets to take her home.
I like the moxy of a fella like yourself that has the where with all to embrace the task and make that harvest and turn it into an opportunity. I hope you sell out at Mojam. With the commitment it takes to complete the task you deserve it. Once again nice haul. Danny
-
Rich,come to mojam,and bring a piece of that dark wood you are so proud of,we'll make a trade.:)
Danny, I learned a few things in this go around.
Be sure and have alot of stickers cut and ready,when ya start stacking iit.:)
In cutting big trees(over 14") make sure they look superb.After a tree gets that big, it has learned the capability to hide blems well.The smaller stuff that looked clean, was clean.
And the number 1 thing i learned: Make sure you have plenty of time to work everything up. All my stave logs are still as such.Gotta get to work on them soon.This is alot more work than most people know.
Good luck with your cutting,and post some pics for us.
-
That piece of dark orange stuff top middle looks really choice.
What did you pay for the cutting? I think I gave only $20 for the small log I had cut, and I know it dulled at least one of the guy's blades. I felt bad about him charging so little, but he wouldn't take any more money.
The amount of work involved makes the price of staves seem really low. You'd better be doing it for fun or it just isn't worth it. You did have fun didn't you?
-
Osage hunting is kinda like elk hunting. The real work begins when the game hits the ground. I bet I know what you are doing this weekend. Good luck getting them split out. Are you gonna de-bark now or wait? keith
-
I was hoping you'd have a mizer type mill. Much thinner kerf. I think I paid ~$20 and hour for mill work about 10 years ago. $100 for 4 big hickory logs, and an osage 12" at the butt, all milled to 2" with a few slabs left fat. Probably 2 hours on the mill, two hired men and me watchin, + the raw logs.
Osage ain't that hard, least not wet green, imho. I got the same line outa my guy, just after he ran through a muddy spot on his hickory tree (after first cutting my osage which was meticulously clean) and the saw started cutting sideways. Next time it might be worth it to pressure wash them, or hose the heck outa them at least. It's the dirt embedded in the bark, particularly if they were skidded and yarded, that abrades the blades so much. IMHO I ain't no sawer, but I done sharpened enough blades to know 1/2 second in the dirt converts to hours of cutting in clean wood, in terms of dulling a chain/blade.
I have learned not to really look at stuff more than 12' on the butt end. I can cut and work two 10" trees and get twice the finished product over the time in 20" tree. Just gets too darned heavy, and hides too much waste as you've said. Rarely is one that big sound bow wood throughout, particularly in the center.
Nice haul.
Folks will learn, Timo I'm sure long since understands, this is far from a money making proposition. All a labor of love. I could make a darn site more at minimum wage, and I have converatively a mile of such osage fence row, 90 years old by the tellin', that I can pick and choose from at will.
Hope to make it to Mojam and see all ya'll nare-do-wells some more.
Lennie ievidently got some ground hog, 'er bear, in his blood. Ain't seen him since last Fall. The Sun done woke you up boy?
-
Nice wood. That piece on top in the middle would make an awesome coffee table.
-
Nice stuff and admirable project Timo. I had some sawed into 2" slabs so that I can cut 2x2's and then rip them quarter sawed even if the board was flat sawed by turning the 2x2. My sawyer charged me for a blade sharpening ($35) on top of the 35 cents/ bd ft regular price. Osage is tough on blades. Those big logs are a pain to split, but lots of staves in there.
I recently cut a nice straight and clean tree only to find it has very fine rings. Not sure whether to make bows with rawhide backing or saw it on up into slats. I went ahead and split it into staves for now.
See you at Marshall, MO
-
Timo, If I can swing it I will be there that is for sure...That is some nice looking osage. Filling that ski bag full of osage helps pay for that 500$ plane ticket :o ;)...and the 300$ car rental when I miss my ride to Marshall when the plane lands 5 hours late....
We have a few trees here, but I'd be posting bail if I went for so much as a branch of it..
Rich
-
Lennie, I made a deal with the saw owner. He be a artifact collector so me and him hit it off well. $20 per hour of sawin, and I could tell him how I wanted it done,(considering his advice and such of coarse). Told the blades run him $5 to get sharpened.I think we went through 7. He never mentioned a blade fee, other than ifin hit hit some wire.
As for the price of staves? Well that is all relative. Really depends on how bad a fella wants it? I will have some premo staves @ Mojam,they won't be dry wood, but I will have them cleaned up,so no surprises.I figure that is the way it needs to be.
Mims,We draw knifed all the dried mud and dirt off of them before we set the blade in. How ya feelin? Haveing access to a good row is always a good thing.Cherish it.
Shaun, the tight ringed stuff will work fine ifin you wish to slat it.Figure on some waste.
I'm gonna try to work up the stave logs this weekend.Plan on doing a lil "splitalong" for those needing answers.
-
I always take my loads to the car wash and clean them real good before sawing,when you saw osage its about 85% waste and only saw a log that has bad rings, its against the law to saw good osage ;D
-
Timo,
I should have known between you and the Amish fella ya'll would have figured out dirt is an enemy to saw blades.
How I'm feeling comes and goes. Get chemo'd every two weeks, 2 or so good days in the cycle usually, depending upon what else I'm getting. Other times I can do stuff in small measure but working (for pay) usually uses me up. The shots to stimulate my bone marrow (killed by the chemo) are darn near as bad as the chemo itself. I finsih up a cycle today. Two more to go and that 'll finish my 12 and I'm all done.
Hopefully I'll be up to par for Pappy's get together. Wife and I have come to cherish the trip, which falls on our wedding anniversery. I realize it's a fer stretch for ya'll over is Missouri, but it's a great get together, beginning to rival OJam and MoJam by my reckoning, being a 3d tourney and selfbow jamboree all in one. Makes for a nice, broad mix of people. We enjoy the shoot itself in particular. And the countryside and weather are just about as good as it gets.
-
Hope you can make it to Pappys David. Glad to hear your almost done with that stuff, hope you feel better soon. :)
-
Mims.I hope the pray the best for ya man. My Mom went through a big round or 2 with her Breast cancer, so I can sorta relate.
Started staveing out the big logs tonight.Really taking my time to get the most from the best. More to it than just settin a wedge and smackin it til ya pass out ,but you already know.May take a few pics tomorrow for some show and tell.One half log is probly the cleanest piece of wood I ever seen. Makes one beam with excitement
Gonna put the classic on my calender for next year. Looks like a great time.Might be able to wrangle a few others to come down also.