Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: nsherve on November 17, 2018, 04:44:36 pm
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I said I'd put up a picture of the tree I cut down...
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Well, I’m green with envy! Very nice haul!
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There's some bows in there. Nice haul. Did you seal the ends yet?
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I haven’t...I’ll need to go get something at the store for that. They were closed when I got there.
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How can I say this politely.....SEAL THOSE ENDS!!!
I hope you cut them long. They might not look like it but I am sure they are checking. The moisture has to leave the log somewhere and the ends are the only place it can go right now. Do you have any old paint? That will work. You can also use wax, polyurethane, shellac, wood glue, etc.
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Haha...got it. I may have some old paint. Most of them are over 6ft. A few are short. The bigger logs started to split as soon as they hit the dirt.
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Paint over the skinned up place on the logs as well as these might check without the bark.
What you do is split wood until you pass out from fatigue, and resume as soon as you come to.
Believe it or not, someone actually took my picture seriously one time and got alarmed. In this case I cut more than I could handle, there is a lot more not in the picture. Working lots of overtime I didn't get all this wood properly taken care of and lost about half of it to checking. I left it in the sun and it turned into a pile of snakes, badly warped.
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I found some anchorseal I had forgotten about. I painted all the ends this morning.
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Eric and Clint are right. It's a pretty big job that can very quickly become overwhelming preparing staves for storage and curing. They really don't care if you don't have the time or energy to get the job done. Lots of things can happen to ruin your wood. Some of them very quickly. The best method is how Eric discribed. If you leave the bark on the bugs can ruin it. If you just take the bark off and leave sapwood on, even with multiple coats of shellac it still can get deep drying checks. Even after you have it dried for years with bark and sapwood removed and back sealed. If you chase a ring seal the back right away. Then seal it again. The closer you can get the stave to bow dimension the more evenly it can dry. You want the stave to dry through its belly. It wants to dry anywhere it can. If the back or ends dry faster than the core they will shrink and cause deep drying checks and do it very quickly. You've got some very nice looking logs there. I can see a lot of potential in them. I'd try really hard to take care of those before I cut anymore
Bjrogg
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There is a Clay Hayes video in which he sprays the bark with diesel to kill the bug/eggs. I have no idea if it works but it seems quick and easy.
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It seems I've heard something about storing some wood under water. I know it wouldn't dry out under there, but I'm thinking it would prevent splitting from the drying stress until I'm ready for them. Any thoughts on this? Also, you think this would keep the worms in check?
I am also thinking it would rot the bark and sapwood, might make it easier to get it off. I have a fish pond on my property, so the water is available...
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I would not put it under water.
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Can you tell me why you wouldn't?
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I've seen and heard that to. Never tried it but thought about it. I brought it up in a different thread once. I would also be interested in how this works if anyone has tried it. It seems to me that the video I saw they just left staves underwater for a few months but that might help spread out the workload. I also saw the Clay Hayes video where he soaks bark with diesel fuel. It probably works but I'm thinking you'd want them stored somewhere you wouldn't have to smell them.
quote author=nsherve link=topic=64572.msg907866#msg907866 date=1542544943]
It seems I've heard something about storing some wood under water. I know it wouldn't dry out under there, but I'm thinking it would prevent splitting from the drying stress until I'm ready for them. Any thoughts on this? Also, you think this would keep the worms in check?
I am also thinking it would rot the bark and sapwood, might make it easier to get it off. I have a fish pond on my property, so the water is available...
[/quote]
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Yea, part of the reason would be for the workload. Also, to keep the bugs at bay and it seems it would be easier to take the bark and sapwood off (not that they're hard right now). Since the osage heartwood take a long time to rot, I don't think I'd need to worry about that.
I've heard of the diesel fuel method for bugs. But we have bass and blue gill in our pond, so they'd eat up the worms if they didn't die...
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I'm thinking you'd still have to split it first. I honestly don't know diddly about it. I had guy's tell me just throw it in the water to drown the bugs but I really have know how it'd work or even the proper way of doing it. I'm sure all the same work needs to be eventually done. If there's any advantage or disadvantages I couldn't say. I'd still try hard to do as many as I could how Eric discribed, but if you've got more than you can handle. It might not hurt to do some research and give it a try. Better than it all turning into firewood. If you do, let us know how to do it and if it works or fails. At any rate your going to very quickly need to get a good amount of sealer of some kind. I like shellac. It dries really fast. For sealing I don't even use brush. I just use a blue paper shop towel. Don't have to clean up brushes that way.
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It's probably gonna take a good amount of time to find out how it turns out. But, yea, I'll let folks know how it goes.
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I don't know of anyone that has worked more Osage trees into staves than Osage Outlaw. Yes.... he is a friend of mind, but he knows his wood and I would trust him in his advise and he is very kind in providing his experience.
DBar
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I agree 100 percent with dbar. The way Eric and Clint advised is still the way I'd try to go. It's all gotta be done anyway. There's a reason you don't see hundreds of people selling nice clean Osage Staves. It's a lot of work. Don't let that stop you though.
Bjrogg
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Osage Outlaw, is there a particular reason why you wouldn't try this?
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I would like to point out that no one is getting after you ,it is just the fact that good useable osage is a valuable thing to most on this site and no one wants to see it wasted.the advice you are given is pure noladge and just given to help you.
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We work at getting staves dry enough to work into a bow. Soaking them in water just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe the natives submerged them. I'm sure they had a good reason at the time. We have access to tools and supplies that they did not. I see no beneficial reason to submerge a stave in water. I have been giving some thought into submerging some blocks of osage in my pond to see if the mud and minerals leach any colors into it. I will be doing this for knife scales.
When I cut an osage tree I take wood glue and seal the ends as soon as I shut off the chainsaw. When I get the logs back to my yard I seal the ends a second time. I like to cut larger diameter trees. I split the logs into manageable size pieces as soon as I can and stack them in my garage. When you split them open it gives the moisture a place to escape besides the ends. I take my time and split them down into staves. I go ahead and remove the bark and sapwood off of any stave I plan on keeping. That is the only 100% effective way to prevent borer damage. I seal the backs and ends 2 more times and put them away to dry. If you remove the bark go ahead and remove the sapwood then seal the backs. If you get any belly splits, seal the backs of those also. One gallon of TB2 is under $20 at Lowe's. You can dilute it with a little water to make it easier to brush on and increase the amount of sealer. You can seal a lot of staves for $20. Cutting osage is hard work. Sealing is the easy part. Skimping on that may cause your hard work to be for nothing. One stave lost to drying cracks is a lot more valuable than a gallon of glue.
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I would like to point out that no one is getting after you ,it is just the fact that good useable osage is a valuable thing to most on this site and no one wants to see it wasted.the advice you are given is pure noladge and just given to help you.
Yes, my posts are meant to help. When I first started cutting osage it took me some time and lost staves before I figured it out. If I can help someone avoid that I try to offer advice based on my experiences.
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Ohma2, I hope I didn't sound like I was upset about something. Not at all. I'm asking questions and getting responses. I appreciate it. If I'm sounding like an ass, it's not on purpose. Forgive me if I am.
Osage, I understand the reason to split and seal and spend the time doing it. I have 5 kids I have to watch, a couple diapers I have to change and a couple kids I take to school. When all the kids are old enough to go out in the mud, I'll have more time available to work on this. I'll have some more time I can use this weekend.