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i´ve tried the sponsors, but apparently it´s harder to find osage orange then i thought.

any help is, as always, greatly appreciated.

thanks,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

I don't think there is much market for its lumber. It can be difficult to find clear wood in usable dimensions; the trees tend to be gnarly. I came across a board here locally that was reasonably clear and wide enough for back and sides. I ruined it with a resaw malfunction. I keep an eye out for more when I go back.

As I understand it there is a South American wood that goes by the name fustic that is closely related and grows large enough. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

miguel I get my osage orange when he has it from a local sawmill. here in kansas city .It grows extensively over the following states nebraska, iowa, missouri,oklahoma, tenn, illinois etc etc .Try and google sawmills especially small operations they might be able to ship overseas.?. Can PM my source , but don/t know if he would ship overseas, his stock is usually wet.The osage is tough to work tears readily with a plane , and gums up my thickness sander big time.

are you looking for lumber or B&S sets?

thanks for the replies. B&S sets would be ideal, as i don´t have a large enough bandsaw for resawing. probably way cheaper to ship to europe too.

i didn´t know it was that gummy - thanks for the tips.

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There is a stupid Osage orange tree by the shop here. I'm getting tired of it dropping its stupid fruit all over the ground every year. You can have it if you fly over here and chop it down. I actually believe there are several. No way one can produce as much as we get lying around.

zeke, that made me laugh. thanks.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

You may laugh, you would laugh even harder if you saw me trip over one of those stupid hedge apples. (around here we call them hedge apples and call it a hedge apple tree, its the same thing. apples and oranges you know). Im serious though when the fruit starts to drop it covers the ground. Im always tripping on the darn things and they get smashed all over the road from cars running over them and it can get pretty slick trying to cross the road!

We have Osage Orange (Bo-Dark) trees all over Texas.
My local sawmill cuts and stocks it.
May I ask what makes Osage Orange desirable for guitars?
Just curious-
Dan

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wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

It's been several years now since I ordered last, but Steve Chapman in Missouri provided wonderful perfectly quartered Osage Orange. He has access to some pretty big trees he harvests around the state. We spent quite a bit of time on the phone as he wanted to be sure he was sending exactly what I wanted. He hadn't sold to guitar builders at the time so we went over runout and all the other stuff before he would even take the order. He is a small (one man) lumbermill and this might be him [schapman@hughes.net ] . Great guy to work with. I'm not sure how to go about it, but if you want to contact me I can give you his phone numbers. (I'm assuming they shouldn't be posted here in the discussions).

I would strongly recommend getting green lumber and resawing it to about 0.25" and then dry it stickered. Allow plenty of time, as at least mine took quite a while to dry out even thinner than that. It cuts like butter green, and is hard as a rock when dry. I had no problems at all with any of mine in the thickness sander but of course you would want to wait to thickness sand once it was dry. Just be ready for everyone to think you have liver problems when you step out of the shop after sanding, that bright yellow looks pretty strange on everything.

It is felt by some to be identical (more so than any other wood) to Brazilian rosewood accoustically, and the stuff he sent me would ring for a week when you tapped it.

It is felt by some to be identical (more so than any other wood) to Brazilian rosewood accoustically, and the stuff he sent me would ring for a week when you tapped it.

Zeke is looking for his chain saw.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

osage is perhaps the most versatile wood in the world. I live in east texas where is grows like a weed. It resists rot, and you can find fence posts over 100 years old that are still useable when you cut away the outer layers. also it makes the best natural all wood archery bows in the world. i would love to try it on a guitar. like its already been said though, it tend to be very hard to find it in guitar dimensions. I have made dozens of bows with it over the years and with the remnants i make the best charcoal you'll ever find. Also it bends super easily with dry heat. Now with all that being said, it is super hard to cut. I once saw sparks fly when i hit an osage tree with my chain saw. very dense stuff. I wish i had a good source for you. ocassionally some suppliers lis b&st sets but not often. i usually harvest some every year but not any big enough for guitars.

