That is a right nice sandbox you got there, Eric!
I made a 20 hour roadtrip to Southeast Nebraska a few weeks ago and bought a dozen osage staves from a guy. He's no bowyer, but learned he can get a lot more money from a bow stave than he has been getting for fence posts, so he started holding back straighter stuff. I have been slowly going thru the stack taking off the sapwood and getting them down to a single growth ring before resealing. I warned him that his 2,500 staves in his barn all have powder post beetles in the sapwood and that the sapwood is going to cause them all to check. He has been taking off just the bark and sealing with cheap wood glue. I explained bark-on prevents checking, down-to-sapwood-and-sealed prevents checking, but you just cannot seal sapwood enough to stop them from checking. Dunno if he has the time and energy to go through that stack and rip sapwood off, so I suggested he get one of those debarking tools that mounts on a chainsaw. So long as he uses a gentle touch and just barely gets to yellow wood before re-sealing will save him from losing (literally) tons of wood. He seemed genuinely interested in having a good product for sale, so I hope he heeds my words.
I also showed him on stave after stave what exactly I was looking for. He pulled out a saw and we cut the ends off a number of staves so we could get a better look at the growth rings. I showed him the early wood to late wood ratios that were best, those that were good, and the crap that was fuel for the woodburner stove. He started to get an eye and I quizzed him on a couple staves asking him which growth ring would be the one to pick for the back of a bow. He picked the same rings I saw and his confidence grew.
He tells me he had been to one of the jams, I forget now whether it was Mojam or Ojam. He said he was interested in hauling wood to these sort of events to sell, but was worried about picking a stave to ship to someone. His name is Duane Hansen out of Syracuse, Nebraska. If you run into him, say hi from me! Then fill his ears with education on what bowyers want in a stave. I think the more he hears what we want the better his product offering will be. And if you can, talk him into starting a bow with you at whatever venue you meet him. He expressed interest in learning to make one for himself...and you know making one means making another. And THAT will teach him huge lessons in what is a stave and what's firewood.
Today I spent 5 hours in the shop on a big ol' hog of a stave from him. With a lot of wedges and some luck, I turned that bugger into 3 good staves and a 4th that might make a kid's character bow. My arms and back started barking at me, so I swept up, burned the scrap, and came in the house for a cup of hot tea and time to catch up with you all.
Sorry I don't get in here as often, I kinda lost interest in making bows for a couple years, but I am back scraping again. Let's all keep in touch, ok?
