Bois D'arc (Osage Orange)

d37fan

Active Member
How long should the wood be dried before you can have it stabilized or use it. BTW round here we don't use the fancy names for this tree, it's just called a hedge tree with hedge apples.
 
Same in Illinois. Hedge one nasty bugger of a tree to clean up also. Im sure you wouldnt have to stabalize this wood. As far as drying i am not sure how long it takes to dry?
 
I live in the Northeast part of Kansas and have used hedge for several knife handles and really like it. I can't answer how long it takes to dry because what I have used has come from old stumps, etc. that have dried for decades. However, my experience has been that it won't absorb any stabilizing resin, at least not the kind that I use. My vacuum pulls 27 inches of mercury. I have cut and split hedge logs to use for making self bows & the bowyers say that the log should dry for at least 1 year before using it and 2 years is better.
I use Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil to finish it which works well. I apply 7-8 coats and use 0000 steel wool between coats until the pores are filled in. However, between coats 4 and 5 I use 600 grit sandpaper to sand the peaks flush with the pores. Hope this helps.
 
What I have was cut last spring. Does it keep the bright yellow color with the Tru-Oil, or get dark. I have a bunch of it , and I thought it would be a cheap for me handle material.
 
It will darken only very slightly when applying the Tru Oil, however, it will continue to darken slowly with age. Formby's tung oil darkens it a bit more but it is so thin that it will not fill the pores unless you have the patience for 20+ coats. I'm not sure it's possible to keep the bright yellow color from turning darker with age. I have a knife handle made from an old stump, probably 100 years old and it is already a light brown/orange in only 6 months. Some of my newer stuff looks just like I finished it 3 months ago. I have some recurve bows that are made from hedge and covered with clear fiberglass. They took 2-3 years to darken. I'm not sure if the sunlight darkens the wood or the exposure to air. If you want to speed the darkening process, let it sit un-sealed until it's the shade you want, then seal it. Also, if you quarter saw the wood, you will get a much more attractive grain pattern than sawn parallel to the grain.
 
Osage Orange is one of my favorite handle materials. I have seen it offered stabilized by reliable knife making suppliers but for the life of me I don't know why one would do it. To dry it I would cut it into boards slightly over one inch thick and coat the ends with wax or paint. I would then stack it with battens between the layers and space between the boards within the layer for air circulation somewhere covered and out of the way and leave it for a couple of years. Ultraviolet light darkens the wood. I also have treated with a dilute acid, I used aqua regia which I make by adding potassium nitrate to muratic acid (hydrochloric acid) that I got at a hardware store at the ratio of one cup per gallong of muratic acid. This gives the proper ratio of nitric acid to hydrochloric acid. I just wipe it on, it goes without saying that you need to wear heavy rubber gloves and eye protection, then heat the wood over the stove burner. Rub the surface smooth with 0000 steel wool. That will give it a nice rich brown color that will still darken a bit with age. After that just give it 2-3 coats of boiled linseed oil, which is about all it will absorb, and buff.

Doug
 
Thanks guys for the info. And thanks d37fan for bringing it up because ive been wondering about it also. I have a few blocks i got off ebay sometime ago. Gave away most of what we cleaned up in the timber to a guy who smokes pigs in a pit. He loves it for that. I kinda like the yellowish color. A couple of 1/8 inch graver handles made for use with hammer. I just figured the oil from my hand would do the seasoning job. And old time engraver said its the only wood he would use .
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Osaage Orange,Moc Orange, and several other names it goes by( kinda like satan who has may names) is a great wood for handles....I have access to a ton of the stuff that was cut somewhere around 50+ years ago...no it doesn't rot, bugs don't even try to eat it, matter of fact i think after a nuclear blast it will stil be around with the roaches!!!! The stuff I have is so freakin hard I ruined a new band saw blade cutting a total of 6 inches! My next attempt to cut it will be with a chain saw, to get it in managable chunks.