Now I'm thinking hmmm if I cut it just right it would fall into the church parking lot next door..... Nice and open area for slicing up. Hmmm tomorrow is going to require some investigative measuring. If I cut it up the cottonwood is next!! it's worse than the hedge apples! Fills the whole shop with puffy little white seeds. Looks like an inch of snow covering the whole floor.

You meant Bois D'Arc, perhaps?

Osage Orange is hard and beautiful. Oxidizes quickly, but is a lovely golden orange when cut. Makes excellent fingerboards as I understand. Available as lumber in the Great Plains where it is plentiful.

Also - burns HOT. Ask any farmer who cleared his fence rows of it, and used it in the oven or home heater.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

http://rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_132&products_id=2620

They only have one set available right now.

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Zeke, how big are the trees that you have? If they are big enough, I would be interested in taking them off your hands. You arent that far away from me. If they were big enough for sets, we could work out a deal. I could come up there, cut the trees, take 'em back home, cut up into sets, let them dry, send you your share when they are ready.... Sound good?
The thing is that the trees would have to be at least 22"-24" in diameter to yield any quartersawn material suitable for backs.., unless 3-4 piece backs were desirable..

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just curious to check the wood out. as said, some say (IIRC Al Carruth included) that it has one of the best taps next to BRW - that got me curious enough. On another forum i also found that it´s one of the woods that violin bow makers like to practice on, before moving on to pernambuco - that also got me interested. and besides that, i kind of like its color.

Bybee, thanks for the info and pics.

Incidentally, i looked at RC tonewoods page, but i thought OS meant out of stock, so i didn´t inquire further.

cheers,
miguel.

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Tis true , I made a dbl bass and cello bow from o. orange, but the local stuff is maddening to plane ,tears like crazy, even with scraper plane.

Aaron,
This morning i took a stroll across the road with my tape measure and took a measurement of the tree that I believe is the culprit. Hard to be sure without leave on it. Its right at the 24" diameter mark at chest height. The trunk is pretty straight from the ground to about 8-10' high where the branches start. thats just an estimate. Any how there is a telephone pole going up right through the branches and some phone lines too. Could make it a difficult cut, I dunno cuz I dont cut down trees. This may change your mind about it. If not Ill have to do more research before giving the green light. The tree is right at the property line so Id have to see If its ours or the church's. Anyhow heres a pic so you can see what I mean about the phone lines. The hedgeapple tree is on the right.

I have a couple of sets I bought on ebay a while ago, but haven't used. Might be worth keeping an eye on ebay (all the usual cautions apply).

The trees can be impressive. Here's a photograph, taken by my friend Frank Doering (http://www.doeringphoto.com/projects/ke ... S5IiKWxPIo):

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

I have a bunch of logs in my shop, waiting to be milled. They're not big enough for b&s sets, but they'll make good neck stock, I think. It's considered a trash tree where I live. One of my piano students is always cutting it down, and gives me all I ask for. But he's never given me anything really big...yet.

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David Morris

I was going to inquire about other places beside RC Tonewoods to find osage orange - though in my case I'm looking for bridge plates. I know that RC Tonewoods carries them from time to time but they are currently out of stock.

do you need classic or steelstring size? how many sets are you looking for?

These guys have back/side sets and headplate/bridge plate material http://www.buffalotonewood.com

Zeke, that's a fine looking tree. Not many around here with a tall and straight trunk like that. Usually multiple trunks all curved over and gnarly. And I'm betting it drops thorny sticks all over the place too, assuming it gets pruned regularly due to its proximity to the telephone pole... they don't grow many thorns unless you tear them up. Pretty cool natural defense system.

Interestingly, the species came pretty close to extinction before the Europeans came here and used it as a hedge tree. Now it grows like a weed all over the midwest. One of the few good things we invaders did

me? if it´s me, classical size - just one set. frugal days...

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes