Thinking in slow motion....

Osage orange

Henry Higginbotham

What made osage orange a poor choice for the chair? There is an osage orange tree near me that's making somewhat of a nuisance of itself, and I've gotten permission to turn it into lumber.

I really don't have any sort of project in mind--I just like the look of the wood. Not a high chair, I take it (not that I was thinking that, anyway), but why?

Re: Osage orange

John K Jordan

...an osage orange tree near me...

I really don't have any sort of project in mind--I just like the look of the wood....

Do you do any woodturning? Osage is great for that! - hard, heavy, cuts cleanly, finishes nicely. The only "problem" is it turns from a beautiful yellow to brown before too many years pass.

JKJ

Re: Thinking in slow motion....

Hank Knight

Hi, Barry.

I attribute my slow progress on almost all of my projects to two factors. First, I suffer from analytical paralysis - I think things to death and worry about them. Second, I'm just bone lazy. Every once in a while I get a burst of energy and actually get something done. This weekend, I accomplished two tasks on my desk I've been gnawing on and worrying about since probably Christmas. It turns out that both were relatively straight forward and accomplished in a matter of a couple of hours. I usually find this to be the case: things that I worry about and fret over frequently turn out to be fairly easy. I don't know if that's because I have thought so much about them that I've been able to eliminate most of the trouble spots before I actually get to the doing of them, or whether I fret needlessly. What I do know is that when I get of my butt and actually go do something, things get accomplished. Funny how that works.

Re: Osage orange

Barry Irby

Like JKJ, I really like Osage Orange for turning and some flat work projects. This chair may not have been the best choice. Or maybe it was the combination of a rambunctious kid, a brick floor, and hard brittle wood.

Gorgeous stuff. Hard as woodpeckers lips and bright yellow when freshly milled. Turns the color of tea or bourbon as it ages in light. I like it both ways as long as the color change is fairly even. I noticed on the char that a tiny piece of sap that got left on it did not change much. I'll take all I can get.

My son and I made a dining table for him with a book matched cherry top (From and single board) and an OO base. The lags are 4" square at the top and taper to about 2". Someone on WC sent me the rails for the sides as all I had was short pieces. (Thanks) The base has aged very nicely and looks great with the cherry top.

Grab that tree. Have it cut any way you like. Save the limbs for turning blanks. Find a local turning club if you don't turn. Has little tendency to rotr, so you can be rather casual about storing it.

Re: Thinking in slow motion....

Barry Irby

Ah yes, the paralysis of analysis. Know it well. Suffer badly.

Been staring at that stool for ten years. Considered fifty fixes. When I finally got to it it took about two hours, scattered across two days. Not perfect but good enough. Now I am considering another coat of finish.

What do you think, should we let Perfect get in the way of excellent?

Incidentally, I made a mistake similar to your's. I was trying to bang out a quick little table for a friend to put her TV on. Used my new Festool Domino to mortice the rails to the legs. Forgot to set the little lever that locks the vertical position of the slot. Did all four legs. The distance from the surface to the center of the domino was sort of a random event. I went to do the rails and just custom set the adjustment for each domino and numbered them. It actually went together. Couldn't believe I did it and was able to recover. I think about what anyone who discovered it would say. (Why would every slot be different????) Not going to happen. That table will be in the land fill before anyone would ever analyze it.

So, Hank, go put in an hour on your desk and I will put one in on my clock.

By the way, I suffer from shop clutter. As a matter of discipline, I have gotten into the habit of "putting ten things away before I start". It helps, a little. And it's funny. I can walk in just to get a pencil and catch myself putting ten things away before I walk out with the pencil.

Re: Osage orange

John K Jordan

Grab that tree. Have it cut any way you like. Save the limbs for turning blanks. Find a local turning club if you don't turn. Has little tendency to rotr, so you can be rather casual about storing it.

Another thing osage is fantastic for: garden stakes and other outdoor things. It will last a lifetime even in the ground, no preservative needed. An old favorite for fence posts.

