Osage Orange

Nice.
I have an Osage orange tree in my yard. We have had a few punctured tires on lawnmowers and wheelbarrows due to the branches/spines hiding in the grass. Just a caution.

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Neat find, and I hope it works out that you can get some of the lumber. I’m not sure what you have in mind for the wood, but you better believe that the wood from O’Orange will be around for a LONG while. That stuff just does not rot, and is a tremendous choice for outdoor applications. I don’t have any experience with the lumber for furniture, but i can imagine it would make nice pieces. I did have a buddy who made a deck out of that lumber, and I looked very nice. Keep hoping that you get it!

I turned a mallet out of an Osage Orange branch and it is a great tool in the shop. Don’t think it could ever be destroyed it is so hard. Congrat’s

-- DeputyDawg

I bought 4, 4×4x20” pieces from a guy in Indiana for the express purpose of making mallets. The fellow that said he would turn them for me in exchange for a chunk will get called if I get this to “consult” on how this should get sawn. I think it has more “value” as turning blanks than boards. I have a local wood supplier that sells Anchorseal to treat the ends whilst it dries. I can always leave it as large as possible then get it resawn as needed. Would it stay more stable in a timber form than sawn into boards, blanks?

-- OK, who's the wise guy that shrunk the plywood?

I actually turned mine green. I did get a crack but as I had saved some of the chips I just put some tite bond in the crack and rubbed the chip dust in the crack and it looks great.

-- DeputyDawg

I say this with a lot of love…you suck. I really like Osage Orange and it’s a blast to turn if that’s your thing. 18×10 is going to yield some nice lumber. I’m quite jealous.

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog

Osage orange is highly sought after for long bows, a close second to pacific yew in terms of desirability. If you can, take a piece from the upper area of a tree and split it with an ax right down the center, starting from an end; if it splits straight, you can then rely on the lower section of the tree to do the same. If it does, you can take a 2” split-off piece, 6-7’ long, and sell it for about $200 on e-bay. Good money in terms of board footage. The wood is nice, but it is hard as a rock. Good luck on your find!

-- Power tools put us ahead of the monkeys

Just spoke to the “guy in the white house”. Do you know what he is going to do with the wood? BURN IT! It does rank up at the top for BTU’s/pound. His bro-in-law owns the property that the trees are on and he’s been burning a piece here and there for years. He told me that he’d speak to him with my offer. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what transpires. My pieces that I bought from a guy in Indiana arrived today. Four pieces 4×4x20” long weighed in at 58 lbs. That chartreuse color is just amazing. They are going to be turned into mallets.

-- OK, who's the wise guy that shrunk the plywood?

Bob,
Great wood. But, that beautiful color won’t last….darn it!

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

I sawed one log and sold the 8/4 lumber to a guy in Seattle, WA who makes martial arts fighting sticks. If you have it sawed, saw it 8/4 and 12/4.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

I just looked up osage orange and see that it’s what we call bois d’arc down here in Texas. That wood has a yellow center that’s rock hard. I helped my grandad fence 120 acres with some around some 34 years ago and it shows no signs of rotting. Grandpa told me that the fencepost would outlast me. The staples we used in the fence post were about 2/3 the length of a normal staple and twice as sharp. You couldn’t drive a regular fence staple in it.

If the trees you’re after were growing beside the road there’s a good chance that it has some metal fencing grown in it. Don’t get your hopes up about the sawmill. Then again, the first Spaniards down here grew it has a natural fence because of the thorny nature of the trees.

Another word of caution about burning some in a wood burning stove. I had a potbelly type stove made from a 1/2” thick steel pipe. Loading it up one cold night I thought I was going to burn my place down. You could literally see an orange ball glowing through the side of the stove. I had thermometers placed around the room and the inside temperature rose to 100° inside while it was a cool 29° outside. Use it sparingly if you want to burn some in a stove.

-- Darrell, making more sawdust than I know what to do with

It is great wood, just hard to find nice straight clear logs. It is usually like the leg of a dog.

-- Wood-Mizer LT15

I made some drawers from Bodark for a cabinet I built in an old RV. It’s really nice looking wood, but it was time consuming picking pieces out to glue together. As was stated, it’s hard to find long straight pieces.

Bodark was also known to make fences “Horse High, Hog Tight and Bull Strong” because of it’s tough growth.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

So what is the difference between hedge and Osage Orange?

Hedge is for fence post and firewood. Osage Orange is exotic wood from North America.

It comes form the same tree but with a big price difference.

Did I get this wrong????

-- I'll be a woodworker when I grow up. HHHOPKS

I didn’t realize it grew around upstate ny, I’ve never even seen it for sale on craigslist.

-- --Rev. Russ in NY-- A posse ad esse