Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: grover on April 09, 2009, 10:59:36 pm
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what would fair price be for an osage stave 72 long by 3 wide by 2 deep. Clean, no knots, straight, 1/4 growth rings, bark and sap wood off and 2 years old.
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I live in Western Canada, which has no osage, and I've paid $90 + shipping for an osage stave of similar dimensions. I was happy to do it and I thought that was a fair price for me. Others who cut their own for free would probably be outraged. It's all about perspective.
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About six years ago, when I first got into PA, I paid $150.00 for an osage stave. It came from a website that showed up when I Googled "osage"
That was one of my first bows. It had a weird lean to the left tip. It eventually broke and I don't think it was the result of compromising any rings.
But the good thing was is that I then sought out local wood - none as good as osage but I had a lot of fun making bows from serviceberry, chokecherry, mountain maple. I still find some good wood around here such as hawthorn and yew. Still, none as good as osage.
I certainly was not going to spend $150 for a stave. If I hadn't bought that first one which forced me into the field, I might have quit primitive archery. Looking forward to working with a great stave that Shannon Walker sold me at Pappy's Classic last May. After I work through a stack of other wood, that is.
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i have the choice buy as many as i want at 65 each is fair
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I paid $60 or $65 for a stave from Yazoo's Dad last year...with the bark and sapwood still on. I did get 3 staves out of that one and have made 2 bows so far with them.
When looking for an osage stave, if you go into it with such strict criteria you are going to be disappointed. Go through the available staves and pick the best one you can get. If you can find a straight 72" stave with perfect 1/4" rings and no knots for $65, I'd say go for it. With the bark and sapwood removed you better plan on paying more.
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I have seen it for around $40 plus shipping on eBay, both character and fairly straight. That would be a good price. I think they were in NE. Talked to my tree cutter friend the other day and it's sad to see how much they haul off to the chopper every week. It's a weed here in Missouri. Being so strong plus the silica gives you sparks when chain sawing. I am after him for some good logs.
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Im with you Bowkids...40 is plenty to pay for any stave of any wood species unless its already stripped, straightened, and roughed out. I would pay a premium for character osage maybe tho. There are some good sellers on ebay but you got to watch out for some. That feller from Nebraska sells alot of staves and has great feedback. Personally, I would feel guilty if I sold even my best for more than $40 cuz that would still be a huge return on my investment....here we go....Brian
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It all depends if you have access to Osage or not. If you don't I think 65.00 dollars is cheap enough if you don't. Figure the time to cut it and drag it out of the woods pluss chain saws and wedges and everything else it is the cheapest way to go by just buying one. I took my wife and 2 grandkids out for pizza the other night and spent darn near that much.
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$65 is cheap by any reasonable measure, if you've ever done it yourself, but admittedly not practical for most of us. Location matters, I've seen good staves for $40 in the middle of prime osage country. And of course you can find examples all over the roadmap on the internet. I personally wouldn't make a large number of osage bows at $65. I've only used yew once for the same reason.
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Personally I can't see paying more than $20-$25 for a good osage stave but then again I'm tight with my money and have access to lots of maple,
and maple will make a damn fine bow. As for cutting and splittin logs it don't matter what flavor it is its all work.
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I have a huge stash of osage, most is pretty rough stuff to work with and needs a lot of straightening. I have slowed down a bit on my bow making and don't use as much osage as I once did. I really know my way around an osage stave having cut at least 30 trees, possibly twice that many as I didn't keep track.
If I was really into selling bows and could pick through a pile of someone else's staves with the bark and sapwood off I would be able to crank out a lot more bows with a lot less effort if I bought my wood. I would have to hand pick the staves to buy. $65 from Mike would be a steal in my opinion considering the effort it takes for a 61 year old guy like myself to locate, get permission to cut, cut, load, haul, split, debark, remove sapwood, cure, straighten and have a stave ready to work.
When I was 15 years younger, osage cutting was an adventure and I wouldn't have considered buying wood. I am not near as adventurous now days.
