Osage orange question

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I'm making a cross to hang over the door of my church. I have some osage orange and I thought it would be a good choice because of it's tolerance to weather. I've never worked with it before and so I've checked whatever I could find online and found references that the wood contains a water soluble dye, i.e. if you put some chips in water it will turn the water yellow.

Since this will be exposed to the elements, is there a possibility that this dye will leach out of the wood, staining the siding below it?

If so would sealing the wood with poly or another finish prevent this? Or is there another wood I should use?

Thanks for all input.

Cliff

[John K Jordan]

Yikes, I use a lot of osage orange for woodturning and know about the dye but I never imagined rain could leech it out of a board. I always thought you needed chips or sawdust to make the dye. It should be easy enough to tack some to a piece of plywood or siding and mist it for a few days. I generally finish turnings with shellac or tru-oil but I suspect any waterproof sealer or oil would work. Note that freshly cut osage is bright yellow/orange but fairly quickly (a couple of years) turns brown and darker regardless of finish, especially in the light. For exterior use unfinished (I love it for garden stakes, fence tightening sticks, etc) it turns dark and then grey quickly. It will last forever outside, even with no finish. (Old farmer's joke: one osage fence post will outlast 6 post holes.)

To avoid any possible leeching worry could you fabricate some supports (stainless?) that would space the cross an inch or two off the siding?

Another wood option might be eastern red cedar. ERC is highly resistant to decay if it is all red with no white, finished or not. I use it for barn siding, barn doors, 4x4 posts. I have rough sawn doors maybe 6 years old with one coat of boiled linseed oil that look the same now as when I put them up. Cedar is also a whole lot lighter in weight than osage! It is great for exterior signs and such.

Just thinking about this makes me want to fire up the sawmill! I have a big pile of ERC and several large osage logs.

JKJ

[Bradley Gray]

I have had color runs when spraying osage with water base poly - you may want to use a solvent finish. Osage will turn medium brown with UV exposure no matter what finish is used.