Many of you read my previous thread where I happened upon an 8' 12" thick section of trunk on the ground of my local walking/biking trail:

  http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=005316  

Well, I noticed a LOT of carpenter ants after I got the wood home and sealed it. Today I peeled back some bark not knowing what lurked beneath, but suspecting that the ants meant grubs, and the grubs were boring into my Osage! As John Scifres stated in his post...there was a smell of humus and earthy decomposition present.

I took the worst looking billet and removed the bark with a 2.5lb axe and there was a lot of eaten up sapwood and I even found whole grubs and ant eggs. I used the axe to remove all the destroyed wood and whitewood that remained. What I am left with is pretty much hard usable wood, however there are some bore-holes from grubs. I sprayed the now exposed back and ends of the billet with a generous coating of spray spar varnish. I set the billet back in the garage, on blocks.

Am I hosed? What about the rest of the billets? Take a look:





 

 

 

 

 

photobucket fail.


try again , we'll help ya make it work...

-hov

Something locked the album and deleted just these images. Bizarre.

Reposted 'em. Hope they aren't too huge.

So all the bad/junk wood is gone, and still these billets are enormous.

Those things are pretty chewed up. I was going to say fill the holes with superglue but those are some pretty big holes. I've built a couple of osage bows with holes in them but they werent anywhere near that size. ????

I'd be leary of it mysef but you never know. Too bad though, nice snake in it.

The remaining boreholes are less than 1/4 deep, on 6" thick billets.

Clean all the bad wood off and see what you are left with. If the pieces are as thick as they look you may still get plenty of good wood for a bow. i think you need to spray the lot down with bug killer as well as sealing the wood, to kill anything that is still alive in there.

OK so tomorrow I'll get it all off of there, and spray the rest, not removing any more bark from the other 4 billets? That bottom billet probably weighs at least 80lbs.

That stave you have pictured is swiss cheese, toast, fubar, gone, in other words it's firewood. I've seen that before and unless you want a bow that looks like it's been shot with buckshot when it's done, I'd pick another one.

Check all the rest of them because they may not have gotten into all of it......yet.
You won't know till you get all the bark and sapwood off them, and I'd suggest you do it right away.

When I saw your first pictures I thought"thats a standing dead tree, BUGS". There still may be some good wood under the bug damage, the only way to know is to start chasing rings.

Wood wasps don't usually deeper than a couple rings into the heart wood. Powder post beetles go in the back and come out the belly so if you see any toothpick sized holes your stave is ruined but may not be with the wood wasp larva that you show in the pictures.

You will probably get below them.  But maybe not.  Only one way to find out.  Most of the borer holes are old wood wasps not ants.  They seem to eat for a couple years and then lose their taste for that piece.  The eggs start in the bark, hatch and then the little bass turds start heading down.  If they mature before they get too deep, they only do a little damage.  Some of them eat down and then across and that really screws things up!

OK. These holes aren't deep. Is that good? I know I can get beneath them.

Take every thing off that is not sound. Get the stave(billets) to a good back ring and see what you have to work with. I'll give it a 50/50 chance from what I can see in the pics.

If you can get below them, then your lucky. I'd start working it down where the worst of the damage is, find out how deep they go. That way you won't waste a whole lot of time on it or store it for a long time just to find out later on that it's firewood. If you can't get below all the damage then you can seal it and put it away for a later bow build.
Good Luck!

Heres something I have done before. I had some osage logs that I let sit on the ground too long. When I went back to get them the bark fell off and they were full of worm holes. I split it down to staves that were about 3" wide across the back, then I took a skil saw and cut down the side of the split about an inch below the back kind of following the profile of the back. You will still have to chase a ring once you get that off but at least you'll be able to see how deep the damage goes and it will be a whole lot easier than workin it down with a drawknife.

All I have is my small 2.5lb axe and my machetes....

Bummer. Looks like you got your work cut out for you. Oh well, as long as your havin fun.

yeah i would get down through all that and see what youre left with.

my first impression was LAM'S! buckshot spalted osage veneer's sound nice...im sure idahocurt would sell them too...


-hov

That is what my fatherinlaw said, riser, lams, maybe, dunno.....see what's under there.

Will be working on it tomorrow AM.

If you're interested we could probably work out some kind of trade. My skil saw for one of your black widows.