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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:06:54 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Give me some dimensions and what part of the trunk you want and I'll cut a chunk out. Might have to let it dry for a few years. 
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:09:06 PM EDT
[#2]
Think they burn hot. Makes good bows, have also seen pistol scales mad from them
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:12:04 PM EDT
[#3]
Knife handles, walking sticks, clubs......
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:23:31 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I can't imagine that working in wood. Anyone who wants to try it, I can send you as many as you want - either fresh or dry. My farm is infested with them. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:24:25 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Fookin locust trees. If I could generate hipster interest in them, maybe they would come and eradicate them for me. I HATE LOCUST TREES! Removing them is like trying to fight a Freddy Krueger/Edward Scissor hands hybrid Zombie. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:26:11 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Wait, those are Osage Oranges? We have some of those up here. Big ones every so often along a road shoulder. Didn't even occur to me they might be Osage Orange because it's not their natural range, and who would ship that up here for fence posts when we have black locust all over the place? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
The tree has some uses as outlined above. However, nobody mentioned the best part of the tree. It was these fuckers and they hurt like a mofo in neighborhood fights. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:28:30 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That's the way us PNW'ers feel about Himalayan blackberries...turn your back on them for a few seconds and they've covered your garage.  
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:33:12 PM EDT
[#8]
Honeylocust are the ones with the spiked trunks. Black locust are relatively unspiked (and have wood almost as dense as osage orange) they both attract shitloads of bees in spring and the pollen of both make for great honey.
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:34:51 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryNot that big, but yeah it's got thorns and you pay in blood when you pick the berries.
Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill. 
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:36:09 PM EDT
[#10]
If you wind up with any small flattish pieces, I'd pay you for a few to test for laser engraving.
I'm curious to see how it would do. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:43:51 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Not that big, but yeah it's got thorns and you pay in blood when you pick the berries. Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:51:43 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yep mow them over and they become a bush. Mowing only seemed to encourage them 
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:53:24 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
"The more you know" That makes sense though. It permanently stains my jeans anytime I mess with it. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
World War I uniforms were dyed by bois d'arc. That makes sense though. It permanently stains my jeans anytime I mess with it. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:56:31 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Have you tried Tordon RTU? Find where it grows from, cut it off there, and cover the stump with Tordon. It's hard to imagine it won't kill them. Labor-intensive, obviously. They basically turn into this...a giant mound of thorny canes that have to be removed manually.  Invasion of Place - Himalayan Blackberry |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 3:59:04 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If you wind up with any small flattish pieces, I'd pay you for a few to test for laser engraving. I'm curious to see how it would do. Let me get you some samples of the fresh cut and aged. Keep your money. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:00:43 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I know the thorns on the honey locusts tree have been used as nails. Maybe we should start selling those to hippies. They might still use them in timber frame construction. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:03:27 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Himalayan blackberries don't grow from one point, they send out runners that root and one cane turns into hundreds...also birds love the berries and crap out the seeds all over the damned place and the spot you just cleared can be re-infested within a year. They basically turn into this...a giant mound of thorny canes that have to be removed manually.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWXgRVj5_joQuote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Have you tried Tordon RTU? Find where it grows from, cut it off there, and cover the stump with Tordon. It's hard to imagine it won't kill them. Labor-intensive, obviously. They basically turn into this...a giant mound of thorny canes that have to be removed manually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWXgRVj5_joAnything tough to kill I always take as a challenge. 
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:03:37 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Locust trees are the devil. I would much rather deal with bois d'arc. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
The tree has some uses as outlined above. However, nobody mentioned the best part of the tree. It was these fuckers and they hurt like a mofo in neighborhood fights. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg I would much rather deal with bois d'arc. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:03:56 PM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
You might be thinking of trennels, or tree nails. Ship builders used locust pegs to attach white oak boards to the ships frames, making the hull. Locust doesn't rot and can take the hammering from the mallets. They might still use them in timber frame construction. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:13:14 PM EDT
[#20]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
We salvaged a large portion of the back pasture by digging them out 1 by 1 over the course of a couple years. Mowing only seemed to encourage them |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:13:34 PM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I recall making several bows from a black locust log. The fellow had cleared a patch, dozed them in a pile, let the pile dry and then burned. That log only lost some sapwood/bark in the inferno. He just left it lay. When he showed it to me it had laid there about five years after the fire. I hit it with a saw, saw that it the heartwood was in still great shape. Took it home and was able to make about five bows out of that old heart. :) It is of the devil. One of those bows was actually one of my flattest shooters. Quote HistoryQuoted:
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The tree has some uses as outlined above. However, nobody mentioned the best part of the tree. It was these fuckers and they hurt like a mofo in neighborhood fights. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Osage_orange_1.jpg I would much rather deal with bois d'arc. We had an old bois d'arc trunk last though several burn piles. Each time just the ends and outer layers would burn. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:15:47 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
great, now i fell down a youtube rabbit hole watching guys make bows from some wood I didn't know about I cut one tree down in TN. A limb scraped my head as it fell. Thought I'd lost an ear from the thorns. 
