Question on Osage

[Tobin at Copeland Duck Calls]

Sharpshooter,  sounds like me, you, and RobertA need to go on a Horse Apple fence post hunt!!!!!!!

[River Mallard]

Did someone say Hedge,. Love to turn it, but it sure likes to crack. Just the nature of the beast..

[Crawdad]

R.M, you really know how to hurt a guy,love that hedge.

[Shane at S.P. Custom Calls]

Dang RM.  I have never turned any hedge but i cant wait to get my hands on some to try out. I am going to see if i can talk to the guy who has the trees. I will take pictures even if i dont get any. These 4 trees are huge, huge, huge. I have been buy this place several times and never noticed them. Every since i started making calls and got on this forum i have been looking out for hedge. I went deer hunting Sunday and when i was coming home i stomped on my breaks and was like WOW those are hedge.  I didnt think those suckers got that big. I went up to the first one and there was decayed hedge apples laying all over the ground. I nearly fainted.

[River Mallard]

I've seen some hedge trees get really big. But I never look to saw one down and have it processed. Too much of a pain in the azz. Cut one down once and never again will I do mess with one again. I've got a good supplier now that I'm hoping to buy a load like this every year from him. Just remember that you need to let it dry for a good 2 years before turning it...

[Jon @ JRwoods]

Stump, not as impressive as green but around here we just throw piles of it out by the shed!  They are pretty gnarly trees and even the small branches bend instead of breaking.  Makes them a pain to cut down.   Very "grabby "  not to mention the ones with thorns.
RM,  I'm jealous of your stash.  Is that all kiln dried stuff?
My neighbor has STACKS of hedge air drying.  Unfortunately he has a fetish for making furniture out of it, so most isn't very thick.  Ill try and get glory shots next time I'm down there.

[River Mallard]

That stash is now about 2/3rds gone. It was all air dried from 2.5 -7 years on this load which is tough to come by. I'm always buying in advance. I'm hoping to have another 2 loads like this delivered by Feb. One must always be buying wood way in advance. I still have about 150 BF that is 8 years old that I have yet to touch..

[BigB]

I hate hedge.  And you guys would too if you have to put in miles of barbed wire fence, using hedge posts.     The fence lasts forever though.  Hedge trees that have several posts in them are a prized posession around where I grew up.  Hedge typically never grows straight.  There's always zigzags in all of the trees.  It's tough to find a straight piece of the tree that is 8-9 ft long.

As mentioned, hedge is a nuisance tree.  It's thorny.  The hedge balls (sometimes called hedge apples) are sticky and gooey.  But the ole wives tale is to take a hedge ball and put it in each corner of your basement, and it will keep the bugs out of your house for a year.  The wood does burn very hot in a fireplace.  Another good thing about burning hedge is that a larger size log, say 10-12" in diameter will burn all night long.  Other woods in logs that diameter, like cedar, will not burn all the way through by themselves.  They may burn 20%, and then die out. 

But I love turning hedge.  It's like revenge for having to put in fence. 


My favorite hedge calls:




predator calls from a hedge post below the ground



Brian