Osage Orange Project Experience

[Joe A Faulkner]

A local sawyer has some 10' 8/4 Osage Orange lumber for sale. I've read about folks loving it for turning, and a few who have used it for bows. Anyone here have experience working it for furniture builds and/or workbench builds. If so, what has your experience been? I'm not finding many who have used this lumber for furniture, and would appreciate hearing from any of you who have used it for non-turning projects.

[James Conrad]

If its straight grained and dried, go for it. It's hard stuff on your tools, for working it I'd compare it to ash maybe. Once dried it is very stable, rot resistant, but the pieces that are not straight grained tend to have lots of tiny cracks, well even the straight grained can so look it over well. If it has been dried properly I'd get it, it would make a beast of a bench if you went that route.

[russell lusthaus]

more than a few use it for bows, as it is the premier wood for that purpose. I know of some who use it as trim on yachts due to the nice way it finishes up and changes color with exposure to the sun and that it does not rot.

[Brian Thornock]

I used it on a guitar and for a couple other small things. I quite like it, though it can be finicky with grain direction. Boards that size simply don't come around often at all, so I would snag it.

[Sean Hughto]

Its characteristics are rather like purple heart in my expereince - hard - a bit splintery - often with swirling grain, etc. And just as the bibrant purples of purple heart fade to duller browns over time with exposure to oxygena nd light, so too do the bright yellows and oranges of osage become more mellow brown. Osage is hard and heavy - it polishes up nice due to its density.

[Harlan Barnhart]

The scraps make really nice mallet heads. Very dense and somewhat split resistant. My grandfather made some mallets and my young cousins took them outside and crushed gravel on the sidewalk. The mallet was unharmed.