Osage Lumber Gloat...

[Cyrus Brewster 7]

Believe it or not, there are very, very few inclusions in these. I took the selects from what was available and I've done a resaw (not too bad with a Lennox 1/2" carbide blade) on one of the smaller pieces and no inclusions so far.

I'm going to be starting on that trestle table this spring...and I'm headed back to the source this weekend to pick up some 14/4 chunks for plane building.

I'd certainly entertain selling a slab to cover my costs on this if anyone in the Maryland area has an interest.

I am just north of Baltimore and would definitely be interested. Let me know when you will be getting rid of extras.

[ken gibbs]

Cody.

What are you talking about? What is this "bodark" & Bois de Arc". Are you making up a name to impress folks? Are you talking about moch orange trees?

[glenn bradley]

Bootiful stuff. You're gonna enjoy that.

[Matt Schuman]

Ken,

Where I grew up in Ks, we called osage orange; hedge, or hedge apple. When I moved to TX, I was introduced to a new name, Bois d'arc or Bodark. Bois d'arc is French for bow wood. All the same tree.

[Dave MacArthur]

Apparently this is the wood that was used for English long bows, it drives an arrow faster than anything else they had available, and is what made armor obsolete as it could shoot an arrow through armor.

We used to have it in Delaware growing up in hedges, quite large trees I remember climbing, and we called it osage orange, mock orange, and "monkeyball trees".

[Charlie Barnes]

We had a couple of old fence rows of "hedge" as we called it on the farm I grew up on in central Illinois. It's so hard that when you cut it with a chain saw, you can actually see sparks. We had pigs and when one of them would die unexpectedly, we would burn it on a fire made from hedge. It burned so hot that it would burn the bones and all. My dad used to tell me that during the depression they liked it for firewood because you got warm twice. Once when you cut it and again when you burned it! All of the trees we had were so twisty and gnarly that I can't imagine boards like your's coming from the same species. Anyway, it looks like you've got some beautiful wood there and I'm curious to see your finished work.

[Jeff Bartley]

Chris,
Is there enough of the 14/4 for a couple others to get into this? I've been looking for some thick osage for a mallet....
Jeff