I have four osage logs still waiting for me to put them on the sawmill. I plan on sawing most of them into garden stakes since I already have plenty of osage turning blanks.

Great for mallets, tool handles, machining into small things that might take some stress. Can be cut and turned very thin and still stay strong.

JKJ

JKJ

Talking about putting things off....

Ron in Sterling, CT

Back in 93 I took an early retirement and had plenty of free time on my hands. I HATE TO FINISH With lots of time on my hands I was able to do things in my shop. I decided that before I started a new project I would "finish" all of the things I had built and stored underneath the cellar stairs un finished. It took me over two months, working half days, to get all of those projects done. I learned a lot about finishing, and got extra storage space under the stairway. Talk about putting things off.

Ron

Re: Osage orange

TomD

It is a premium wood for bows and guitars. Though I don't think it has been much recognized for guitars yet. It is very good though, and it is unusual, and you can tour internationally without it causing problems at borders.

2 1.25" square pieces 36" in length are worth about 80 dollars for bows.

Main problem I have had with osage is when you get a piece with wild grain it can tear out spectacularly, though technique will take care of that. I think part of the reason for the tear out is that it can grow really fast and you get rings as much as 1/4" spaced, so what would be a small tear between growth rings in another wood is large in Osage, if you have a very ope piece.

Re: Osage orange

Barry Irby

I have several large pieces about 4" thick, but I don't think they are 36" long. I know they are at least thirty because I made table legs for my son's dining room table. If you are interested, I will check when I get home.

Re: Talking about putting things off....

Joe Bradshaw

I know about not liking to finish things. But, on the subject of OO, I really like to carve spoons from it. I use power tools almost exclusively in my spoon carving.

Joe.

Blanks for bows

John K Jordan

2 1.25" square pieces 36" in length are worth about 80 dollars for bows.



Main problem I have had with osage is when you get a piece with wild grain it can tear out spectacularly, . . .

Ok, how do you find buyers for these 36" pieces? Do they need to be dry? What kind of bows are made with these sticks?

When I turn thin spindles from osage I often see chipping where "splinters" are torn out, worse as the diameter decreases (1/2" or smaller) and with straight grain and not wild grain. This is only when making planing cuts with a skew chisel, along side grain, never when cutting across the grain. No problems when I switch to a tool with a curved edge, such as a small roughing gouge or spindle gouge.

Re: Blanks for bows

Barry Irby

I have some that is 34 1/2" long. Is that long enough?

And I second the question of how to find the buyers of the blanks?

Try an archery forum...

John in NM

I'm sure there are several, and most forums have classified ad subforums.

I've made ax handles out of osage, its wonderful stuff for that (so if you have any ~1.5x3x30 let me know )

Re: Blanks for bows

tomd

Check out prices on ebay. Also check 3 rivers archery, they have bow making stuff, check the prices for laminations there. I am in in Can prices might be cheaper in Oklahoma.

Those pieces would make an English lomgbow. Bows can be made of nearly any wood, but yew and osage are the best forlongbows. You can make shorter bows if you widen limbs, despite what people may think eng lonbows are not the best format, but the are beautiful.

if you want info, paleoplanet, or the book The Osage Bow, by Torges. To dig deeper, Th 4 vol st The Boyers Bible. Vol 1 and 4 are best. Or youtube.

Re: Try an archery forum...

Barry Irby

I will rummage through what I have.

Off the top of my head I know I have two pieces that are about 4" by 34" by 20+".

I had two more pieces I got years ago from a yard tree someone had cut down and wanted to get rid of. Got it for the effort of going to get it and cleaning up the rest of the trash. And having it sawed. Had no idea what I would use it for so we cut it about 4" thick. Unfortunately it was already cut to length when we got there.

Made table legs for my sons cherry table. the cherry looked good with it when the OO was yellow and still looks good now that it is dark.

Gave a piece big enough for a 16" bowl to someone in the turning club. Crickets

Made a high chair for my cousin's grandson. Repairing it now. OO is brittle.

It makes fabulous end grain cutting boards. Save every scrap.

I will check and see if I have a handle blank.