In responce to Eric Krewson

[Chuck Yoder]

I am someone who loves to work Osage. Built bows for a number of years and sold a lot of realy good Osage at bow shoots. I don't or should say didn't cut any big trees because they are so hard to handel. hardly any over 10 in. in diamiter.

As soon as I got one cut I would treat the ends with Elmers wood glue to seal the ends. then I would sprinkle the bark with desil oil or spray it with insect spray. This has worked to keep the wood wasps away. then i would split into staves and stack in top of garage or in my barn. If any pieces warped it was usually because i was a little careless in my choice of wood.

Here in missouri we have miles of fence rows of mostly Hedge. I have found N.S. fence rows hold few if any good straight trees. While E.W. fence rows hold many. Health problems caused me to give up cutting Osage and since have been building and shooting ML's. Something i would like to try, as I havn't yet would be to make a ramrod out of good straight Osage. Should be realy tough. Has anyone tried making an Osage ramrod ?

 

[Robby]

Chuck, I have made nock's and footing's for arrows, and a range rod from Osage. I don't think it is any more difficult to work down than hickory. It is very flexible and tough like you would expect from such a wood. Most of the Osage around here is pretty tight grained, probably due to the shorter growing season, not sure that would make any difference.
Robby

 

[Rifleman1776]

Chuck, I haven't but have long wanted to. I have not been able to come up with pieces of OO that would do the job.
However, one consideration. OO is high in silica (sand) and, as I'm sure you know, terrible on tools. I do wonder if it is suitable for use in gun bores due to it's abrasiveness.

 

[Eric Krewson]

It has not been my experience that osage is NOT tough on tools, hickory is much worse, at least on bandsaw blades.

I have made 138 shooter bows as well as a few dozen that ended up as fire wood, also worked down hundreds of osage staves with the same scrapers and rasps I started with in 96 (gotta' love Nicholson #49 and 50s), no tool wear that I can discern.

Like I said before, I know osage really well.

 

[Eric Krewson]

One more thing, Google osage and it is easy to pull up all kind of references about it's silica content and abrasiveness.

Beware passing on Goggled information opposed to actual experience, sometimes it ain't so.

Once a guy on another site asked a question about correcting a bow wood flaw with heat, a bunch of folk chimed in that what he was about to attempt was a recipe for disaster.

Having made the same repair myself a bunch of times and found when done carefully the results were pretty spectacular, I posed a challenge to the naysayers;

I asked that everyone who had actually attempted the repair state their results, not one peep was heard from all the people who had said the fix was impossible. All were just passing on something they had read or heard, none had first hand knowledge.

Beware goggled information.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Beware passing on Goggled information opposed to actual experience, sometimes it ain't so.

I do quite a bit of work with OO. Most of it is on the lathe. I just haven't ever had sections more than about 18" long. It is (my experience) very tough on turning tools. (thank goodness for my Wolverine set-up) When I mill on the bandsaw it shortens blade life.
I can't explain the differences in experience. :idunno: Ye must not have sand in yer soil in Alabama. :haha:

 

[Eric Krewson]

I turn some osage on a lathe to make file handles. I can't tell if it is rough on my tools because I payed a whopping $8 for a complete set of turning chisels and they may be worth almost what I payed for them. I planned to go cheap to see if I like making things on a lathe with the plan of buying to buy some quality tools later.

5 years later I am still using my crummy tools and making frequent trips to the bench grinder to put some kind of edge on them.

Back to ramrods; I have some very straight grained osage in board form, a Lee Valley 3/8" dowel cutter and lots of time.

When I need a break from my fowler project I will run a piece of osage through the dowel cutter to see how it comes out.