Availability: Our drum is made from locally salvaged wood, but it is available with an FSC certification.

Weight/Hardness/Density: Heavy, hard and dense. Used for archery bows.

Cost: Twice that of hard Maple.

Comments: The wood has a yellow color when freshly cut, but mellows to an orange hue. Osage Orange lives 100-150 years and grows to 40 feet in height with a diameter of 3 feet. The name “osage orange” comes from the native Osage people of the southern Great Plains region, and the trees fruit which resembles an orange. Virtually disease and pest free.

Timbre/Tonal Color: The Osage has a slightly shorter principle note, but more overring than our maple comparison drum. It has a nice, rich controlled sound.

Dynamic Range: Large sweetspot. Responds from pp (very soft volume) to ff (very loud volume) without a change in the character sound of the drum. Response was great at all volumes.

Tonal Range: The osage has a higher fundamental pitch than our maple drum.

Tuning Range: Small tuning range. It does not go as low as maple, and choked sooner when tuned up high.

Resonance/Decay: Controlled sound. A focused sound. More overring than maple, but that can be easily removed.

Cross Stick: Higher in pitch, more defined and cleaner than the maple drum. The osage cross stick had less drum ring, with more of a clean “wood block” sound to it.

Volume: Comparable to maple.

Sensitivity: Articulate and clean at any volume.

Comments: This drum made the maple drum sound “boxy”. Very “controlled” sound.

By Greg Gaylord & Robert (RB) Bowler.
Photo credit Frankie Frost