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:16:36 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Something like this grain orientation. 1.5" thick by 3" to 4" wide. 26" to 28" long. https://image.ibb.co/cRsGbm/20180105_110728.jpg Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted: Give me some dimensions and what part of the trunk you want and I'll cut a chunk out. Might have to let it dry for a few years. https://image.ibb.co/cRsGbm/20180105_110728.jpg Largest diameter is about 6". There is a large tree I have been meaning to remove one of these days... |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:21:13 PM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Have you tried Tordon RTU? Find where it grows from, cut it off there, and cover the stump with Tordon. It's hard to imagine it won't kill them. Labor-intensive, obviously. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill. 
I'll look it up but, what is the toxicity to animals? |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 4:25:43 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Not sure if the cattle that eat my hay will appreciate the flavor.
I'll look it up but, what is the toxicity to animals? Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill.
I'll look it up but, what is the toxicity to animals? |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 5:11:48 PM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I'm no expert, but I can tell you, when used per the label, it's fine. My farm is in North Central Missouri, which is cattle country, and it's used all the time there to keep brush from growing in the pastures. Typically you would have to spray when there is no cattle present, but I've never read the label to know how long you have to wait before you're able to allow grazing. Quote HistoryQuoted:
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Quoted:
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Thing is, the stuff grows so fast you can almost see it growing, sends runners everywhere and is almost impossible to kill.
I'll look it up but, what is the toxicity to animals?
I think I'll "pass" and just continue the brut force method. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 5:14:52 PM EDT
[#27]
Tool handles.
And posts. I still have 3 or 4 along my south fence that were set around 1948. They are not coming out without some manual work. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 5:20:32 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Note that your location is PA. You likely have some around old farmsteads. For a few years prior to the invention of barbed wire Osage was sold around the country to make stout natural fence rows. The ads for mail order stated: "Horse high, bull strong and hog-proof within three years of planting." I saw some old hedgerows in Ohio. As the Bois D'arc hedgerows grew and got shaggy the farmers would trim the straggler limbs and weave them back into the main trunks. If tended like that, it would take a tank to break through and anything with flesh is going to have some blood loss from the thorns. I cut one tree down in TN. A limb scraped my head as it fell. Thought I'd lost an ear from the thorns. I keep telling him he needs it to circle his house and he would have a awesome barrier |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 5:36:52 PM EDT
[#29]
Its a tonewood!!!!
Several high quality luthiers use it for backs and sides. Make sure the grain is straight.... quarter saw that shit and let it air dry for a few years. Brings the big dollars if its quality stuff. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 5:48:41 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Its a tonewood!!!! Several high quality luthiers use it for backs and sides. Make sure the grain is straight.... quarter saw that shit and let it air dry for a few years. Brings the big dollars if its quality stuff. OP- Serious answer...yes and no. It has potential but it always depends on the size, grain orientation, how you saw it (quartersaw is the correct way). A lot of duck call makers use this wood as blanks. It goes for about $5 for a blank that is 3x3x10 or 2x2x10 depending on what kind of call they are making... |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 6:01:32 PM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
This is my experience as above. OP- Serious answer...yes and no. It has potential but it always depends on the size, grain orientation, how you saw it (quartersaw is the correct way). A lot of duck call makers use this wood as blanks. It goes for about $5 for a blank that is 3x3x10 or 2x2x10 depending on what kind of call they are making... Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Its a tonewood!!!! Several high quality luthiers use it for backs and sides. Make sure the grain is straight.... quarter saw that shit and let it air dry for a few years. Brings the big dollars if its quality stuff. OP- Serious answer...yes and no. It has potential but it always depends on the size, grain orientation, how you saw it (quartersaw is the correct way). A lot of duck call makers use this wood as blanks. It goes for about $5 for a blank that is 3x3x10 or 2x2x10 depending on what kind of call they are making... The Luthiers are going to have to wait until I fell a larger tree. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 6:39:23 PM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Could make lots and lots of duck call blanks The Luthiers are going to have to wait until I fell a larger tree. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Its a tonewood!!!! Several high quality luthiers use it for backs and sides. Make sure the grain is straight.... quarter saw that shit and let it air dry for a few years. Brings the big dollars if its quality stuff. OP- Serious answer...yes and no. It has potential but it always depends on the size, grain orientation, how you saw it (quartersaw is the correct way). A lot of duck call makers use this wood as blanks. It goes for about $5 for a blank that is 3x3x10 or 2x2x10 depending on what kind of call they are making... The Luthiers are going to have to wait until I fell a larger tree. It's not huge money...but depending on your time and skill, it can be cash in hand over time. You could sell it in lots of 10 on Ebay for say $30 or so...do that every week for a year...and you have money. Just need a basic band saw or similar to cut it up into blanks. