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Meet my friend named Bowdock

Started by campy, September 10, 2009, 09:51:14 PM

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campy

Bowdock is wood with a vengeance!

Everyone who buys wood from me gets a free piece of Bowdock.
It is like crack cocaine. 
One board and they are hooked.

Why I love bowdock, let me count the ways:
1) Lasts 100 years buried in the ground
2) Strongest wood in north America
3) Replacement for metal
4) Grows fast and is sustainable
5) Pretty color and grain
6) Best wood for archery bows
7) Can be used around food like for rolling pins, cutting boards and spoons.
8) Heavy and dense
9) Sawdust can be used as yellow dye
10) Fruit is edible and good for lawn bowling
11) Good for perimeter security. Troops in the Civil War had to maneuver around Bowdock groves because the are so impenetrable.
12) No need to dry it is stable and will not shrink


Banjo picker

Are you sure you can eat those things? ???  Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

Kansas

I always thought they were poisonous to people. You did miss one good use for it though, at least according to what some bbq people tell me. It makes great smoking wood.

woodsteach

Wellllll the cows eat them. 

I don't know as if I have ever heard of people eating them though.  Maybe I'll have to try it.

got a recipe?

woodsteach
Brand X Swing Mill, JD 317 Skidloader, MS460 & 290, the best family a guy could ever dream of...all provided by God up above.  (with help from our banker ; ) )

pineywoods

Bodock isn't that common here, when I do get some, I use every scrap for something, it makes the best wedges you can get, local guy makes duck calls, can't beat it for firewood.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

Raider Bill

The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

Todd

I searched for Bowdock on google just to find out what it was and this thread is the 4th ranking page with that word.

I guess it's also called osage orange
Making somthing idiot-proof only leads to the creation of bigger idiots!

woodsteach

Quote from: Raider Bill on September 11, 2009, 11:59:51 AM
Where does it grow?

Up here (SE nebraska) EVERYWHERE! 

Maybe I need to work out some swapping hedge (osage orange, bowdock, ect... what ever you want to call it) for what do you have.

I'll be cutting more down this fall/winter as it is a very invasive to our pastures type of tree.  We use the straight ones for posts. 

woodsteach
Brand X Swing Mill, JD 317 Skidloader, MS460 & 290, the best family a guy could ever dream of...all provided by God up above.  (with help from our banker ; ) )

bossltr

Howdy,
New here, my name is Brian Rodgers from northern New Mexico
What kind of environmental conditions does this tree prefer?
Brian Rodgers
http://outfitnm.com My renewable energy website

campy

It seems to like warmer climates.
It was used prior to the invention of barbed wire as a fencing hedge.

I read that the seeds are edible but that is not from a reliable source and I have not yet tasted any. 

We get a lot of it here in TN.
It grows fast and is impossible to kill.

They can be propagated by taking a cutting and slapping it into a hole in the ground.


Raider Bill

Campy, where in Tenn are you? I'm in SE Tenn.
I'll have to look for some on the prop next trip but I don't remember seeing any to date.
The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

okie

Right now here they got them "oranges" (green fruit the size of oranges) all over em, hard to miss. Wish I could find more than just a few that were worth sawing, as I too love the wood, its just that most here are more like bushes than trees as they fork off into many branches just a few inches off the ground. every so often I'll find a tree with a trunk a little over 8'X12-14"dia, when that happens, it's lumber. How fast does it grow?




















Striving to create a self sustaining homestead and lifestyle for my family and myself.

Banjo picker

Quote from: bossltr on September 11, 2009, 02:16:47 PM
Howdy,
New here, my name is Brian Rodgers from northern New Mexico
What kind of environmental conditions does this tree prefer?

Glad to have you aboard there Brian...I know they grow well from north Miss.  to at least central Tn....I guess the range is much bigger than this, but I have seen them from Tupelo Ms to Fayetvill Tn in person... ;)  A buddy of mine got one of my wedges to bust a piece about the size of a chunch of fire wood to make some concrete floats for someone with....He brought the wedge back in two pieces....tough stuff.....Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

bossltr

Is there a place for introductions here? I looked but didn't see one, boy howdy, this is one great discussion forum. I can't decide which section I like the best :'(
Forest education, saws, logging, Tree identification,  man I can't wait to read more
Brian
Brian Rodgers
http://outfitnm.com My renewable energy website

SwampDonkey

It's natural range was southern Arkansas, southern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas, planted/introduced elsewhere.

Wood soaked in hot water makes yellow dye. Fruit when crushed leaves a bitter milky juice.

[Info from the "Text Book of Dendrology", 6th Ed. 1986]

It has also been introduced in southern Ontario around Lake Ontario. [Info from "Native Trees of Canada", 8th Ed. 1979]]
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WH_Conley

bossltr, bout anywhere you want to introduce yerself will work. I would suggest the general board, but not required. As for myself, welcome.

If you can't decide on a favorite board, join the rest of us, we can't either.
Bill

djoslin

We land surveyors call it Bois de Arc (osage orange) it is super hard. I have read legal descriptions from the 1920's that called for bois de arc stake for the property corners and was able to find them 85 years later from when they were set. The fruit they bear we also called horse apples.

I see a tree every now and then here in North Central Texas. I would like to cut up some to see what a slab of it looks like.

Djoslin

Skip

Osage Orange, Monkey Balls, got em all over WV and PA

tyb525

We use the fruit to repel spiders. They hate them. I don't think they are edible...
LT10G10, Stihl 038 Magnum, many woodworking tools. Currently a farm service applicator, trying to find time to saw!

htpd43

i've never heard it called bowdock - but we have it here in nj too - and tons of it.  seems to grow well along roadways and hedge rows.  i thought it was what some people call hedge.  here people call it osage orange or they call the oranges "cow fruit."

lou
j'red -2137/2150/2054/625II/2165
stihl -011avt/026/056av magII
kubota L35/2 trailers/chevy 1500/ford350 dump
lindig log splitter & lots of other goodies

ksu_chainsaw

We have lots of it in Kansas too.  I have cut LOTS of it for fence posts, but there is always too much metal in it to saw.  Our neighbor used to have lots of it along his property lines, until he decided to farm ditch to ditch.  If the tree grows out in the middle of a pasture, it branches off all directions, never making a single straight piece, but if grown close together, such as a fence row, they do tend to grow very straight, at least for the first 8-10 feet.
If you cut them for fence posts, and then put them back in the ground the same day, they will keep growing, as I now have some fence rows that I built in high-school- 12+ years ago, that are now fairly good sized trees.

Charles

WDH

Isn't bois d'arc the french for bow wood?  (Where is marcel when you need him  :)).  It was a preferred wood for native americans.  It is still sought by traditional bow makers.  I cut some and it is very very hard. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Dodgy Loner

"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey." -John Ruskin

Any idiot can write a woodworking blog. Here's mine.

mulelogger

 My Grandpa used to make Bowdock singletrees.You couldn't hardly break one.

Banjo picker

Quote from: mulelogger on September 19, 2009, 08:02:21 AM
My Grandpa used to make Bowdock singletrees.You couldn't hardly break one.

I would bet there is going to be some googling done or questions asked? ;)  but not by me  Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

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