Hickory or Osage

[cody]

#2643

I’ve only made one selfbow and it was out of Hickory and I was amazed at how good it shot. My question is which is better Hickory or Osage? If so then what are the advantages? I’ve never messed with Osage but want to. Just a curious question thanks for any info

[rayborbon]

#11659

I found argentine osage is often very straight and easier to whittle down than hickory. It was a pleasure to work on. I also like hickory but for use as backing on laminate bows has been my experiences. It does that quite well.

[Stephen Graf]

#11979

Cody you are walking through land mines!!!!

But let me answer your question with another question. Which are better, blonds or brunettes? As you can see, just asking a question like this invites all sorts of trouble…

My advice to you is to experiment with both types of wom ooops wood and decide which is best suited to you. They both have their merits and their limitations. But the bottom line is they are both wonderful and deserve our love and respect.

[cody]

#18348

hahaha on the land mines. I kind of figured that would be the case. Just presonal preferance as with most things traditional. I like that its usually personal preferance, means that everybody can like and do what they want to with their equipment and not what the media or advertising forces them to buy. thanks for the info

[David Petersen]

#18995

I agree with Ray and Steve in general. If you’re making a selfbow with hand tools, you’ll find hickory exceedingly tiring and difficult, and osage like butter by comparison. For wood-lam bows, one of my own best-shooting and longest-lasting was a hickory board bow back with hickory — I just ripped off a thin strip, reversed it so the grain on the two pieces was opposite, and glued it back up in the form. Definitely try both woods. I made a few osage board bows with hickory backing — pignut is the variety of choice, it seems — and while they were faster and didn’t take as much set, or string follow, as bamboo-back osage, they did tend to break more often and sooner. So my “go to” bow became osage with ‘boo backing. I never tried hickory with ‘boo backing but it would be a dandy experiment with lots of promise. But bottom line I have to say in my personal experience, limited to some three dozens bows I’ve made, the most fun to make, look at and shoot, have been osage selfbows, esp. the gnarly snake bows. It’s all fun. dave

[Todd Smith]

#21096

For me here in Indiana, I found that Hickory was too willing to reach equilibrium with the relative humidity. The higher the moisture content became the more string follow the bows had and the less cast.

For an all-around, rough and tumble, non-wicking, bow I prefer Osage.

I also like the narrow profile bows I can get away with when using Osage. Good thing too, don’t want too much material at the tips with Osage… 😆

Try them both and see which you prefer.

[Kegan]

#46799

Hickory’s my favorite wood, but only after leaving it in a hot box to cure out nice and dry and then making sure the belly is well tempered. Osage has the advantage to being much better in wetter climates though. Hickory needs a good water resistant stain and several coats of the best finish you can get.

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