Color....hummmmm, if your prefer a certain color, don't use it, it changes with time, sun exposure, and probably several other factors. I have some that started out a redish brown set it up, inside, (not to dry, just put it in my stock bin), after a month or 3 when I went back looking through my stock I didn't know what it was! It was Brown, with hints of light red, and darker brown streaks. Now I'm not saying the color changes are bad, they are just changes, and most of what I've seen looks good, most of it won't have much figure, but the stuff that does have figure looks REALLY good.

Just know that it is HARD, destroys ALL blades, unless it's green, then it takes a long time to cure. Have fun if you can! Rex
 
Heads up for those of you who don't know - do NOT try to burn hedge in an open fireplace. Use it in a enclosed fireplace or, preferably a wood stove. It burns like coal but when it pops it can send an ember clear across the room. Ask me how I know.
 
He Denny,
From what I heard it smokes a lot too, may have a bit of oil in it, kinda like cocobola, the one I polished, did polish very much like cocobola, and I asked my buddy, who has piles of it how it burned, and he said, it smoked real bad, even dry. He's got some that is 50+ years old, that was used for fence posts, and still has many still standing. Amazing wood, a PITA to work with, I was looking at my big stick the other day and talked myself out of using it so fast it hurt my head! If someone else is cutting it into blocks I may buy some, I'm not sure if I want to do the cutting, it gets expensive quick! Rex
 
Most stabilizing outfits want the wood @ 12 percent or less; thats where most woods end up when air dried for at least a year.
 
I've used Osage Orange to make some wooden planes.
From everything I've heard and read, plus personal experience, hedge apple is one of our most stable domestic hardwoods. "Stable" meaning that the wood shrinks/expands very little during changing atmospheric conditions.
Stability is very important for this particular application; it reduces the need to re-true the plane every time the humidity changes.

Something to remember is that all wood will move, even "stabilized" wood. Just that some move less than others. How much wood movement you can tolerate will determine the type of wood to use and whether it needs to be stabilized.

Fred brought up an interesting point.
An important question is whether your application requires simple air-drying, or whether it needs to be kiln-dried.
Those who live in areas known for humidity (the South and the Midwest) will benefit best starting with kiln-dried wood (if the material is to be used for an indoor project).
Whereas someone living in the Southwest would probably find little need for kiln drying, since the low humidity produces air-dried wood that is already at an acceptable moisture content.

If you are using the wood for an application that primarily stays in an indoor (climate-controlled) environment, it's probably best to use kiln-dried material.
Although I personally see no need to stabilize Osage Orange, if you're going to have it stabilized, then it really needs to be kiln-dried for best relations with the people doing the stabilizing. Again, this will depend on conditions in your area.

On the other hand, air-drying serves well for the majority of applications for which this wood is used. So much so that it is difficult to purchase this wood in a kiln-dried state. It makes great outdoor tool handles, from gardening tools to outdoor "camp" knives. Great for making bows, too.
Basically anything that spends almost all of its time in a "natural" environment will be served well with air-drying.
How long to air-dry will depend on many factors, primarily including the average atmospheric conditions in your area and also the thickness of your wood (the thicker the stock, the longer it will take). But 1-2 years is a good rule of thumb for a reason.:3:
 
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Good stuff Rob! The fact that Osage Orange is highly prized by bow makers is a testament to its stability. A five or six foot section of wood that will maintain its shape for years is impressive.

Fred
 
The reason I was interested in stabilizing this wood was more for color retention. I like the bright yellow of the newly exposed surface. I know about how hard this stuff is when aged, have seen sparks from my chainsaw several times.
 
I don't know if even stabilization will keep the fresh cut color in the wood. I think that even then ultra violet light will cause it to darken.

Doug
 
Can't really say from experience, cause I've never tried to preserve the look on it.
But I'm inclined to think that a spar varnish with UV inhibitors would help you out.
 
As for keeping the yellow color, the ideas mentioned above, and possibly a good wood sealer AND keeping it out of direct sunlight will help, but that is all, it will eventually change to a darker brown no matter what you do. If you wanted a yellow colored wood look around, there are some other choices that will keep their color, but not as stabil or as tough as Moc Orange, (btw, thats what we call it down South), Rex
 
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