anyone ever heard of mara or huckberry? or have any tipps on osage

[curtis rosche]

i just recently for my birthday got a mara bowl blank, anyone ever heard of this wood i cant seem to findanything about it and dont know how it turns.... i also got a bunch of osage blanks a wild pear blank and some boards that are called huckleberry or somewthing like that any one know any thing about these?

[Gary Herrmann]

Osage turns nicely if wet. When it dries, its reeeely hard. Pear is a joy to turn. Huckleberry - maybe Hackberry? It's in the maple family and also turns nicely. Never turned Mara.

[curtis rosche]

the osage is waxed and it said on ebay that it was partialy dry the hackberry is in boards and they are very nicely spalted........if the osage isnt dry when it is turned will it crack and warp alot?
mara is a dark redish brown kinda cocobolo looking with an endgrain like purpleheart

[Brian McInturff]

It was probably Narra. I've never turned it though.

[Greg Just]

I have turned a few things out of osage and one piece cracked. I'm not sure if I got it too hot while sanding it, but the wine stopper I made cracked a couple of days after it was finished. It does turn and sand real nice and was easy to finish.

Good luck

[Allen Neighbors]

Curtis, I've turned a ton Osage Orange (Known here as Bois d'Arc, it's French name) and a ton of Chinaberry, which is almost the same as Hackberry.
Osage is turnable even when dry... it just takes patience and sharp tools. The heartwood is bright yellow when green, and will gradually turn to a beautiful chocolate brown with exposure to light. It will do well if roughturned and put into the soap soak for a month, then allowed to dry slowly in an enclosed space. It will warp somewhat; but it will crack if it isn't cared for carefully. It often has some great chatoyance. I cut into a 100 year old corner post of Osage, and it was still mostly yellow inside. It had cracked due to exposure to the elements, but I got a nice handle out of it.
The Hackberry cuts like butter, and is many times mistaken for Chinaberry, and vice versa. Before it spalts, it seems to almost have the properties of Lignum Vitae, in that it seems to me that it lubricates my tools as they cut. It's very blonde and doesn't change colors over time, and is very susceptible to worms, just like Mesquite, only it is much more nourishing to the worms, evidently. I've never seen worms get as big as they do in Chinaberry and Hackberry. Roughturned, I also soak it in soap for a month.
Sorry I ran on and on with this.

[curtis rosche]

thanks for the tips on the osage it was drying for 1 year and i turned it today in shop class and finished everything but putting waterlox on it......it is a fun wood turned like walnut cuts smooth at low speeds....kinda funny i was in a hurry because i wanted to turn it today and not have to wait for glue to dry so i glued it to a peice of maple with a little bit of superglue and turned it 5min later..........
the one block i got actualy has burl on it.....




the other wood is mara thats what it says on the block it is a dark brown maroon color.....

the hack berry has an amazing grain and color and it does have a couple huge worm holes at the end

[Dale Miner]

From somewhere, I seem to recall that Mara either can cause severe allergic reactions in some/most people, or is toxic.

Can't remember where I got this impression, but think it was a verbal warning from someone.

Later,

Dale M

[curtis rosche]

if its toxic i guess ill get one of the stupid kids in class to ruff it for me

[Barry Elder]

Mara is one of the names of a South American wood but I haven't turned any of it.

[Grey Hackle]

Mara generally turns pretty well, but can be a little brittle. Nice color, can have interesting figure. Wear a dust mask when turning, wash you're hands when you're done, and you should be ok.

[Chuck Jones]

I'm sorry the "Huck Berry" turned out to be hackberry. We have huckleberry bushes all over one area of our farm and I was looking forward to finding out what kind of luck you had with it. It doesn't get large enough to make boards so I figured what you had wasn't huckleberry. Just tonight my wife asked if I'd tried turning any of it; I haven't.

A friend gave me an osage orange ("Bodark" as they say around here) log a couple years ago (before I started turning) and I sawed it into lumber. Fortunately I left some of the boards 2-3 inches thick. I have had very good success with it, but like others have already said, you need some sharp tools. It's pretty bad to chip out and/or split while I'm turning it, but I have not had any trouble with it cracking afterwards. Mostly I've turned accent pieces and small things like tops, etc. -- nothing large like a bowl. Same friend gave me another really rough OO log last week. I haven't done anything with it yet.

I recently saw several duck calls made from OO many years ago and like Allen said they are now a beautiful chocolate color. I had mixed reactions to learning that. I kinda like the orange color, but the darker color is great too. Fellow who collects the duck calls said OO is easy for him to identify because after it ages the grain causes a "hologram" effect. (Beyond my untrained eye.)

[Quinn McCarthy]

I made a 24" tall pepper grinder out of Mara. It was a beautiful piece of wood. It turned just fine and didn't have any reaction to the dust. It's some pretty dense stuff. Took me 2 1/2 hours to drill the whole up the middle.

Quinn

[Curt Fuller]

I've never heard of Mara but I think Huckberry is that guy that's running for president, isn't it?;)

Been working on an Osage Orange project that I'll be posting soon. It's hard wood but it turns as clean as anything I've ever turned. Needs almost no sanding if the tools are sharp.

[Billy Dodd]

The hackberry is called poormans ash because it resembles it when finished. The osage orange has a glow to it if you take it into darkness. Not as much as a glo stick but you can see it. Also it is very irredesent when sanded smooth. Haven't messed with the other wood so I can't help with that.
If you're not familiar with the osage orange, it's the tree that has the big green orange textured apples on it that is also called horse apples.

[curtis rosche]

the hologram he is talking about is the same effect as a good peice of walnut when you change the angle your looking at it changes from shiny to dull


thanks for the help with osage it turned nicely not hard must be green it started to crack a little just hair line but i finished it and waterloxed it


how posionous is mara?