Sapling Osage (Sapling Sister's Finished)

Started by Osagetree, March 14, 2010, 05:59:00 PM

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Osagetree

Cut a sapling last winter and dried it out. The tree was only 4" or 5" across. I guess the witewood to heartwood ratio was so that it split itself lengthwise in several long slits as it dried. I should have split it then!
About 4 months ago I reduced the sapling down by splitting it along the splits caused when it dried out. The rough staves have been laying in my building since.

The bottom center of the osage sapling was all punky wood. This left me very little heartwood to make a bow from. But, I did end up with two staves 66" long and about 1 1/2" wide to play around with.
I decided to leave the whitewood on to have enough wood to work with. So,,, the belly will be a very thin layer of heartwood backed by the natural thickness of the whitewood or sapwood.
To make them a little different I left the bark on the backs in the none working portions of the handles and the handles are left wide at this point.
 

Then the staves were shaped and the under layer of bark was scraped off to the 1st whitewood layer or ring. This picture shows between the vice at the handle out to where I have scraped off the softer under layer of bark. Even though it is whitewood it still has some osage yellow tint to it.
 

A few thorns popped right off with the bark. They can give ya a pretty good stick. Saplings have thorns!
 

Not a good close up picture but here at an old limb hole there is a small verticle crck and was caused by drying. I think it will be okay, I'll fill it with super glue before tillering.
 

Needs a little heat bending!
 

I thought there may be issues with heating the whitewood but it did well.
I use a little mineral oil, a heat gun and a pair of leather padded visegrips and eyeball the twist. Just holing it till it cools is the hard part but it works for me.
 
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Osagetree

Here is a pic from the side of the rough worked fade and handle area to show the thick whitewood baking and the thin heartwood belly.
     
     
   

A shot of the back of one of the two staves
   

Belly shot
   

The two about ready for the tiller tree
 

Well I put one on the tiller tree but decided to go ahead and make a caul to put in a bit more reflex. I bet the whitewood will be better off with that reverse set before tillering begins
 

Side by side, two sapling staves from the same tree
 
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Stiks-n-Strings

Looks good Joe, are one of these your swap bow?
Striker stinger 58" 55# @ 28
any wood bow I pick off the rack.
2 Cor. 10:4
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MK, LLC Shareholder
Proud Member of the Twister Twelve

razorback

Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. Looks good so far.
Keep the wind in your face and the sun at your back.

Roy from Pa


George Tsoukalas


Osagetree

Kris, I don't think so. Just some practice.

The swap deserves a hunting bow of solid heartwood!
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ron w

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's there are few...So the most difficult thing is always to keep your beginner's mind...This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.  Shunryu Suzuki

Pat B

Cool build Joe. I like sapling osage. The whitewood is stronger than most folks think. I have made bows with a few rings of sapwood, 50/50 sap/heart wood and all sapwood and all made good bows. When you don't have access to much osage you use what you can get!  d;^)
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!
TGMM Family of the Bow

scrub-buster

I have been wanting to cut a new growth limb that is about that same size.  Maybe Thursday is the day.  Thanks for posting this.  They look great.
AKA Osage Outlaw

DVSHUNTER

looks good man! That is how I remove all my twist too. By hand does suck, but it works well.
"There is a natural mystic flowing through the air; if you listen carefully now you will hear." Bob Marley

Osagetree

I didn't use a caul after all... Decided to see what the osage sapwood is made of.
Here is one of the staves after tillering to about 4"



More tllering & about 6" of brace



At about 27" draw. Could use some more tillering

A little handle work. note the bark left on at the handle




After shooting a bit



Back after a coat of true oil
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Osagetree

Belly showing heartwood
   

Profile after shooting a few dozen
 
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bluegill

Looks real good Joe. What are the specs?

I noticed the handle of the drawknife is that your tally sheet??

Sean

KENDALL TECHAU

Nice work Joe. A good friend of mine,Sonny Iman,made really nice bows from Osage saplings.Sonny would add a handle section, glue and lash it with rawhide lace. They were stunning and full of character.

Osagetree

Bluegill, yes I started keeping track at some point in the game. Only shooters get a mark!

Specs are 66" nock to nock 48# @ 27".

Trying to add some tip overlays to the other sapling. It's gonna be different!   :o
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Pat B

Cool bow, Joe. It sure doesn't take much osage to make a hunting weight bow?
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!
TGMM Family of the Bow

Stiks-n-Strings

Striker stinger 58" 55# @ 28
any wood bow I pick off the rack.
2 Cor. 10:4
TGMM Family of The Bow
MK, LLC Shareholder
Proud Member of the Twister Twelve

4runr

Kenny

Christ died to save me, this I read
and in my heart I find a need
of Him to be my Savior
         By Aaron Shuste

TGMM Family of the Bow

Osagetree

No it doesn't take much osage to make a hunting bow....
Here's a comparison to one of my heart wood bows at 62" 60# @ 28" VS sapling 66" 48# @ 27".  
The Pic shows the thickness above handle and fade.
The difference here is heartwood vs sapwood, length of bows and limb widths. The limb thickness is about the same.
The sapling is 1 1/4" wide at the fades and tapers to 1/2". The heartwood bow is 1 3/8" wide at the fades to mid limb then tapers to 1/2".
   
   

Before & After, 1st stave
 
 

Started on the 2nd sapling this morning. Wanted to try something different and recently got an idea from one of the tradgang posts. I believe it was Keenan???

Here's one of the tips. They might be a little long and add a bit to the handshock factor but, I think they look cool!
   
   

Here's the other end
   

Profile
 
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