Today I just recieved two unfinished bows that my great uncle had started back in the 1950s - 1960s. They are both made out of osage-orange wood. One is about 1 1/2" thick and the other is about 3/4" thick. They also have a lot of knots in the wood and it looks like he had carved around them for some reason.They also have cracks in the wood that go longways down the bow, but there not very long and they dont seem very deep. Perhaps they are just from aging? I've done some looking around but couldnt find much info about building osage-orange bows, except that they are difficult to build. My question is, would it even be worthit to try to finish building these bows? I would also like to hear more about the techniques needed to build them, and why they are so much more difficult to build than other bows.

If you guys would like to see some pix, then just ask and I will try to post some tomorrow...