How to go about splitting this...

[Cloudfeather]

Cut down this small Osage near a friend's house. It measure 57 inches long and is 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches in diameter from one end to the other. The center being different on both ends is what throws me. If I turn it a bit from the picture shown, it has some slight snakiness and the ends line up along center pretty darn close. Should I just split it like that and hope for the best?

And yes, I sealed the crap out of the ends with polyurethane right after these pics...

[sleek]

Looks to me as if the wood is telling you where to split it with the checks its making. If I were to ignore those, I would ( looking at the first pic ) split it like this (---) then take the upper half and split it into two like this ( I ). All that depends on how your first one goes.

[Auggie]

I agree,go with the checks,and then get the bark off and seal it up

[TRACY]

2 nd  pic shows you where to start. Put a hatchet on the drying crack and  get two staves


Tracy

[Ozzy]

2 nd  pic shows you where to start. Put a hatchet on the drying crack and  get two staves


Tracy

+1

[PaulN/KS]

2 nd  pic shows you where to start. Put a hatchet on the drying crack and  get two staves


Tracy

+2
That's is what I usually do with a stave that size.

[Cloudfeather]

This Osage is incredibly thin ringed. Might have to do a backing on it. Can cherry bath be used by itself? Or would you do rawhide then the cherry? Just don't want to make another sinew bow with snake skins. Own to suggestions

[sleek]

Yeah, back it with the sapwood.  Osage sap works well. I have made about 5 or 6 like this and may never go back to chasing a ring.

[Cloudfeather]

With sap wood, do you have to have a single ring or just get it smooth like on yew sap wood?

[rossfactor]

If it were me, I wouldn't split it.  I would rough it out with a hatchet, which will allow you to follow profile you want. Its thin ringed, but that's not necessarily bad.  I think a bigger issue is that the early wood/late wood ratio is pretty inconsistent, so I'm finding it tough to pick a great spot to be the back of the bow.  But than again I don't know squat about osage, being a PNW boy.    I'd probably try to make the back of the bow about 22 rings up from the core in the lower picture (assuming the two end pics are oriented the same way). Someone else might disagree and be a lot more smarter than me on this one.

Good luck.

Gabe

[sleek]

Single ring is best. Just peel the bark and your done. Good thing about thin rings though, if you violate a ring no biggie, the rings below will pick up the slack. Just blend the area in.

[beetlebailey1977]

Go right up the middle on that first pic.....

[Cloudfeather]

Split it and peeled the bark. Both have some twist, but nothing I can't fix with the ole heat gun. One will be a sapwood bow, the other has too much sapwood damage and will be chased as close to a ring as I can and backed. Will cherry bark act as a good enough backing by itself?

[sleek]

Nice. Idk about bark.but what method did you go with to split it?

[Cloudfeather]

Followed that small check in the larger end. Sawed into the end a little then used a hatchery and axe head to split it. No sweat.