Millled some hedge today

[oldsaw]

Everything is yellow. Have a friend who has 100+ acres he is developing, all surrounded by thick stands of osage orange. Hundreds of trees, many of them 16-24" in diameter. Frustrating as all get out. Anything that was nice sized today had big voids in the middle or really nasty ring shake. Did some small stuff just to see what it was like.

It wasn't nearly has hard to mill as I expected. I got quite a few passes on my first chain before it dulled. Unfortunately, it didn't yield a lot of boards. Lester brought home 6 or 8, and I brought home 3 small but nice ones.

Today was just a trial run. Not sure how much of this stuff I want, but it wouldn't take long to get a lifetime's worth out there. I'll see what he drags out, or I find to cut down. Bad part is that it is fencerows, and there is a lot of wire around. Haven't found any grown in yet, but there is a lot of it, and the trees are so thick, it's hard to get any space to work. I'll have access to it for years.

Upside is his buddy is building a new house and has some sizeable oaks that need to come down to fit it in. I get first dibs. The day suddenly got better.

Mark

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Pics????

 

[oldsaw]

Sorry Aggie, no pics today. Got a late start, it rained/drizzled a bit, had some saw trouble, so we didn't get a whole lot of milling done. Did more of a site survey than anything. Looked for some good stuff. Hard to find in thick hedge.

Mark

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I'll let it slide this time.


I've been remodeling our house and trying to get it done before our baby gets here in a month or so. Millin' time has been slim to nil so I come here to get my fix. A story is better than nothing.

 

[woodshop]

I love osage orange and envy the folks out in the midwest that have tons of it growing there. I love working with it in the shop, as you can sand it down to 1200 grit to where it's hard and smooth as glass. Makes beautiful small items. Not sure I would want to make a chest of drawers out of it. The bright yellow color does turn to a nice light yellow-brown in time though. We find it from time to time here on east coast depending on area, but it's often found as overgrown hedges along roads. In that case, as you say, thick hard to access twisted, gnarly trees with lots of voids. Difficult to get more than a 2-3ft section, and you often have to work a lot to get that. You can putz around a work all day and go home with less than a hundred ft if that even, all small chunks of osage. Once in a while we bump into something nice, they do grown tall and strait under the right conditions. Was just offered a huge (2ft dia) osage that was taken down by a local tree company. There are several 8ft and longer sections so looking forward to milling that if and when I get to it. Sounds like you found yourself a windfall there oldsaw, enough to keep you busy for a long time if you wish. Get a few pics of the area for us so we know what you're up against.

 

[woodshop]

...baby gets here in a month or so.

Put away those saws and mills... dump plenty of Sta-bil into those gas cans because you won't see sawdust for a while with a newborn and wife to take care of.

 

[dustytools]

The hedgeapple trees around my parts are usually too twisted up to do much milling with and arent much over 8-10 inches in diameter. I may try one out some time to see what the outcome is. Mark,if you ever need a fence-post that will last for the rest of your days you have found them. I even read some where that bows were made from hedge years ago.

 

[woodshop]

The hedgeapple trees around my parts are usually to twisted up to do much milling with and arent much over 8-10 inches in diameter. I may try one out some time to see what the outcome is. Mark,if you ever need a fence-post that will last for the rest of your days you have found them. I even read some where that bows were made from hedge years ago.

Osage orange is still the premium bow wood if you're into that. Problem is you need long strait grained defect free blanks to start with. There should be some from the osage I mentioned earlier, but usually hard to come by in these parts. As for rot resistance, it's up there with black locust. I built a picnic table out of western cedar years ago, but put osage orange "feet" on the bottoms or each leg using stainless steel screws. It sat in moist soil for years and years without rotting or deteriorating, and is still solid. That stuff is about as good as it get for decay resistance.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Put away those saws and mills... dump plenty of Sta-bil into those gas cans because you won't see sawdust for a while with a newborn and wife to take care of.

...and a 3 year old. Tell me about it. is right.

Got a lot done on the house over the past few days. I might actually make it.

 

[cantcutter]

osage is a awsome wood, but the thorns are a batch......we have some larger trees around here that you can get a butt log out of.....the rest is best left as a brushpile.