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 7:23:47 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Check out Ebay for lots of call blanks. There are some suppliers as well, Pintail for example, that do call blanks. It's not huge money...but depending on your time and skill, it can be cash in hand over time. You could sell it in lots of 10 on Ebay for say $30 or so...do that every week for a year...and you have money. Just need a basic band saw or similar to cut it up into blanks. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Its a tonewood!!!! Several high quality luthiers use it for backs and sides. Make sure the grain is straight.... quarter saw that shit and let it air dry for a few years. Brings the big dollars if its quality stuff. OP- Serious answer...yes and no. It has potential but it always depends on the size, grain orientation, how you saw it (quartersaw is the correct way). A lot of duck call makers use this wood as blanks. It goes for about $5 for a blank that is 3x3x10 or 2x2x10 depending on what kind of call they are making... The Luthiers are going to have to wait until I fell a larger tree. It's not huge money...but depending on your time and skill, it can be cash in hand over time. You could sell it in lots of 10 on Ebay for say $30 or so...do that every week for a year...and you have money. Just need a basic band saw or similar to cut it up into blanks. That's why I may just start cutting stuff up and setting it aside for a few years. Biggest problem is time and other projects. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 7:27:09 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I have the equipment and skills to make blanks (no talent for the finished product). That's why I may just start cutting stuff up and setting it aside for a few years. Biggest problem is time and other projects. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 7:33:18 PM EDT
[#35]
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Posted: 1/15/2018 9:23:18 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No need to dry the wood yourself, let the buyers dry it...as long as you let them know it's green wood, it's all good. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I have the equipment and skills to make blanks (no talent for the finished product). That's why I may just start cutting stuff up and setting it aside for a few years. Biggest problem is time and other projects. Functionally, you could just put it in a closet for a few years...or just tell people it is green. Either way is fine. I've seen guys screw up more wood by trying to dry it too fast than anything. Drying isn't hard...but it has to be done correctly. Otherwise, you get cracks, warpage, and similar. The basic method is to quartersaw and put wax on the butt ends, then flip it every six months or so and leave a small air gap between pieces...free from bugs or temp changes, like in a closet. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 9:52:28 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Note that your location is PA. You likely have some around old farmsteads. For a few years prior to the invention of barbed wire Osage was sold around the country to make stout natural fence rows. The ads for mail order stated: "Horse high, bull strong and hog-proof within three years of planting." I saw some old hedgerows in Ohio. As the Bois D'arc hedgerows grew and got shaggy the farmers would trim the straggler limbs and weave them back into the main trunks. If tended like that, it would take a tank to break through and anything with flesh is going to have some blood loss from the thorns. I cut one tree down in TN. A limb scraped my head as it fell. Thought I'd lost an ear from the thorns. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
great, now i fell down a youtube rabbit hole watching guys make bows from some wood I didn't know about I cut one tree down in TN. A limb scraped my head as it fell. Thought I'd lost an ear from the thorns. |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 10:09:09 PM EDT
[#38]
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Posted: 1/15/2018 11:43:22 PM EDT
[#39]
@batmanacw
@DstryrOfWrlds Unlike hickory, I doubt you will have to worry about the grain orientation, should you make a handle out of it. As long as the grain doesn't run out, I think it will be pretty much bombproof. We've got a ton of it on our place, and besides the fenceposts that have been there for close to 100 years, the 118 year old house that my grandparents lived in was originally built on bodark footings. I've even made a few bows with it. This is an interesting article I ran across a few years back. Bois d'arc trees are somewhat of an anomaly with no real relevant place in the current ecosystem. Nothing eats it, and it puts all of the energy into producing fruit. It's been postulated that it is a relic of the Pleistocene era, when the megafauna that used to roam the Red River and Mississippi drainages used it for food. http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/ |
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Posted: 1/15/2018 11:54:02 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
@batmanacw @DstryrOfWrlds Unlike hickory, I doubt you will have to worry about the grain orientation, should you make a handle out of it. As long as the grain doesn't run out, I think it will be pretty much bombproof. We've got a ton of it on our place, and besides the fenceposts that have been there for close to 100 years, the 118 year old house that my grandparents lived in was originally built on bodark footings. I've even made a few bows with it. This is an interesting article I ran across a few years back. Bois d'arc trees are somewhat of an anomaly with no real relevant place in the current ecosystem. Nothing eats it, and it puts all of the energy into producing fruit. It's been postulated that it is a relic of the Pleistocene era, when the megafauna that used to roam the Red River and Mississippi drainages used it for food. http://www.americanforests.org/magazine/article/trees-that-miss-the-mammoths/ 
It will outlast every living thing on the planet.
