Osage Orange Wood

[kparker]

Any of you make knife handles out of Osage? I have a bunch of this wood on my farm and I am just cutting it up for firewood, is there a market for it?

thanks

Keith

 

[Don Cowles]

It makes beautiful knife handles and pistol grips.

 

[knifetester]

I have several knives with Osage ahndles. It is strong and light. Good stuff. NOt nearly as pretty as a nice burl, but good for a working knife.

 

[Burchtree]

very tough stuff. If you've got a bunch, try cutting them into large fenceposts and sell them to your local farmers.

 

[GSW]

I read once that this wood was used as beams and timbers under pier and beam houses because it is tough and rot resistance. They say some of the beams have survived a century and are still usable...

 

[Cougar Allen]

Welcome to Bladeforums! I'll move this thread to Shop Talk for you; that's where the knifemakers are.

 

[STR]

I've always liked it. It can be a bit easy to split and brittle sometimes, at least in my experience but for the most part it is pretty good hard durable wood. I partiuclarly like the orange and deeper brownish colors over the greener ones I've seen and bought but both are quite stunning when finished up.

I've heard it call Hedge Apple and Bodark also.

 

[skunked]

Google it. Many of the custom bowers (sp?) use it for longbows and recurves. If what you have is the the right size they might even buy it from you.

 

[canranger]

Yes it makew great handle wood in my opinion I have used it before and it ages well to a beautiful colour.

As mentioned before it is a prized wood for Bowyers you usually have to split it into staves and dry it but while drying it you should seal the ends and shelac the sides. It is a long and tuff proces I have a couple of staves I have yet to make into bows as well Malberry makes nice handles and is from the same family as Osage.

 

[the possum]

I cringe at the thought of using hedgewood for firewood.
The stuff is getting harder to find for fence posts, and we've got a lot of pasture. Some sections of our fence were set by my great great grandfather over a hundred years ago, and the osage posts are still holding up.

It is a very, very strong wood, in one direction. Meaning, it makes a hell of a stick, or bow, or cane, but is not the best choice for things that require strength in more than one dimension. It also splits readily, so it's not best for applications that require drilling holes through it, inletting channels, etc. However, even when split, it's still strong in the linear dimension.

Thus I think there's perhaps better choices for knife handles, BUT, the stuff is perfect for axe, hatchet, and tomahawk handles! It would be my number one choice of wood for that application. It may not be as pretty as walnut, or as common as ash, but it will be stronger than both, (well, depending on the growing climate of each) and develops a dark brown patina with use. (assuming it's not sealed off, so the oils on your skin can darken it.) Also, the stuff is hard as a rock when it dries, so it wears pretty well. If you drop it or bang it up a lot, you won't notice as many dents and scratches.

If I were you, the first thing I'd do is try to find some farmers/ranchers with livestock in the area, and see if they're interested in it for posts. We usually provide the labor of cutting/clearing the trees in exchange for the posts, so it's a win/win situation. There will probably still be a fair pile of firewood left over once they're done. Also, I'd save back a couple logs from the straightest trees. Yeah, you've probably noticed straight ones are kinda rare, so don't waste 'em. One log could provide a whole pile of knife handles, and lots of good axe handles. Even if you won't use it, ask here if anybody wants straight pieces for axes, or on an archery site for bows, so it doesn't go to waste. They might even pay you good money for it. Last time I stopped in a big archery store, they were selling split pieces of osage logs for like $75 each. Yeah, 75 bucks for a raw split stave.

If you end up using it for firewood, just make sure you let it dry for at least a year. (as I'm sure you already know) The stuff burns HOT, so go easy if you're accustomed to burning other woods!! Grandpa almost burned the shop down a few winters back that way. We have a big wood burning stove (maybe 3'x3'x6') to heat the shop, and he threw in a bunch of old hedge posts before going out to take care of the cattle. He usually stokes it this way with other woods no problem. When they got back, the door of the stove, which was made from 3/8" thick steel plate, was violently banging open and closed as the fire tried to draw air! And every time it opened a bit, flames shot out all the old bolt holes around the edge like a blast furnace. The heat had also warped it about 2", and the entire 10' flue pipe going to the chimney was glowing bright red!

 

[Sweany]

kparker, sell the posts, straight grain stuff for the bowyers and some for handles.
Burn the shorts and sticks that should make more money than firewood. I've sold it on ebay a bit sells well usually

 

[kparker]

Thanks for all the replys, I will save the good logs and burn the rest. Unfortunately I have probably ruined several nice logs allready. Suprisingly I have several straight trees, I guess they grew in an understory because they have grown straight for 8-10' and then go crazy.

thanks again

 

[John Andrews]

I have used Osage Orange for years for knife handles, and it's one of the best woods in the world. Somebody here posted some pics of some Osage burl a while back, and it was beautiful stuff. The Osage Orange is called hedge ball tree wood by many folks here, and the trees are quite common here. I use the crooked ugly limbs for my handles, and try to include some knots in it. The knots in Osage don't loosen and really add character to the wood.

 

[Gatogordo]

It is my understanding that bowyers prefer to use only FIRST growth wood. Since Bois d'Arc suckers out very easily, much of what you come across is not first growth.

We are in a naturally occurring Bois d'Arc area and there is a bunch of it on my ranch. It is still used extensively for fence posts in this area (NE Texas) and will outlast steel posts easily.

If any knife makers on these forums wants to try some, I'll be glad to try to pick out some decent pieces for you and send them to you, on the house. (well, on the house, if I get a few responses, I'm not in the wood selling or giving business and if dozens of you want some, then I'd have to charge shipping) I have hundreds of downed dead BD trees in one thicket that I hunt that should provide good handle material with some thought in cutting. The hard part is finding dry stuff that is not split and has some grain. Not to mention cutting it up. Bois d'arc is a bright yellow when fresh cut, sometimes a yellowish orange, and when exposed to the air oxidizes (I guess that's what you'd call it) to a deep chestnut brown, then, of course, if continually exposed, to the common gray post color. I've never really run a test, so I'm not sure how long the yellow/brown color change takes. As mentioned above, BD MUST be drilled, if it is dry, or it will definitely split.

If anyone is interested, there is a local sawmill that cuts, kiln dries, and sells bois d'arc dimensioned lumber. It is relatively cheap. Without checking about $3/bd ft as I recall. Much of it is wide ring, second growth, type stuff, but if you wanted to build a piece of outdoor furniture that didn't need to be painted and would outlast your grandkids, it might be something to consider. Shipping on bigger pieces of wood is expensive tho.

 

[STR]

It is scarce around here too these days. We have been substituting bodark with post locust which is also a very rot resistant durable fence post. Not very pretty though for use as much else.