Salvaged Osage processing advice
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:50 pm
Taking a tip off from a member of this board, I visited a local spot known for its Osage to pick up a few seeds. It might a few decades but maybe my kids will have use of the timber! Nosing around, I finally found the Osage and noticed a few limbs had been harvested - it would seem I'm certainly not the first bowyer to visit the place... After a bit more exploration, I found a heap more trees and finally some seed pods. As I was leaving, I spotted a cut & partially burned trunk... It didn't take long to peg this as some more Osage, partially burned but (potentially) salvageable. After a quick call to mates in Local Government to check I was good to go, I managed to get a few trunks in the back of the car and got them home.
Apologies for the poor pictures but the light was dying fast this afternoon.
Trunk A (far left) & Trunk B (middle) are both about 90" long with diameters of 7"(thick end) - 6" (thin end) and 8" (thick end) -6" (thin end) respectively. Trunk C (far right) is 39" long by about 10" on its widest radius. The burning isn't too bad, not really extending much past the sap wood, and the checking doesn't extend too far.
I took some advice from one of the old timers here & was told it was best to remove the sapwood, mill them & seal the ends, then leave them to season. Having never processed timber before, I put the 1& 1/2"/1 tpi blade on the band saw and went at Log C, thinking that, with the worst burning, I'd use this for backed bows. I probably should've taken a few pictures, but it came out alright and the half that I finished has given me three 2"x2"x36" lengths. Not bad, if they don't check too much. The other half had a large split through it, which I plan to extend with wedges and then mill each half.
Milling this smaller bit proved a bit of a handful, to be honest, which has left me wondering how I deal with Trunk A & Trunk B. How would people on this board approach this? Seal & season, then split? Split then seal & season? When should the sapwood be removed, if at all? The only selfbows I've ever made have been yew & bamboo, of which it certainly wasn't preferable to remove the yew sapwood at any point. With the fair bend in each log, would it be best to cut these in half and splice into staves or leave full length and steam/heat bend them into a usable shape?
I'm fumbling about in the dark here with my Bowyers Bibles still absent, so would appreciate any input!
Apologies for the poor pictures but the light was dying fast this afternoon.
Trunk A (far left) & Trunk B (middle) are both about 90" long with diameters of 7"(thick end) - 6" (thin end) and 8" (thick end) -6" (thin end) respectively. Trunk C (far right) is 39" long by about 10" on its widest radius. The burning isn't too bad, not really extending much past the sap wood, and the checking doesn't extend too far.
I took some advice from one of the old timers here & was told it was best to remove the sapwood, mill them & seal the ends, then leave them to season. Having never processed timber before, I put the 1& 1/2"/1 tpi blade on the band saw and went at Log C, thinking that, with the worst burning, I'd use this for backed bows. I probably should've taken a few pictures, but it came out alright and the half that I finished has given me three 2"x2"x36" lengths. Not bad, if they don't check too much. The other half had a large split through it, which I plan to extend with wedges and then mill each half.
Milling this smaller bit proved a bit of a handful, to be honest, which has left me wondering how I deal with Trunk A & Trunk B. How would people on this board approach this? Seal & season, then split? Split then seal & season? When should the sapwood be removed, if at all? The only selfbows I've ever made have been yew & bamboo, of which it certainly wasn't preferable to remove the yew sapwood at any point. With the fair bend in each log, would it be best to cut these in half and splice into staves or leave full length and steam/heat bend them into a usable shape?
I'm fumbling about in the dark here with my Bowyers Bibles still absent, so would appreciate any input!