"Hey Schwing, what kind of firewood is this?"

Bois D' Arc

Jerry Nicholson

>I just inherited about 2 cords of osage orange. My father-in-law cut it into firewood lengths and stored it in his barn over 20 years ago when he tore out some hedge to make more room for wheat. It is probably dry by now. A lot of it is small but I will salvage a few 12 inch diameter pieces and see if I can do anything with it.

Jerry

Re: Bois D' Arc

Mike Schwing from Maryland

>Well apparently they're all over other parts of Md as well, but not around here for sure. I embellished the story a little bit, but neither the owner or I had a clue there was osage in there till I spotted it.

Re: Bois D' Arc

William R. Duffield, on the Cohansey

>If you have some scraps left over, that won't turn out a bowl, hedge is great for chisel handles, turning tool handles, mallets, etc. Because it's really tough. There are a few of them growing around here. I keep track of their locations in the fall, when the bright orange fruit ripen and begin to fall.

Re: Bois D' Arc

Jerry Nicholson

>Here in south central Kansas hedges were planted by the mile along the section and half section lines during the dust bowl days. A lot of the hedge rows have been torn out to make room for more crops (big mistake, I think) but there are still a lot of hedge trees left. 12 inch to 18 inch trunks are not uncommon.

Jerry

Mulberry?

John Trant

>Are you sure it is osage orange? We have quite a bit of mulberry around here (DC/Baltimore corridor) and mulberry wood looks quite a bit like osage. You will know the first dried bowl you turn because mulberry is not nearly as hard as osage.

John