Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: osage outlaw on June 19, 2014, 12:07:57 am
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So this story starts about 5 years ago. I was talking selfbows with a former boss of mine. He used to make osage bows and has even taken an elk with one. He tells me about an older guy who makes bows in our area. He only lives about 10 minutes away from me. I looked the guys phone number up because I thought it would be a great opportunity to meet a local bowyer and learn from his experience. I tried calling several times but he never answered the phone. I eventually gave up.
Skip ahead to last summer and I'm introduced to a local police detective who is big into traditional archery. He writes a hunting article for the local paper each week. We ran into each other at local events a couple of times. He tells me that the guy who I was trying to get a hold of recently passed away. He said that his son was cleaning out his barns and was burning armfuls of arrow shafts. He said that there was still a pile of osage staves in the barn. He got the sons number and sent it to me. I tried calling and calling but no answer. I looked up every number I could find. I even had my niece texting her friends trying to get a working number. No matter what I tried I just couldn't get in touch with this guy. After a few weeks I gave up and figured the staves were burnt just like the arrow shafts.
Jump ahead another year to this morning. I get a call on my phone that says restricted number. I usually let those calls go to voice mail but for some reason I answered. It was the detective that first told me about the staves. He sounded kind of serious and asked if I had a few minutes to talk. My first thought was wondering if I had done something to get on the wrong side of the law. He told me he was talking to a guy who was working for the bank and was cleaning out the property of the old bowyer who had passed away. The guy mentioned that there was a bunch of firewood stacked in the barn and he could have it if he wanted. The detective knew exactly what it was and it sure wasn't firewood. He went and got all the wood and brought it to his house. He asked me if I wanted to come and look at it. He told me I could have it all if I wanted it. He said that he would like a bow from it if I was able to get some good staves. That sounded like a good deal to me so I loaded it up and brought it home. Its kind of funny how this stash ended up finding me. While I was working on it I felt sad that the guy who cut it never got to make it into bows. It made me think what would happen to my stash when I pass on to the happy hunting grounds.
When I got it home I started sorting through it and could tell it was some old wood. I only found one piece with a date on it. I immediately started tearing into it. The ends were painted so I cut them off to see the rings better. Most of it was around 8' long. There are a lot of drying checks and bug damage. I don't think either problem goes very deep. I got about 75% of it split into staves before I quit for the night.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16616.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16617.jpg)
The first stave I split had a nice hole in it.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16619.jpg)
The checks look pretty bad.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16625.jpg)
But they don't go very deep. This is the same end as the picture above. The rings are decent on most of it to.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16624.jpg)
I love the color on this one
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16626.jpg)
This is where I quit for the day. The stuff in the back pile still needs split.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Bows%202014/SDC16631.jpg)
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Very nice! Glad it worked out and didn't become fire wood!
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I know whay they call you outlaw, Good Haul!!
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FATE bro!
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That is 2 cool Clint! Congrats brotha!!!
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Great story Clint, Hope you get many fine bows from it
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Awesome score. Glad it worked its way to you rather than the burn pile.
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Im jealous :) congrats!
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I thought for sure these had been burnt last year. I was very surprised to find out they weren't.
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Man Clint you always have the best wood. Congrats that huff looks fantastic.
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That's awesome man! Good things come to those who wait!
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Sweet !!!!
I wonder the same thing occasionally, what will become of my ''stuff"....
I try to keep it whittled down to a managable degree so there will only be 3 or 4 dump truck loads :P
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Karma for sure Clint - NICE wood. Looks like there are ALOT of in-side splits to make, 'course that's the GREED factor coming out of Me O:). Bob
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Great story Clint. I hope my boys put my wood stash and arrow shafts to better use than this gentleman's son did. I'm glad to hear the staves found a worthy home.
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Sweet...I'd exclusively work that stuff and let all your other stuff sit n season even more ;)
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Dang Clint, all that good karma from helping out so many people with your staves in the past is coming full circle. Glad you saved this stash from becoming a smoldering heap! Looks like some good stuff.
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Dang Clint, all that good karma from helping out so many people with your staves in the past is coming full circle. Glad you saved this stash from becoming a smoldering heap! Looks like some good stuff.
Yep! I agree. That's some special bow wood.
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JACKPOT!!! Nice stuff Clint, glad it fell into the right hands buddy.
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Yep what goes around comes around,congrats,glad it found a good home. :)
Pappy
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Sweet...I'd exclusively work that stuff and let all your other stuff sit n season even more ;)
That's the plan BH ;) I'll get the rest of it split this weekend. I can't wait to put the draw knife to one of these staves and see what is inside.
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Meant to be Clint. I'm sure it would please the man that gathered it to see someone put it to good use instead of in the burn pile. Do you think the moisture content is low enough yet? >:D
Tracy
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Then enjoy it while it lasts....I've fallen into getting a good load of 90's cut wood a couple times and it went away really fast :laugh:
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I think it is Tracy. Every time I would hit the wedge with the hammer a cloud of barn dust would fly in the air. I'm not sure how they were stored but I know they stayed dry.
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Great story behind the bows that will come from this stash.
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I cant wait to try one myself......buddy
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I cant wait to try one myself......buddy
You know where I live
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I do. Antioch Lane I believe.
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Now there is some major mojo in that stash....make the previous owner proud bud!
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Cool story! Sweet haul. So when does one have "enough" osage?
Patrick
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Very cool Clint. Please put a paragraph at the bottom of your will that all your bow wood and stuff goes to me. ;) I'll hire a Josh to haul it to my house. ;D
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Very cool Clint. Please put a paragraph at the bottom of your will that all your bow wood and stuff goes to me. ;) I'll hire a Josh to haul it to my house. ;D
Only if you do the same Pat ;)
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;)
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Somewhere up in Bowyer's heaven there is an old bowyer with a BIG happy smile on his face right now for knowing that the wood he worked to put up so long ago is now finally finding it's proper use and purpose! The first good bow built from it should be named 'LEGACY'...
OneBow
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Great story. I cant wait to see the bows as they are made from this haul.
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Somewhere up in Bowyer's heaven there is an old bowyer with a BIG happy smile on his face right now for knowing that the wood he worked to put up so long ago is now finally finding it's proper use and purpose! The first good bow built from it should be named 'LEGACY'...
OneBow
Yeah, I think so too. :)
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I think the first bow will be named Bob. That was the guys name.
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very very cool, very jealous,
chuck
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Clint you are a lucky dog. That's a cool story.
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Great story. I cant wait to see the bows as they are made from this haul.
I was having the same thought with a smile on my face.
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Very cool! I'm sure that gentleman is smiling down at you as your working on that wood. Looking forward to seeing some finished bows from it
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Spent all day working on them. The borers have went pretty deep on some of them. They only got to the ones that still had the bark on. He had stripped the bark off of about half of the staves and left the sapwood on. The borers didn't touch those.
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Good deal Osage, I'm glad they didn't ruin such good wood with such an awesome story behind it! Patrick