After seeing John's free wood thread, I was wondering what treasures other wood hacks like myself have squirreled away over the years.
I post these pictures not to brag but to show how seriously we take our craft and what lengths we go to to collect wood. I have cut the majority of my wood in front of a bulldozer clearing land so I couldn't be picky. I call it the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I have cut and hauled wood by myself to the point I had to lay down exhausted until I was able to regain enough strength to get back to my truck and drive home.
Here is part of my stash.
Billets;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/sawing%20wood/billetcollection.jpg)
About one third of my standing osage staves;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/sawing%20wood/stavecollection1.jpg)
More staves;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/sawing%20wood/stavecollection2.jpg)
Hickory I cut last year;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/sawing%20wood/finishedhickorystaves.jpg)
And finally, bamboo, cut locally;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/bamboostash.jpg)
I have made 140 shooter bows and at least 30 that didn't make the grade so I have used about 175 staves and spliced billets that aren't in the pictures. You can imagine what a pile of osage I have collected over the years.
Amazing what you can find basically in you own back yard. :biglaugh:
Troy
All my wood is hand cut so my pile is smaller than most but, I'm proud of every piece and know where every piece originated. green wood on top and seasoned below.
My areas for cutting have been limited and I've picked over them more than once. To give back, I started some from seed this year and this winter I'll transplant them back in the same areas I've cut from. Though I'll never live to harvest these trees, I'll know they will be there for others someday.
Osage is limited to old homesteads and small patches here and there in southern Ohio. So when I find them there is usally an old stone wall or house foundation of our earlier settlers. I always ponder when resting in these areas what had gone on in the past in this spot.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/Osagetree/Osage%20Harvest%202012/osagecutn201217.jpg)
Good lord you guys could open your own lumber yard :bigsmyl: My stash wouldn't even fill a 1/3 of those racks.
Well here she is...
Veneers
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092923.jpg)
Small stuff
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092924.jpg)
Bigger stuff
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092925.jpg)
Limb sized stuff
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092926.jpg)
Big stuff ( that largest board is 8' x8"x3" of canary wood!)
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092927.jpg)
And the grand picture.
(http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee465/buckskinbows/P9092922.jpg)
Some pretty good looking stashes I reckon I'll have to get some pics up in a few days
Joe, how did you plant the osage? I planted a couple of apple and year and a half back, but they never sprouted. Thought I had planted them correctly... Guess not. :confused:
Nice lookin' stashes.
QuoteOriginally posted by red hill:
Joe, how did you plant the osage? I planted a couple of apple and year and a half back, but they never sprouted.
The inmates in our jail have good luck burying apple seeds in about an inch of dirt in a milk carton and then setting it in the window of their cell. Try that?! I confiscate 2-3 a month, just to prevent them from burning the place down when they try to roll it and smoke it later. I could probably send you one.
Finding the cell window will probably be the hardest part for ya. :goldtooth:
QuoteOriginally posted by red hill:
Joe, how did you plant the osage? I planted a couple of apple and year and a half back, but they never sprouted.
The inmates in our jail have good luck burying apple seeds in about an inch of dirt in a milk carton and then setting it in the window of their cell. Try that?! I confiscate 2-3 a month, just to prevent them from burning the place down when they try to roll it and smoke it later. I could probably send you one.
Finding the cell window will probably be the hardest part for ya. :goldtooth:
I sent Stan an osage growing PM but later thought some of you guys might be interested as well so here goes;
I put osage apples in a bucket, in a place around my house that the sun never hits and let them rot down over the winter. In the spring I separate the seeds from the mush(rubber gloves), dig a shallow trench in a shady place in the woods, place the seeds in the trench and cover with about an inch of loose soil.
Most of the seeds will come up. I let them grow for a few months, transplant the seedlings to gallon pots and put them in full sun, well watered.
After about a year I cull any that show deformed or crooked trunks keeping only the straight trunk saplings.
The seedlings put out a really long taproot so check often to see if the taproot is growing out the bottom of the pot. Plant your seedlings when the tap root starts peaking out the bottom of the pot or it will root in the soil below the pot and may break when you pick up the pot.
Being fairly new I haven't time to amass the ringed fortune of most folk here, but I'm working on it. I've got a new place for some California bay, white oak and maybe some Catalina ironwood. The rest of my stash came in trades of purchases from your vaults....
I do have some variety... Yew, Osage, Hickory, Hackberry, Cherry, Sassafras, Kentucky Coffee Tree and Mulberry and most of it ready to work.... give me some time and I'll catch up. :)
(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c210/coaster500/Stash.jpg)
riser stash. Majority is bubinga and bocote.
(http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s299/RocoleJ/P1010001-2.jpg)
Here is my stash
All these are from the big osage tree I cut last summer. They are in a hide-a-way stave rack. It rolls under my bench and out of the way.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15057.jpg)
A few more from the big tree plus some HHB and one piece of Yew from Keenan
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15056.jpg)
My stash has outgrown my small workshop and spread into the garage.
Hickory, elm, hackberry, and some more osage.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15060.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15062.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15063.jpg)
More garage overflow
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15065.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15055.jpg)
Some BL and hickory that I rescued from an old barn.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/SDC15061.jpg)
Still a WEAK pile for a guy that lives in Osageville USA. My pile is bigger and I live in Nosageville USA.
If I had the room, I would have more Pearly.
I can store some of those old, dried out, nasty ones so you have more room for fresh stuff pal.
Pearlie, if'n ya live in osage country,ya don't have to hoard it. you just wait and pick the prime stuff and git some more when the stack starts to dwindle.
Us nosage boys need to stock up when we can.
You going back to IN. this fall ain'tcha???? :goldtooth:
QuoteOriginally posted by PEARL DRUMS:
I can store some of those old, dried out, nasty ones so you have more room for fresh stuff pal.
That's a mighty generous offer. We can talk more about it at next years classic.
Those are some fine lookin' wood piles Gents.. :thumbsup:
Nosageville...LOL. It's a mixed bag down here in Texas. Two friends with "Bois D'Arc" on their places, waiting for first frost. I do things by the moon phase and by the season that way.Auld Skewl, I guess.
(http://i557.photobucket.com/albums/ss13/dvshunter/CIMG0169.jpg)
Some of mine.
Dave those are being stored for you by someone else.lol
That's the best way to store em Dan. :bigsmyl:
I think I could gather the "collections" of osage from all the bowyers in MT, and it still would'nt add up to what you guys are hoarding!
Impressive.
No-osageville...try osageneverland. That us here, and a long trip to aquire it. But that's the fun of it, I guess.