A family friend of mine has some farmland in Ardmore, TN and cut down several large osage orange trees on his land about a year ago. Sadly, he burned the trees but fortunately left about 2-3 feet of the trunks protruding from the ground. I noticed the trunks on a recent trip to his farm and was told they were osage. We grabbed his biggest, baddest chainsaw, sharpened the blade, and went to work on cutting the remainder of the trunks down. I tried to get as close to the ground as possible but unfortunately only ended up with 19-28 inches of length. If possible, I'd like to make some risers and/or limbs from this wood specifically for takedown recurve bows. However, I'd like to know if I'm working with decent wood here before I invest in getting the trunks sawn up. Are there any osage orange tree experts in the group who could tell me if the growth rings look conducive to making a decent bow? Again, I'll be making TD recurves, not a self bow so I'll have the benefit of fiberglass to help my limbs strength. BTW, do risers require the same ring/grain orientation for strength as limbs do or am I free to use any of the trunk wood sections that look pretty? Here are my photos:
http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b566/erwincm/OsageTrunks_zpsf464f6d1.jpg
http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b566/erwincm/24inchWideOsageTrunk_zps55f15dfd.jpg
http://i1292.photobucket.com/albums/b566/erwincm/24inchWideOsageTrunk-CloseUp_zps0297abee.jpg
What do you guys think?
Thanks,
Charles E
Madison, AL
Its a shame you couldn't get full length logs. Those looks good.
Don't see why it wouldn't be good for risers and laminations.
Nice rings for us selfbow guys!
Just ship one of those babies to me and I'll let ya know ;)
I wouldn't have a problem with osage like that for a selfbow, so looks to me like you're set for awhile on osage for your purposes :)
A friend gave me his osage stash when he decided he wasn't going to make anymore bows. All of it was from Ardmore, very nice wood.
Here is what he gave me;
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/stavecollection2.jpg)
Anything 3' or longer will make billets.
Eric, nice to see a fellow Alabamian in the group. I live in Huntsville (Madison), AL. That's a nice pile of osage you've got there. I wish my trunks were that long.
Kevin, if you'll pay the $500 shipping and handling, I'll send you that big trunk in the picture ;-)
I'm happy to hear this looks like decent stuff. I'll go ahead and invest in getting it sawn up. However, one question remains. Obviously we'll only be able to get a small amount of billets with properly oriented rings/grain. Can I use the rest of the wood to make risers or does the direction of grain matter for a riser as well? I'm sure the weirdest grain sections will be the most aesthetically interesting but will they stand up to the punishment?