R.T., unless you can find a real tight grained piece of Osage that has been angle cut the grain is going to be dull... however if you can a piece like I described the difference is night and day... osage will also age to a deeper orange brown from exposure to sunlight...
If you can find some black locust that is tight grained you will some some really interesting yellow gold wood, it has a natural chatoyance that sparkles in the sunlight, almost like golden flecks embedded in the wood.. I made one from Mike when he was here on Saturday...
Finding tight grained osage or locust is not easy, but it is out there... in fact I would bet some of our Texans or Okies would have some around... it is a real common wood down there.. and since it grows slower will most likely be tight grained, unlike the stuff that grows up north..