What in the world do I do with this?

[skeaterbait]

I guess I should check my staves over better and feel lucky I didn't get poked or cut. I was putting the final scrapes on chasing a ring on this stave when I turned it over and saw these.

Should I continue to try and use this stave or chuck it aside and grab another?



This pic is kind of dark but I hope the nails show up. They are amazingly still very pointed and sharp.

[robtattoo]

I'd cut 'em flush, polish 'em up & make a feature of 'em  :D
Leave them in the bow (not sure how they'd affect performance, but they'd make a great talking point!

[KyleAllen]

If it doesnt weaken the stave, it will make for some seriously sweet character!

[Eric Krewson]

Where are they in the stave? Can you put the handle in that location?. If not I would pull them and fill the holes with splinters of osage and urac. I like to rescue staves and have made nice bows out of many that others would throw away.

[skeaterbait]

They are about 8 or 10 inches away from the handle. I thought about driving them out but the heads are buried in the wood. I thought about leaving them as well but I am afraid of trashing the saw blade and scrapers in trying to work around them.

[skeaterbait]

Well now I feel pretty stupid. I decided to very gently remove wood with a draw knife and see if I could get these out. It took very little work and they popped right up with the wood. However, as I looked at them and tried removing the wood off them, they came apart.

Apparently they are some kind of thorn. It looks like the tips of locust thorns but hard to say.

Anyway, they are removed and thus begins the life cycle of "Two Thorns"

[Jason Lester]

See bows have a way of naming themselves.

[4runr]

That's cool Skeater. When Osage is young it has lotsa thorns. Maybe a couple were "ingrown".
Who knows?