Osage Orange

[JV]

Decided to clean up the log yard today, what wasn't worth sawing would go into firewood.  Finished what little persimmon I had and found some small osage logs.  I sawed them into 3/8"x 2" lath and 5/8" x 2" tomato stakes.  Last year I sawed some into 3/8 lath for a man who made them into trellises for his wife, said he would seal them to keep the color.  I haven't talked to him to see if it worked.  I was wondering if any of you have ever sealed any and if it kept it's color.  I was thinking in my "spare time" this winter, I could make some trellises, etc. to sell at craft shows.  I'd like to let it turn orange from the yellow it is now, then seal it.  Any ideas?

[Part_Timer]

I've not had any luck keeping it from darkening if it's out in the sun light.  Even the stuff in the loft is turning darker.  It's slow but it is turning.  I have a bowl that a friend turned for us 5 years ago and it's on a table in the interior of  the house and it's well on the way to burnt orange color.

[JV]

I was afraid that would happen, but I had hopes. That bright yellow or orange color is a real eye catcher.  One guy asked if I had put some kind of treatment on to make it yellow.  Nope, just had a lot of help from mother nature.   :D  I'm having a left-handed longbow made from osage by a bow maker up at Warsaw.  He had a RH that was 5 years old and was almost ebony color.

[Part_Timer]

I'm hording all of it I can get right now.  When we move down to the farm I'm going to lay the shop floors in it.  Don't know why, I just feel the need.

That should be a great bow.  You going to use it for hunting or target shooting?

[JV]

I'd like to get more, tough to find any with some size to it.  I want to keep some of the more unusual species on hand.  Sawed a nice sized Ky coffee tree last year and got to keep a few boards.  Don't know what I'll do with it, just wanted it.

Hope to use the bow for hunting and target and primitive shoots.  Getting more involved in reenactments (trying to at least) doing my Roy Underhill impression with a foot powered lathe and early carpenter tools.  ;D

[TexasTimbers]

I haven't found anything to prevent the wood from turning. I am convinced nothing exists that will work.
With osage I believe it is more than just sunlight and indirect sunlight, I think it is air alone.
It's been my experience that the only way to preserve the freshcut color is to deadstack the stuff.
I have unstacked a dead stack after having been stacked more than a year and the wood is as yellow as when cut.
I sure wish I knew of something that would work.

[Tony]

I'm having a left-handed longbow made from osage by a bow maker up at Warsaw.  He had a RH that was 5 years old and was almost ebony color.

        A friend of mine made an osage recurve for me a few years ago. It is  covered in fiberglass and is just as dark in color as a couple of osage selfbows I've made. : :

                                                           Tony   8)

[JV]

I'm thinking that might be a selling point to the ladies.  Make the trellises from fresh cut and tell them to watch the color change during the summer.  Mellows as it ages, like a fine wine. :D

[Ironwood]

Go to Sherwin Williams, they can match a paint to the color then bleed it on. Reid

[Dan_Shade]

what would a UV inhibiter in a polyurethane do?

[Grawulf]

Dan,
It'd make it yellow............Oh wait..............nevermind............... :D
I haven't found anything to retain the color either but I suspect a UV inhibitor would only slow the process some.     Devan

[woodsteach]

Here is a pix of a mail box post that I made for my folks.  I coated it with Marine sparvarnish.  This pix is at about 6 weeks.  I'll try to get a more recent one.  It just keeps on getting darker and darker.

woodsteach

[Tom]

Hey!!  That's a cool idea! 8)

[olyman]

Tom--that mail post is cool--but see where hes from---they get snow out there--and if its like the iowa snowplows---some of those plow drivers are sadistic---and theyll take it off--thats why some have built a post out of 2x10's---making it a box---set it in the gound--and poured it full of concrete and rerod!!!!! :D :D just about spins them in the road---if they hit it!!!!!

[JV]

I really like that, looks great.  More pics please.  My mailbox post is mounted in a small concrete base.  No problem with the plows, just kids moving it for a prank.  I'm going to give them a real surprise one of these days.

[beenthere]

olyman
Making an immovable mailbox post around here will get a person in some deep trouble......like payin fer fixin da plow..  or puttin someone's teeth back in after their car hits it...Ya takes yer chances doin such a thing.

Here, the game the county boys play is not hitting the box with the plow, but just throwin enough snow and slush at it to bend the post back, causing the daily paper to cough itself up and out onto the highway.  I think they get some kinda thrill outta how many they can get in a day.. :D

[theorm]

Reminds me of my brother's neighbor. He has one built out of a chain welded into an arch. BIG chain. BIG anchor chain. Musta weighed 1500#.

[treebucker]

Like that bodark.

I helped one of my brothers replace his mailbox for the umpteenth time. As usual, it broke the 4x4 off about a foot from the ground. I saw no profit in digging the broken post up and concreting in a new one yet again. I got to thinking what he needed was a spring at ground level that would allow the post to lay flat when it was hit and then spring back upright.  :D Along the way I changed my mind. I cut the old post off at about 5-6" above the ground. Then fixed a break-away joint that would fail on the top 4x4. This allowed the post to be recovered and reattached. My brother tells me that it has been hit several times in the last year and a half since it was modified. He likes how easy it is to put back up...no more digging the old one out and concreting in a new one.  

[Cedarman]

Now that we don't make mail box posts anymore, I can tell the snow plow drivers to quit hitting mailbox posts. 

[woodsteach]

We don't have much to worry about with the snow plow.  The mail box is 1/4 mile south of the Neb./Kan. border on a rock road so Kansas usually gets the roads cleared sometime after most of the snow melts  ;D. 

I'll  get some more pix of other gate and mailbox posts that are at various stages of ageing.  Some have the marine varnish others have just some poly.  I use them to show customers different options.

today is the last day of reporting to work for the year so milling full time for the summer begins tomorrow.   8) 8)


woodsteach

[TexasTimbers]

Woodsteach thats a cool post for a mailbox. Mine kept getting run over so I planted a 2 3/8" x 1/2" thick wall drill stem right beside it. Post lady siad that was illegal but she didn't blame me. No one has run over it in 3+ years since it's been there.

I'm gonna pull it out and use your osage idea when your patent runs out.  ;D