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...

The best source of making an osage bow is the traditional bowyers bible.

Yourgreat uncleworked around the knots to maintain the woods integrity. Sounds like a nice stave for a snakey osage bow.

If they can be salvaged, they will be very nice. Read the chapters on osage orange in the bowyers bible. If they can't be made into self bows you can alway's back them with bamboo.

Okay well here are some pix of the bow. There not the best quality but there the only pix I can get with my digital.


This pic shows the bows curve. What confuses me is that the handle is on the bottom, and the curve is upward.

And this is a close up of one of the small cracks on the bow.

I am not able to see the pic very well. If I understand correctly, the bow is on its back and the limbs are curving away from the handle??? If this is correct it sounds like the limbs took a set when braced. Or experienced string follow. Or, the log could have been shaped like that at the start.

Yep your correct. If you were to hold the bow by the handle, the limbs would curve away from you. Keep in mind, he never actually finished the bow, so it had never been strung up. It doesnt even have nocks. Its hard to tell what could have happned to a bow after 50 years though.Even if iwereto tryand finish it, im not sure the wood would hold together.What makesosage-orangeharder to make a bow out of compared to other types of woods?

I had it backwards. If the limbs are curving away from you, then the osage stave probably had a natural reflex to it. I havea staveat my trad store just like that. Or, could have formed that way from storage. The crack is running with the limb. You can actually salvage that by using a hide backing or wrapping it with silk.

Osgae is a bit more complex because of the corrolation between the early wood rings and the late wood rings as well as the worthless sap wood. If you are to make a self bow from it you need to maintain the growth rings integrity for the bows back. If you cut the ring then you must use the next one. When you follow the growth ring all the way down, then you can belly tiller until you reach the desired weight. It isn't much different than any other woods.

If you back it then you can simply cut the form out andtiller your bow.