Just wondering about others opinions on which is best for tomahawk handles?:D

Hickory or bois d'arc are best but if you don't have access to those, I'd probably pick ash over walnut.

Ash over walnut any day, but ash with walnut in-lay would look sharp! Ash stain walnut if you want the look.

HWooldridge-
What is bois d'arc? Never heard of it...

Bois d'arc is Osage orange and nice handle material. Walnut is a bit weak and brittle for tomahawk handles. Ash is a fine wood for most types of handles, I have used it for forging hammer handles and not much gets tougher use than that... those handles are in daily use for years now with no problems. Hickory or pecan (close hickory relative) are about as tough for handle material as you'll get but many oaks, elms (especially hackberry), locusts, and others will also work well. Hard springy woods are good, brittle or soft woods not as good for tough uses. Maples tend to be slightly more brittle and stiff than ideal but are often hard and strong enough to serve well anyway.

I would say ash. I use walnut sometimes on pipe hawks but they are not as likely to be use like a regular hawk.

Fe-wood,

Bois d'arc (osage orange) grows over much of the South and SE part of the country. Drops big green "horse apples" and has lots of thorns but makes great bow wood and handles for striking implements. The Indians used it for war clubs and self bows.

Oh!

Hedgeapple... now we're speaking the same language. It's pretty common up in this area as well. Iowa.

Thanks guys! Now I know what it is... I believe it grows in Oregon too...My brother in-law uses it for chess board parts. Nice looking wood.

Osage Orange, is that the stuff that's hard as nails or there abouts?

Osage Orange, is that the stuff that's hard as nails or there abouts?

Right Bentiron, hard as nails. It's well known that it does no good to nail a fense to a live hedge apple tree. Hedge apple will shed the nails as it grows.

If it is just for a throwing hawk, you may want to go the cheap route and use pine. That way when they break, it will be no big loss.

Rather than use 200 different local names for Osage Orange perhaps we could take Mr. Linnaeus' advice and use the internationally accepted binomial nomenclature.

Maclura pomifera

As for the Original Q? Ash. Or should I say Fraxinus?

John NC WHere would be the fun in that?? .. all that latin stuff... some of us like confusion... When I was in Texas I saw the "horse apple trees " wondered what they would be good for... I grew up In Maine... Anybody ever play with an Australian gum woods?? They got a wood down there that looks a bit like twisted fiber ... like a tree that grows like a cable with twisted strands twisting around a core.. it has no grain .. makes great decks though...

We have a tree up here we call "hornbeam" or "hop hornbeam" wont take a nail.. and will smoke when cutting with a chainsaw... hard white beautiful wood ... dense and heavy though..... makes good hammer and sledge handles.... if you spit with the grain.. if you cut at an angle it falls apart... it is also called northern hickory... no idea what it is really called..

I appreciate the responses,,I wish I had osage orange round these parts, I would love to make some bows out of it,,well all the walnut heart wood I had saved for handles will now go to knife scales and pipes,,lol luckily I had 5 ash trees given to me also and i still have a load of 6 foot logs so I won't be cuttin that up for anything else,,,again ty for the replies:)

Edited December 22, 200916 yr by Braedon

I appreciate the responses,,I wish I had osage orange round these parts, I would love to make some bows out of it,,well all the walnut heart wood I had saved for handles will now go to knife scales and pipes,,lol luckily I had 5 ash trees given to me also and i still have a load of 6 foot logs so I won't be cuttin that up for anything else,,,again ty for the replies:)

Braedon, I can't imagine that there are no Hedge Apple trees in NW Ohio, because they certainly do live and grow in NE Indiana. They're not a very common tree, or, more accuratley, they are an uncommon tree, but they are out there. I can't give you any statistics on their numbers, but, I don't expect to see any when I go walking on a new trail, but then I wouldn't be too surprised if I did see two or three.

Not uncommon here. In Missouri we call it hedge. Came from Europe, I believe. It is used a lot in fence rows as wind breaks since the dust bowl days. Also makes good fence post as it last almost forever. Green trees are hard on chainsaws but old hedge posts is like cutting steel. Burns great in the wood stove. Burns very hot but you'll need to leave the door closed as it will pop like crazy. Very common tree around here. First time I heard it called Osage Orange, I laughed as it made it sound exotic. Of course south Missouri is Osage country so I thought it appropriate. This stuff grows like weeds here.

To answer your question I would use Ash, very shock resistant like hickory. Makes good baseball bats too.

Fred

you pronnounce it "bo dark"

HWooldridge-
What is bois d'arc? Never heard of it...

Also called hedge apple, bearing a baseball to softball sized fruit that is similar in makeup to a raspberry or blackberry, and is one of the only nonpoisonous non edible fruits in the world.

If you ever go cut one go with pruners and clear around it wearing thick gloves since it has thorns and the tip of the thorn breaks off and stays in your skin.

They are located all over the Midwest including Ohio since they were used as living fencing.

Phil

Phil,

I am not an expert here so asking a question. Are you sure about the non-poisonous aspect of the apples? I remember being told it was used as a fly catcherkiller in the 1800's in cabins around southern Indiana. I believe that was from Lincoln Boyhood national park.

It does look bubbly like a black/raspberry but a harder fruit. I grew up in a house that had a whole hedge of them dividing us from our neighbor with a sprinkling of them in the woods behind. It was the long way of a 20 acre lot. Some of the limbs were 30 inches to 50 inches around. Old trees.

Thanks

Brian

edited
I found this on Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maclura_pomifera. It is mildly poisonous and was used as a repellent. Interesting read. It seems to be a native to US only.

Edited December 22, 200916 yr by brian.pierson
more info found

Hickory makes a good haft. Ash makes a good handle too..

Edited December 23, 200916 yr by KYBOY

Some trivia for yall..
Lignum vitae is the desnsest hardest wood with a janka score of 4500 compared to hickory at 1820, osage orange at 2050 etc..Its so dense it wont even float and was used to make ship bearing etc..I think the next wood down on the scale is around 3650 or so..

Brian, I'm not 100% sure on the nonpoisonous bit, but ran across that several times. I took one down and decided to try splitting staves out of it. I only kept 2 staves, the rest went into the firewood pile.

Osage Orange Profiles
This says deer eat them. Squirrels shred them to get the seeds and make an aweful mess, I've seen this first hand! They are not fit for humans to eat.

Phil

Phil,

Interesting read. Thanks. I just grew up with them and wish I had taken some with me when I left home. Mom sold the land so not much of a chance to get some now. How long do you have to season the wood before using it?

I probably remembering repellent as insect killing. LOL looks like we are all on the same page.

Brian

I shellac the wood (1 coat on sides, 2 coats on ends) then put it up for 2-3 years in the attic. I got those directions elsewhere on the web. My staves have only been put up for about 6 months, and show no signs of shrink checking when I looked a couple days ago. I have never tried building a bow, but that is the thought I started with.

I have used this method before with other types of wood with good results.

I may use this wood for something else when it's ready. I bought a used compound bow and haven't even used it yet!

Phil