Oh, and thanks for all the info everyone! 
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Posted: 1/16/2018 1:52:13 AM EDT
[#41]
One time a guy on the Himalayan Imports board sent some Osage Orange over to Nepal, I was lucky enough to get one of the two YCS khukuris that came back with it.
Far left knife: 
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Posted: 1/16/2018 4:10:05 PM EDT
[#42]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By FedDC
The basic method is to quartersaw and put wax on the butt ends, then flip it every six months or so and leave a small air gap between pieces...free from bugs or temp changes, like in a closet. |
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Posted: 1/17/2018 12:32:21 AM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I can probably find some aged pieces over by the creek. Let me get you some samples of the fresh cut and aged. Keep your money. 
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Posted: 1/17/2018 12:39:00 AM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Thanks man. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I can probably find some aged pieces over by the creek. Let me get you some samples of the fresh cut and aged. Keep your money. It will be this weekend sometime. I am guessing you will need a fairly flat piece? |
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Posted: 1/17/2018 12:43:33 AM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
No problem. Gives me an excuse to go walk the creek exploring. It will be this weekend sometime. I am guessing you will need a fairly flat piece? Mostly I'm just curious to test and see how it looks laser engraved. Real sappy/oily wood seems to do well. Makes a nice dark char where the laser hits it and I suspect bodark might be in that category. |
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Posted: 1/20/2018 8:00:37 PM EDT
[#46]
Found a lot of bois d'arc (and other trees) down in the creek.
Huge trees that are going to take time to drag out. We're talking 36" diameter trunks or bigger. Those will be future projects. The Grand kids had a blast exploring. For now, I found a branch that I cut about 5 years ago. It's been laying out under some brush by the creek. It's a little crusty but the inside is still in good condition. I'll clean it up and get some cross section pics tomorrow. If it doesn't look like these are going to work, there are plenty more.
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Posted: 1/20/2018 8:11:34 PM EDT
[#47]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Bois d'arc is really a beautiful wood. It will age kind of a dark wheat color with a beautiful chatoyance. Makes great knife handles. Bows require straight grained, no knot pieces, so you don't often find suitable pieces. I gave it to my grandmother for a present, and after she died my Dad gave it back to me. It had turned a dark brown and wasn't all that interesting in color after that. |
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Posted: 1/20/2018 8:15:55 PM EDT
[#48]
They make good piers. Not even God has figured out a way to get cured horse apple to rot.
I've seen horse apple piers dug up after a century in the ground and they were only slightly discolored from contact with the soil. |
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Posted: 1/20/2018 8:22:29 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I have some grips made out of Osage Orange. I like the trees. They’re tough, prolific and have an interesting history. Most of the fence rows with hedge trees in them that you see are approaching 100 years old. The green balls keep the kids entertained and are digested easily by the mower. Bottom gun: https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/154165/C0F812D5-012D-4470-B8AB-67BE45FB0684-421131.JPG Photo of bow. I was told when I took archery lessons st a local shop that back in the early 90’s you could buy kits that were a finish your self bow kit and that was what I had.  Attached File |
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Posted: 1/20/2018 8:34:17 PM EDT
[#50]
It’s oustanding for dulling chainsaw blades and making clubs to hit baby seals and liberals in the head????
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