Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera)
I have memories from childhood of a large,
sticky, bumpy, bright green fruit that I used to find on the ground. Nobody could tell me what they
were called. I now know that they are the fruit of the Osage orange tree.
The Osage orange
tree is not native to our area. They originally came from a small area covering part of Texas, Oklahoma
and Arkansas where farmers discovered that rows of the spiny plants made such good fences for their livestock
that they exported them to the rest of the country. Osage orange trees can now be found growing between
fields and along roads in almost every state. It was this tree that was the inspiration for barbed wire.
Osage orange is a medium sized tree of the Mulberry family growing to 40 feet in height and 2 feet
in diameter. Its bark is gray or brown in color with an orange tinge in places and is deeply furrowed
into narrow forking ridges. Its toothless 3 inch long by 1 1/2 inch wide leaves are shiny dark green
on top and paler on the bottom side. Some leaves are accompanied by a single straight thorn at their
base. The tree flowers in the spring with tiny greenish flowers in round clusters. The most identifiable
part of the tree is its 4 to 5 inch diameter fruit.
Due to its short trunk and twisting habit
no commercial lumber is produced from Osage orange, but this doesn't mean that the wood is unattractive.
On the contrary, when first cut, the heartwood has a wonderful golden to bright to bright orange color
that darkens with time to a streaked russet brown. The wood is tough and resilient with straight close
grain and a somewhat coarse texture. With a hardness of 2,040 lbf when green and 2,360 when dry
it is our hardest local wood. Osage orange wood is also very heavy weighing 62 pounds per cubic foot
green and 53 pounds per cubic foot when dry. The wood also seasons well due to a close ratio between
tangential and radial shrinkage. Items turned green will stay close to their original shape when dried.
Some minor checking can appear if a piece dries too quickly.
Being such a hard and dense
wood one would think that Osage orange would be difficult to turn, but just the opposite is true. Whether
green or dry it cuts wonderfully with gouges and scrapers. If cut with a gouge with the bevel rubbing
the wood comes off of the tool burnished to a nice shine. Osage orange also sands very well and can
be burnished to a high luster. Staining is not recommended due to the woods own beautiful color. Any
finish will work well but one thing to keep in mind is that oil based finishes tend to accelerate the
darkening process.
Keep your eyes open for some of our local "exotic" wood for a wonderful
turning experience with one of our prettiest woods.
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