Box with live edge

[steve_g]

Dave

Your recollection jogged a memory back to the surface, and I dug out an old book to confirm it... Hickory furniture raw materials are harvested in the winter for that exact purpose! Now... winter in Texas may not qualify, but Maybe it does!

Steve

[feinddj]

Trees harvested in winter have a lower moisture content due to the tree's growth cycle. I do a fair amount of turning. The way most turners keep a natural edge on if it is iffy is our old pal, superglue. You can prevent the super glue from staining the wood by applying a sanding sealer first and then the glue.

David

[joe]

Ok Steve. I'll pay the $50. since it's you.

But you have to sign it on the bottom to "Joe Crumley"

I've harvested some OO and it can be a challenge. These trees have a bizillion sharp thrones. They will easily go through leather. The fresh wood is a brilliant yellow green and dries a beautiful deep red brown. It will buff to a gloss without any surface treatment.

Joe

[steve_g]

"Ok Steve. I'll pay the $50"

Joe I'm honored that you like something I've made... After I take off the 100% commission the store marks up my product and subtract the friend discount, I may owe you some money...Actually, I'm making several more early this week and was going to give you the pick of the litter! Now don't get to feeling special or anything I'm doing this for everyone who has a folder on my desktop named after them...

I'll post images later and we'll all place bets as to which one you choose!

Steve

[joe]

Thank you very much. I'm excited about getting a piece of your fine work. I'm very fond of live edges on furniture. I'll send a photo of my table top with some of that on it.

I know there will be some mailing costs. Give me a total and I'll send a check.

Joe Crumley

[genek]

Nice work.... For every ones info.. Trees that are harvested in the winter time when the sap is in the roots and is not moving up the tree. The bark will stay on...i harvest sasafrass and hickory in the winter to make sure the bark stays on....if the trees lose their leaves in your area. Then this may follow to be true there. It is the sugars that are going back and forth in the bark that causes it to slip off of the wood. But when the sap is down the bark is tight and bonds to the wood.
Osage orange or know as hedge apple in my area.. Is extremely hard due to high silicone content.
Osage, will dull tools real quick... I have seen sparks fly off of my saw blades, and i have seen it remove the teeth off of my new band saw blade.
Osage was used as fences and was exported to most cattle area's...
If you really want a lot of thorns go hit the base of the tree a couple of times with an ax and watch what happens next year... Lol...

[pappybaynes]

I grew up on a dairy farm in south Jersey...we had a pasture that had two sides of it bordered with Osage Orange trees ...no fencing was needed on those two sides - the needles were 3-5 inches long and would easily go through the tire of a lawn tractor - the wood itself has one of the highest, if not the highest BTU ratings as firewood - we use to through the sticky fruit at each other...

Nice work.... For every ones info.. Trees that are harvested in the winter time when the sap is in the roots and is not moving up the tree. The bark will stay on...i harvest sasafrass and hickory in the winter to make sure the bark stays on....if the trees lose their leaves in your area. Then this may follow to be true there. It is the sugars that are going back and forth in the bark that causes it to slip off of the wood. But when the sap is down the bark is tight and bonds to the wood.
Osage orange or know as hedge apple in my area.. Is extremely hard due to high silicone content.
Osage, will dull tools real quick... I have seen sparks fly off of my saw blades, and i have seen it remove the teeth off of my new band saw blade.
Osage was used as fences and was exported to most cattle area's...
If you really want a lot of thorns go hit the base of the tree a couple of times with an ax and watch what happens next year... Lol...

[jerry_stanek]

It sure does a number on chain saw chains.

[steve_g]

I was introduced to the Osage Orange tree when we moved to Texas 40 years ago. As a young father I couldn't imagine a nastier tree... we had to protect our children from the one in our backyard!

Texans call it " Bodark" which is the French "Bois D' Arc" all run together. I was told as gospel truth that "Noah's" arc was built of it... Later I found out that the "Arc" part was referring to the shape of a Bow (for shooting arrows). The following is a little blurb I include with crafts made from it.

Osage-orange, (Maclura pomifera)

Osage-orange occurs naturally in the Red River drainage of Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas, the area historically occupied by the Osage Indians. Texans don’t know the tree by this name, but call it Horse-apple, Bois D'Arc, or Bodark. Okies laugh when Texans call it “Horse-apple” because to them, horse apples are what’s left when the parade is over! Bodark is a corruption of the French Bois D’ Arc or bow wood. Most Osage timber is knotty and twisted, but when straight-grained makes very good bows. In early 19th century Arkansas, a good Osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket. The fruit, found only on the female tree, is roughly spherical but bumpy and uneatable.

Before the introduction of barbed wire the sharp-thorned trees were planted as cattle-deterring hedges, and afterward became an important source of fence posts. It was one of the primary trees used in President Roosevelt's "Great Plains Shelterbelt" WPA project, which was launched in 1934. This resulted in 220 million trees being planted throughout the great plains states. The saplings were aggressively pruned to promote bushy growth that was "Horse high, bull strong and hog tight."

The heavy, close-grained yellow-orange wood is very strong , dense and stable it takes a high polish and is prized by craftsmen. However, other than for use as fence posts, it is considered exotic lumber and has little commercial lumber value.

[joe]

Well Huray.

Now I don't feel so alone. I've been hording pieces of this tree for years. I can identify it during the winter by it's lacy bark. As it hardens up, you can see sparks flying when a chainsaw hits it.

I'd be afraid to make a sign out of it. No telling what would happen. It would last though but who knows about cracks and splits.. No question about that. Horse apple fence post last a lifetime.

Joe Crumley