Bois d' Arc Rocker

[Cody Colston]

I've had this rocker completed since late February but haven't had time to get pictures taken. It's a Hal Taylor design (his old design) and was a commissioned piece. It's Bois d' Arc (Osage Orange) and finished with a coat of BLO followed by four coats of wipe-on Poly.

[jim sauterer]

looks great cody.nice job.i am sure it will be admired by the customer.

[Mike Hicks]

Looks great over here also, Cody....lol. Nice Job!

[Baxter Smith]

I admire anyone who can do something like this! Looks great!

[Jim Becker]

That's really a sharp piece! Wow. Nice!

BTW, be sure your customer understands that the color will change quite noticeably as Osage Orange turns quite brown with oxidation and UV exposure.

[gary Zimmel]

Sweet looking rocker!
Well done Cody, very well done...

[Roy Wall]

Nice form and boy........that is going to age nicely!! Excellent!

[George Sanders]

Astounding, considering that you used the densest wood on the North American continent! I thought I did good using osage orange for the runners on my cut off sled. You are amazing.

[John Keeton]

Cody, this one really turned out well. The osage will mellow out over the years to a nice brown color. It sure made a striking piece! Nice work!

[John Thompson]

Simply an outstanding job Cody. Another Kudo as George mentioned for the use of the OO as that stuff ranks up there with lignum vitae and black locust in density. Did ya have to sharpen a blade a time or two during the project? :)

Extremely well done in my eyes...

[Terry Hatfield]

Dude!!!!!!!!!! That is awesome, Cody!!! What a fantastic piece of work that is!

[Terry Beadle]

+1 on the well done !

[Van Huskey]

I love it and especially the off set placement of the knot!

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Great work, Cody. Now you can use the income from the piece to replace/sharpen bits and blades. ;)

[Cody Colston]

Thanks for the comments, guys.

Jim, I informed the client about the color change prior to starting the build. He still wanted the Bois d' Arc after I showed him some turned pieces of various woods.

John T., the Bois d' Arc cut fine but routing is another story. It's so brittle that I had to climb cut all the routing passes. Conventional routing, either with or against the grain, produced some horrible tearout...I could hear it while routing.

I've turned many pieces of Bois d' Arc but I'm not eager to use it on a large flatwork piece again.

Edit In: The wood was custom cut and kiln dried by M&G Sawmill in Huntsville. Anybody within driving distance should check them out. Fine people and a fine product.

[Vince Shriver]

Cody, the chair is way cool - terrific job.

[David Gendron]

Great work indeed! I would love to put my hands on some of that wood! Maybe one day! This is a good looking rocker!

[Tom Winship]

Cody, M&G is actually close to me (less than 50 miles). Have you had experience with their mesquite?
Tom

Meant to say what a great job also!

[Danny Hamsley]

Simply awesome!

[Cody Colston]

Cody, M&G is actually close to me (less than 50 miles). Have you had experience with their mesquite?
Tom

Meant to say what a great job also!

Tom, M&G may have the finest Mesquite lumber in Texas. According to their site, they hand pick the trees from the banks of the Frio River in South Texas. I've been there when a large batch came out of the kiln and I was amazed at the quality.

My dining table is made from M&G Mesquite and I have some clear 8/4 planks in my shop that I got from them a couple or three years ago.

Mesquite is not inexpensive, especially clear boards over 5 ft. in length. However, it's a great working wood, extremely stable and beautiful when finished. Burl figure is almost a given in much of it.

Check with Michael via e-mail to see what he has available right now. If he doesn't have any ready to sell, he can give you a pretty good estimate when the next batch will come out of the kiln.

Thanks for the comments on the rocker.

[Rusty Elam]

+1 on the Mesquite from M & G, I have also got some great turning stock of it. Great people.
By the way Cody, not bad for a horse apple tree;)
Growing up around here who would of ever thought we would be "buying" Bois D Arc
Rusty

[Cody Colston]

+1 on the Mesquite from M & G, I have also got some great turning stock of it. Great people.
By the way Cody, not bad for a horse apple tree;)
Growing up around here who would of ever thought we would be "buying" Bois D Arc
Rusty

I never thought I would be buying Bois d' Arc lumber. I did sell some Mesquite fence posts when I was a teenager. Me and a buddy had a ready source and were getting 65 cents for a 7' post, 3" diameter and up. The problem was that we didn't have a chain saw. We were cutting the posts with an axe. We didn't make a lot of money. :(