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there is a lot that goes into producing an osage stave,for someone who just cuts a few trees a year,no big deal,first you need to locate a farm,come to agreement on price,then hunt for some good trees,maybe one in a thousand, cut it drag it out,where i cut I drag them 2mile with a 4 wheeler,to the truck,then load haul one way to the osage farms 100miles,get them home, split,burn half cause its no good, shellac, wood glue, a hundred dollars,build a place for storage,watch out for wood borers, then no matter what some are going to crack, more fire wood,then remore sapwood, and rough out blank,buy more bandsaw blades,about 2 dollars per bow,seal with shellac,but its all worth it for good wood,then buy a business licence,pay taxes,then pay a vendor fee, gas to the shoot , food, hotel bill,sales tax,upkeep on truck as staves are heavy,drive half way across country, but its worth it for good wood,any one who thinks stave prices have gone to high come work with me for a week,well I have got to go,back to work, splitting logs this week,I got 70 split yesterday I am splitting staves in the rain today,i think staves are made of the same carbon as diamonds but a lot more useful ;D
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Depends on what the seller thinks is a stave also. Some guys sell a stick of wood that may be checked with tons of grain runout. Other guys sell a roughed out bow blank. I personally don't have a problem paying $100 for a roughed out bow. I despise paying $15 for a checked piece of wood. That comes out to a couple thousand dollars a cord for fire wood. I don't like paying that price. I sure wouldn't do that much work for free though, especially if I thought I was selling it to someone who was cheap and didn't appreciate how much work went into it. It is kind of like the guy that wants to buy a bow. Its only worth $100 because it is "only wood." I might give away 10 bows but I'm sure not selling one to him. ;D
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I dont like to pay that much but it is fair for sure. I dont think anybody is getting rich by selling staves. Just a hard honest way to squeeze out a living Im guessing.
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I forgot to add asprin and wakins linement, and adult bevarage fir after they are split ;)
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To get that criteria, 150 bucks would be a STEAL! I have cut several Osage trees, and to get what you're looking for is a major rarity. I would look into some of the folks that advertise selling Osage and tell them what you're wanting. Other than that, I would make it to a "jam" and ask around. ............Terry
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I think I bought a stave from the seller that Oldbow mentioned. I bought it before I even knew about PA, and before I knew better. I still have not touched it. I would never spend that much again. Too much pressure to make a good bow with that much money involved. ;D. Now I try to trade for staves, cut what I can get my hands on, or EBAY ( my last resort). Don't spend too much, it takes the fun out of it. You can get a pretty good deal on EBAY if you are willing to work with less than premium staves.
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I'll be bringin some very good stuff to mo- jam this year,along with alot of bow slats......Still working that pile up...It's alot more work than most people know.I didn't take any last year and I felt the pickins were slim.
$60-80 for a good quality stave is not overpriced in my mind. Course ifin ya want perfect rings/ratio,clean wood,and natural reflex?
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from what you described, it's a $100 stave.
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Hmmmm....the perfect stave.
$65 for the stave you mentioned is a VERY good price. Most bowyers would not sell their perfect staves for ANY price. ;)
I would expect to pay $100+ for a stave like that.
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I'm with Yazoo on it being worth it if its a nice stave. There is a lot of work and effort that goes into getting it and even more in processing them correctly so they will be good when they are ready to work. If a guy does'nt have the time, ability or desire and wants a nice stave then its worth it. I could'nt and would'nt buy one because I can and do do it myself. a couple months ago I was looking at my cured stash and I was down to just 5 staves so being out of work a couple months and in need of some extra money and not wanting to find myself in this situation again, I decided to start cutting and if I could selling some good osage staves. I recently harvested, split, debarked and drawknifed about 75 staves. The bulk of them were excellent, but I spent a full week scouting creek bottoms and getting permission to cut them. Then another week cutting and processing em. I must have passed on a thousand trees until I cut one. I'm real picky when it comes to osage cuz I know that in any batch your going to get some that are way less than perfect so I want to stack the deck as much as I can. The result is I have been able to sell several of what I call primos for 75 plus shipping and the bulk of the really nice ones are in the 50-65 plus shipping range. I have sold several "perfect" staves if there is such a thing. I have selfishly picked out 5 that were not offered for sale and they will get worked when they are ready. I also sent the best one to a friend on the west coast so he could share in the bounty. My whole point is its supply and demand and you do what you can with what you have. If you can't afford it you do it yourself, if you can afford it and don't have it around and want it, you trade some of those green backs for some gold backs...lol. Kinda simple logic.
Yazoo, its nice to know I'm not the only guy out there debarking his butt off. We had a blizzard roll through Kansas a week or so back and I was out there getting her done anyway. I get cabin fever real easy and figured I was blocked by the wind so what the heck...lol
Just in case you thought I was kidding. Here is a picture of the staves. Danny
(http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg233/KsDanny/Feb609/Staves%20for%20sale/bowstaveinventoryupdate001.jpg)