Ironwood or osage orange

[mark george]

Does anyone know where to buy Ironwood or osage orange in Houston Texas?

[James Kuhn]

http://www.hardwoodbarn.com

These guys are a not exactly close to you, but seem to stock both species:

[Jeff Towle]

Houston Hardwoods usually carries it.
http://www.houstonhardwoods.com/

[Cody Colston]

M&G is about 9 miles west of Huntsville. http://www.mgsawmill.com/

[Brad Ivers]

M&G Sawmill gets my vote as well. http://www.mgsawmill.com
Great wood at great prices. Call and talk to Michael, you won't be disappointed.

[Jim Becker]

For the record and unlike Osage Orange, "Ironwood" is not a species...it's a variable set of very hard woods....usually one or more species in a given region are labeled "ironwood" based on properties.

[Paul Turner]

Locally, osage orange is refered to as "hedgeapple". I've seen sparks fly when cutting with a chainsaw(No, not LOTS of sparks, more like"look at that, that was a spark"). My question is "How does hedge work in the shop?"

[josh bjork]

Paul, hedge was a natural fence. The wood is famous for having wire in it that it has grown around.

[Homer Faucett]

Paul, hedge was a natural fence. The wood is famous for having wire in it that it has grown around.

Maybe, but Osage Orange also has a high silica content, which is why it's so tough on tooling when you cut it. That can cause sparks, and I've seen it happen personally on trees that were nowhere near any property line or area where a fence would run. If you want to resharpen your chain in short order, got to work on osage orange. Between osage orange and black locust, I can't think of a more weather resistant wood, though. I would bet it would make a fine deck chair that would last forever.

[Brad Townsend]

Maybe, but Osage Orange also has a high silica content, which is why it's so tough on tooling when you cut it. That can cause sparks, and I've seen it happen personally on trees that were nowhere near any property line or area where a fence would run. If you want to resharpen your chain in short order, got to work on osage orange. Between osage orange and black locust, I can't think of a more weather resistant wood, though. I would bet it would make a fine deck chair that would last forever. The other day, a friend showed me some glass insulator mounting pegs he got off some very old utility poles that were taken down and replaced. The pegs were made from Osage Orange for the very reason you have mentioned. After decades of being in the elements 25' off the ground, they were solid and stable, while the crossarm they were set in was rotting away.

[richard dombroski]

My grandfather use to say a good hedge post would last a hundred years. He said he knew because he tryed it twice

[Homer Faucett]

The other day, a friend showed me some glass insulator mounting pegs he got off some very old utility poles that were taken down and replaced. The pegs were made from Osage Orange for the very reason you have mentioned. After decades of being in the elements 25' off the ground, they were solid and stable, while the crossarm they were set in was rotting away.

Even more impressive is that we still have Osage Orange and Black locust fenceposts in the ground at my family's homestead. Before I ever even thought about using a table saw, my gradfather used to point out those fence posts to me and where they were cut down on the farm. He was 65 when he pointed those out to me, and had installed them when he was in his 30's. They're still standing, and he passed away when he was 80.

[Leo Pashea]

I know of Osage Orange fence posts that have been in the ground for over 75 years. If you strip the bark off the posts first, they will last for who knows how long. (The fella that owns the property where these posts are can remember his Pop and Gramps setting the posts. He was about 10 years old then.............and he is a few months shy of 90 now.)
I have access to lots of Osage. While it is pretty to turn, and finishes like most exotics, it is not one of my favorites. The stuff is HARD!

[Richard Daly]

I work on a golf course and do a lot of tree cutting ..I believe that ironwood is Hornbeam..there are two types Hop hornbeam that has a bark that looks like shaggy bark hickory only on a smaller scale.
The other is american hornbeam that is a twisted smooth bark..I don't know how big the get in your area but around the Cleveland , oh area they only get to be American 4" across .the hop max that i have seen is about 8". I hope this is correct info....I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer...my wife can attest to that...Stubby2 ...keep fingers out of joiners...

[Rick Moyer]

Locally, osage orange is refered to as "hedgeapple". I've seen sparks fly when cutting with a chainsaw(No, not LOTS of sparks, more like"look at that, that was a spark"). My question is "How does hedge work in the shop?"
Same here in rural Pennsylvania. when I was a kid we used to take a walk and see how far we could roll the "hedgeapples" down the road! I had heard the wood was used by native Americans to build canoes?!


Small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it.

[Jim Becker]

Rick, much of the Osage Orange in PA is the result of Lewis and Clark sending samples back to Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia. It's not native to this region, but there is a lot to find, especially along many rural roads...some of which are no longer all that rural!

And of many things that it was used for, building bows was a favorite...hence, one of it's names of Bos d' Arc. (Or Bo-dark in some regional dialects... :D)

My bench mallet head is made from some locally collected Osage Orange.

[Rick Moyer]

Thanks Jim. I didn't realize it was not native here. I had heard of Bos D'arc and knew of the bow application. The trees I am most familiar with were in fact lining a rural road, although Bucknell University has a few on their golf course as well.