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Osage harvesters

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BowEd:
The good news is osage is a very prolific tree.No fear of exterminating the species here....ha ha.Volunteers pop up all over the place on large sections of hilly land left fallow.The deer help out with this process eating the hedge balls after freezing takes the acidity out of the hedge ball and transferring the seeds through their droppings.Thousands of seeds in those balls.
The thing about osage or any tree really is that it'll grow straight and tall better in congested areas of other trees leading to longer straight trunks for more and better staves.

Badger:

--- Quote from: Eric Krewson on October 22, 2022, 09:10:46 am ---The McGuire's had the biggest osage operation I had ever heard of, two people working full time around Nashville, Mike said they sold 30K staves over time. A good part of their time was spent traveling all over the country to tournaments so they could market the staves, this in itself is expensive. They sold some online but then they had the packaging and shipping. They weren't getting rich in the osage business and appeared to be just scraping by. There was also the physical toll that this kind of work does to your body; Mike's shoulders, arms and hands were a wreck from drawknife work.

I don't think an operation of the scale that you envision would be profitable, the market just isn't out there, most of us serious (in my case former serious) osage bow builders cut our own wood.

--- End quote ---

  Yes, I had to quit making bows because I could no longer afford the staves but I don't begrudge the guys selling them because I know how hard they work. I did a little breakdown on how income might be distributed. Vehicle and travel expenses including equipment is a big one. Marketing, sales, and distribution is other big one. You would also have to find pay a finder's fee to those who turned us on to the sight where we could cut. I think the trick would be to have them sold before they were even cut sight unseen just based on our reputation. Someone would be sitting in their house taking orders and send the orders out to the truck which was equipped with a label printer. It would take some planning because it would be a real operation. I guess it would start with designing a mobile unit and then figuring out what it would cost to put it together.

IdahoMatt:
Damn Clint.  Looks like you’ve got quite the set up.  Seems to be the best I’ve seen without too much Heavy  machinery.  Cutting staves is a tone of work no matter how you spin it 

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