thats my stave on the right in the first picture, on the left in the second.  this is my next project. don't have the stave in hand yet but its comin. awesome rings ehh?

Early growth is too fat to be awesome, but all osage is good osage in my tiny book!

I guess it's Ok:)

Mmmmm.  Osage  

cant wait to get started in this one. got a nice pair of 36" long copperheads for it.  just finished "hunting the osage bow" and learned a lot that i didn't even know i needed to know.  i was impressed by how much of Dean's style i see in many of the trad gangers' self bows.   i had read vol 1 and 2 of the TBB.... and had doubts about gaining any more useful knowledge from this book..... i was very wrong in that assumption. i recommend it to anyone interested in Osage.

Like pearlie said. Those rings are good, build a few more and youwill know the ddifference. Great looking stave though. I read dean's book a few times and can myself see his designs style in my bows. That's a good book. Very inspiring.

man i thought that was about as good as it gets.... guess i dont know.

Those rings are vvery good. They are also good for pointing out the difference between early (light) and late wood (dark). The early wood is what will make your draw knife chatter. That comes off and the late wood is what you need for the back. Jawge

Those are great rings. Especially for chasing.  Anytime the latewood is 3-4 times as thick as the earlywood, you are golden.

But remember, rings are only one variable.  The wood is a little light to be great.  It has what are known as lunar rings in it too.  Slightly lighter rings within the annual growth rings.  

The stave looks a bit deflexed which might mean it is from the compression side of a leaning tree.  Tension sides are often thinner ringed but can make for a snappier bow.

From the pic alone, I would rate this a 7/10 for rings and an overall 6/10.  But that is better than 90% of the rest of the non-osage staves in the world  

Ah, lunar rings... there's a term ya don't hear every day. I've had thick-ringed osage staves with lunar rings more distinguishable than some other staves' annual rings. I discussed them with Dean... asked him if they were indeed due to lunar vagaries, as I could clearly and consistantly count 12 in each annual growth of the one stave I referenced, but he didn't seem entirely convinced that it was the cause. I've never heard too much more about it. Any thoughts?

I honestly don't know if lunar rings are due to moon phase either.  I have heard there is some evidence of hair and finger nails growing at rates corresponding to the moon phase.  Especially for werewolves.  

But I know there are lighter colored bands visible within fat osage annual rings.  This seems to have an effect on the quality of the wood for bows.

The rest is just science and makes my head hurt  

Actually, thinking about it, I doubt those 12 lunars I saw were directly related because a tree is dormant for a large lart of the year and those 'lunars' were layed down during the growing season.

Cut me some osage suckers today  

After seeing many bows made by guys that have huge knots and or knot holes in them, your stave is a dream!