osage with "wind", shenandoah valley

[Postman]

I have a line on some osage at the end of this month-, but may only be able to cut certain trees. I see a lot of y'all mentioning fixing twists, recurving, and tillering with heat guns. If i can only get a tree with "wind" spiraling, is it possible to fix the staves it produces?  Would a shorter, curved trunk be fixable also?

Also,does anyone have  pics of osage trunks with "acceptable" wind if this is the case?

Besides cat faces and general size, anything else I can look for to choose between one or another tree? Busy farmer- i think I only can bug him this once.... Hopefully I'll get a nice haul -

Thirdly...anybody out there from the shennandoah valley VA area?
thanks for any info
Postman

[Pappy]

Of course you would prefer it to be straight but I have took the twist of of some at almost 90 degrees.I will steam it first to get the worst out then us a heat gun to tweak it after that.The trick
is to not try and get it all out a once,sometimes it takes 4 or 5 time to get it straight.Be sure and
seal it all over before the steam and have it down to at least floor tiller,it will work much better
that way.
   Pappy

[Adam Keiper]

If you've only got one shot and limited time to cut at this place, you might want to take along a roll of surveyor's ribbon.  That way you can take one pass through the osage, tag the trees with the most promise, and go back and cut the best of the ones you tagged first.  That should cut down on time spent in aimless wonder.     I would really try to avoid the barber poled trees altogether, since every stave from such a tree will be nightmarish.  I'd much sooner cut a tree with blemishes and cherry pick the good staves out of it.

[tom sawyer]

I've not had that good of luck getting a lot of spiral out.  It doesn't affect the shooting that much though.  I'd certainly look for straight bark, and I would try and find a tree that is growing straight up and down too.  Leaners tend to give you more unusable wood.  Also, cut plenty long and maybe you will find sections with less twist.  Splicing billets will also let you cheat a bit in the handle so the twist is less in the working limbs.

[Postman]

Thanks guys - Hopefully I'll be posting some "Nice haul" pics around new years. 

[Mike_A]

Hi Postman. I'm from Bath County, Va. It's about an hour or so north of Roanoke. Currently in Tx though. Man can't wait to get back to Virginia. I really miss the mountains. Have a good day. Mike

P.S. If you want some truly beautiful osage I found a nice tree with a three way split trunk that each of the trunks are just about perfectly straight for about 20 to 25 feet and quite a few usable limbs. Man as soon as I can sneek back onto that fairway when no one is looking that baby is mine. LOL

[Postman]

Hey Mike - If you've seen my golf swing, you might think I was trying to chop an osage down.  Back in PA when i was 16, I helped cut, stack  and burn a dozen or so 12" osages on a golf course  I worked at at the time so they could redo a green.( we called 'em "Useless Monkey Ball trees" up near Pittsburgh.... stupid yankees...) Someone should have hit me over the head with my compound to knock some sense into me.

That day haunts me....

Have fun in TX Mike - Any Javelina action?  Always wanted to hunt those little guys. First snow on the ground here...., gonna go try and  blunt bust me a bunny.

[Mike_A]

Hi Postman. No luck with the Javelina yet. I would love to hunt a couple of them, but that will have to wait till after I get back to Tx in early January and get some practice with my bow. I'm really looking forward to the hog hunting there on Ft Hood. Seems to be a lot of them there. Hopefully I'll be back in Virginia within the next year. Can't wait. I know how you feel about being haunted by past wood waste. When I was growing up we had a nice crab apple tree in our back yard that got struck by lightning. Thinking back on it I would love to make a bow out of a piece of wood with that kind of medicine. Have a good day. Mike

[Bowsage]

Hi Postman, I'm not terribly far from the valley,Buckingham Co.Just halved a log,has a spiral on one end,first day on this forum, first log I've split, never made a bow. Second looks more promising, longer but about 8'' in diameter haven't split yet, boy,trying to find a straight one and long enough is discouraging!

[Postman]

Just got started myself - made an osage bow as part of a class in october, and became immediately hooked. just gave my old whitetail 2 compound to a student of mine today.  Can't wait to try making one on my own, hoping to get a log or two soon. Hang on to those twisty staves, maybe you can steam them someday.(see other posts above and other places on this site).  I hope to "cherry pick" some straight ones to start off and let the twisty stuff age after shellacking it.
The guys on this forum are great - patient, knowledgeable and generous with info. Heck, People I've known since high school won't even tell me what lure is working for smallmouths on a particular weekend, and these guys are sharing stuff from decades of trial, error and experimentation.
Any diseased deer down your way?  They're seeing a lot with CWD and and a new, more letal  virus on farmland in this area, but I hunt sparsely populated national forest and haven't seen it yet
Later-
postman