Acceptable osage stave?

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putnamm
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:19 am

Acceptable osage stave?

#1 Post by putnamm »

I'm afraid I'm becoming something of a pest around here... I'm an experienced woodworker but an absolutely inexperienced novice at bow making. But at the risk of wearing out my welcome, I could use some input on the attached image.

A friend phoned me last week and alerted me to what he believed to be a length of osage on the curb in his neighborhood. He was correct. It's pretty beaten up, has a few knots, and looks like it fell victim to someone's brush clearing vendetta gone wrong... It's been hacked at quite a bit. BUT... It's almost perfectly straight, roughly 66" long and about two inches thick. And down on the Gulf coast we don't get a lot of osage occuring naturally where it can be harvested. So I was excited... I cleared some bark and rot off of one side of it. From what I'm looking at the side that would be the back is in fairly decent shape. The belly side has some rot internal to it, but I don't think it goes so deeply toward the back side that it would be too thin or unusable.

My biggest question is this: Looking at the attached image, I see one maybe two usable rings before I get down to a diameter that may be too narrow. There is some fluctuation along the stave, and so it's possible that the top ring, at least, has been cut in to and would force me down in to the next ring. My bigger concern is the very narrow crack running vertically down through every, single ring. Is this something that renders this piece unusable? From what I can tell that crack runs maybe 25% of the way up the stave. Would a vertical crack like that be remedied by backing with something like hide or bamboo? Or is it just useless based on this?

Thanks so much, everyone.

Mark

[rimg]https://imgur.com/t8ELHHH[/rimg]

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Greg Felty
Posts: 1712
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2018 5:32 pm

Re: Acceptable osage stave?

#2 Post by Greg Felty »

How wide is it? Maybe split it at the crack and get 2 out of it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

putnamm
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 10:19 am

Re: Acceptable osage stave?

#3 Post by putnamm »

Greg Felty wrote: Mon May 24, 2021 7:32 am How wide is it? Maybe split it at the crack and get 2 out of it.
It's about 3" wide.

Jamesh76
Posts: 2019
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:05 pm

Re: Acceptable osage stave?

#4 Post by Jamesh76 »

Depends how long it is and how far cracks go down stave. It's essentially a sapling. High crown

Captainkirk
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Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:19 pm

Re: Acceptable osage stave?

#5 Post by Captainkirk »

You are no pest! That's why the forum exists!
Aim small, miss small!

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