I am looking at cutting some Osage trees Saturday. I have never cut any. What am I walking into? Is it gonna ruin my blade or is it easy to cut?
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I am looking at cutting some Osage trees Saturday. I have never cut any. What am I walking into? Is it gonna ruin my blade or is it easy to cut?
You better have extra chains for the saw, and they better be sharp...it is a extra hard, dense, heavy, wood.
As far as I know, Ironwood is the only thing harder.
This is why it makes such good fish cover....it will last a couple lifetimes.
I have never cut a full tree, I had 3 sources bring me truck loads of big limbs....it took me forever to try to hand saw them to size.
I broke out the chain saw and I dulled a chain. Then I started adding limbs to concrete, after they dried, I realized unlike other limbs these weighed alot more....some sets took 3 guys to drop....BUT IT WAS WORTH ALL THE WORK!
Wear good heavy clothes and boots. Them thorns are rough on your body. Wood is hard a iron but like Intimadator said will be there for your Grankids. Back home in Okla where I am from there are fence post I put up over 50 years ago still holding up barb wire fence.
If I see sparks fly I am gonna run for the truck. LOL
Should not take much weight to sink unless allowed to dry out .
Sounds like your talkin' 'bout Bois-de-Ark to me. Lifetime fence post.
Seriously, it is about THE very best natural cover material we ever used; it supports far more biological diversity than PVC but is extremely LONG lasting . An older gentleman showed me a set that he and his then teen aged son sank in CJ in the early 1980s...it was STILL there and visible on his sonar after 20+ years. His grandkids now fish it with him and his son...would suggest sinking ALL of it you can ! Just make certain you have several SHARP cutting chains; you WILL need them !
we cut lots of it here. It is not bad to cut if it is green. It will be very white sappy. It is when it dries out that it get hard, and makes sparks from your chain.
Yup !
If you are a woodworker this wood is great for wood mallets and chisel handles. I've made wood mauls, called "beetles" out of it and drove steel T posts in with it and it's still good! Cut it to shape while it's still green or prepare to do a LOT of sharpeneing! Not a whole lot of it in GA but thanks for the tip on making good cover for crappie with the limbs.
I have cut lots of this stuff for firewood. It is great if you cover it with other woods while burning to avoid overheating the stove . I didn't encounter the fast chain dulling. Make sure the bark is not dirty and should be no problems with green wood. Dry dead wood is a nightmare and truly hard on chains. The brush is a nightmare to stack tight so just throw it in the pond for cover.
Here's some of the smaller branches in buckets....these were easy to work with and drop.
But I also built alot more with 2x4 and 4x4 sized limbs, with lengths from 5 to 7 feet...stupid me...it took 3 of us to lift them and drop them in the water!:):):)
As others said, they are much easier to work with green.
And that is a stack of dried Hedge/Osage for the fireplace.;)
The structure looks good. Watch that Hedge-Osage closely in open fireplace. Must have good screen. It will throw heavy sparks half way across the room in a heartbeat .
If you ever want to burn it, you also better have the fireplace or stove checked out....any issues will be brought to your attention quickly...once you get it going, it burns Super Hot and for a long time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Olegiller1
You really cut down on your wood consumption, but it's heck on something not designed for it.
The only thing I've ever burnt that was hotter was when I was in SC...had a friend who bought an old warehouse in Charleston that was built in the 1800's.
He was re-doing the whole interior. The warehouse had original shelving (??) that was 18 inches wide, 3 inches thick, and 24 feet long...we had no idea what kind of wood it was, and it was dry.
He gave me all the wood I wanted, a buddy and I spent 2 days cutting it into squares, and hauling it back to Greenville.
The First cool night, we put 4 squares into the fireplace, and I went to take a shower....when I got out the house was steaming...it was 95 degrees in the large living room, the bricks on the outside of the fireplace were too hot to touch...it took forever to get that wood to cool down....from then on we used 1 square....we still don't know if that was ironwood, or old resin treated planking, it lasted my entire 7 yrs down there....best wood I ever burnt, no popping, no smell, just extreme BTU's
It also makes awesome pots for turkey calls, the super dense wood will give off sounds no other wood will...
"Pots" is that referring to a slate? Educate me please.Quote:
Originally Posted by MDBowhunter
Yes sir, friction calls or slate if you will. I make custom friction calls and Osage makes some of the best sounding calls, here are some pics of a few that turned for some customers last year. The one on the bottom right is Osage that was hit with a torch then finished, and two right above it are laminated with Bocote, Osage and Padauk. The Osage is the yellow looking wood. All of these calls are double sided and your looking at the bottom side in the pic, The Osage call is copper over slate, nice and raspy...
Attachment 216001
Those are nice. Little brother made a stock for my old single shot 410 back in the 60's from Osage that is beautiful, wish I had a picture.