Strength. Osage orange is exceptionally hard and strong. The bending strength (MOR) is over 20,000 psi (50 percent more than red oak). Hardness is around 2000 pounds (100 percent more than red oak).

The strength and flexibility of Osage-orange wood makes it well-suited for bows. At the time of European contact, the bows made in the Red River Valley were superior to all others.

Hedge (a.k.a. Osage orange, a.k.a. Bodark, a.k.a. horseapple) is a thorny problem, but also a remarkable resource, if you have the means to use it.

The extremely high strength of this wood led to its use for archery bows (in the 19th century, a well-made Osage-orange bow was worth “a horse and a blanket”), and for wheel rims and axle hubs ...

The yellow-orange fresh wood color gradually ages to a deep reddish brown. Osage-orange may have had more favorable treatment as a wood for many uses were it not for the tendency of the tree to fork, ...

Osage orange wood was most commonly used in that era for regular fence posts and building materials and continued as the material of choice for fencing until barbed wire came along about 1880.

Once farmers changed to barbwire, they still used Osage orange wood for fence posts. After all, the wood is so dense it resists rot, insects, termites and even presidential candidates.

The Osage orange tree, Maclura pomifera, is a close relative of fig trees and breadfruit trees and can attain heights of up to 50 feet. Its heavy, close-grained trunk and branches is made up of ...

However, hedge apple is just one name for these trees. They are also known as horse apple, bois d’arc, monkey ball, monkey brains, yellow-wood, mock orange and Osage orange.

The Osage Orange, fairly common in the Skiatook area and named for the Osage Nation, is a tree with many names, among them Hedge Apple, Bois d’Arc and Horse Apple.

The featured wood in this lottery comes from the old and massive Osage-Orange Tree which uprooted on the Hamilton County Courthouse lawn last fall. Small souvenir-sized pieces of branches from ...