Osage Orange

Osage grows in much of the USA and I was luck to be offered a pair of billets by one of the guys on the Primitive Archer website (from Texas). I sent hime a short Yew stave in exchange (Taxus to Texas!), but I got the best of the deal as the Yew is much lighter and the postage was less, I'll try and send him a stave suitable for a longbow later in the year.
The Osage feels very different to the Yew, much harder but not elbow jarringly so, and it cuts quite crisply, on the end grain shot I'll work it down so the first thick dark ring becomes the back of the bow (the pale wood to the left of that ring is sapwood). The other pic shows some Yew for comparison, The Osage is almost day-glo yellow, but it ages to a deep brown.
I'll be splicing the two billets of Osage, I've not done that before, so I'll try it on some scrap, I'll post pics of course.