Is there any reason I can't use hedge trees for cover in a 1 to 2 acre pond? I assume they would hold up well over the years, based on durability as fence posts.

Can't remember if hedge is good or not. Will the wood be green or dried? Take a small piece and put it in a bucket of water leave it an hour or so, then put one or two small fish in. If they live, ok. Sort of like the canary in a mine shaft.

We call them "hedge trees" but the normal world refers to them as Osage Orange trees. Found this info :
https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2010/05/4894_2845.pdf

Seems like they are ok to use.

The wood is very hard and lasts extremely well for fence posts and the like. I decided to go the PVC pipe route due to lure retrieval.

I used 12-15" diameter hedge posts for my dock pilings. Used a couple of very large hedge stumps for cover. Used a couple of medium sized hedge limbs for cover after cutting the posts out for pilings and using the stumps for cover. Also used some 40 or so year old 4-6" diameter hedge posts to crib up a fish habitat structure.

So I used hedge (osage orange) for several different uses in my pond.

Osage Orange wood is some of the toughest and most rot resistant wood available. I think it will last as long or longer than ground contact treated pine. Underwater, 50 plus years.

Bois d'arc is another word. In Texas, it's pronounced bodark. Yep, it's hard.

We call it Bois d'arc (Bo Dark) here too. Many years ago, I tried to make about a 8" to 10" bowl out of a cured piece of yellow heartwood on a wood lathe. Couldn't cut it. Maybe if I had had access to a metal cutting lathe with carbide tools it would have worked.

I have read that the trick is to use hand tools. Heat from power tools and the wood sap/resin don't mix well.

If you work it green it is relatively soft. Problem the outter part is sappy with something that looks and acts almost like wood glue. Sticky nasty stuff.

If a person will cut it and let it cure just long enough for the sap to dry, I think it would be worked about like any other hardwood.

Now if you let it cure too long, it is almost like iron. I on occasion will have the need to cut up an old post that might be 30-50 years old. Or a limb on a tree that has died quite some time ago. You can actually see sparks fly off the chain saw chain, it is so hard.

I have cut lots of hedge for firewood. It is heavier and cuts harder than something like Ash, but it is not all that bad really when it is green. I usually end up bleeding before the day is over because of the thorns though.

I burnt some hedge fence posts that we're probably 50 years old. They were still so hard I couldn't drive a nail or fence staple into them without bending. Impressive wood.

I have several karate nunchucks that I had custom made out of "fresh" hedge 30+ years ago. Appreciably heavier and stronger than some other woods.

I have always wanted to get some hedge milled up to build dock, deck, etc. Seems like it'd last forever.

I always thought it would make a pretty floor as flooring.

I'v never seen it as lumber though. I suspect it cracks and splits really bad.

I don't know how bad it splits, but, other than being hard on the saws, it's also pretty hard to get long enough, straight enough logs to make boards with. At least in MO, they are twisty trees and if you have trees big enough and straight enough to make fence posts, you can get a pretty penny for them. But, beautiful if you could!

A timber buyer told me he had a long fence row of huge hedge to cut. One of my brothers was considering buying them for bridge planks (i.e. 15 maybe 20 feet wide?) For an iron span bridge he has.

I just wanted to go see them as I've never seen one that big and straight let alone an entire fence row. Thought about buying one just for projects but would probably become like iron before could do anything with.

Somewhere on here I posted pics of my Osage longbow. Beautiful wood.

Tony, I can't imagine being able to draw that bow.

A LONG time ago I made a couple of knives. One from a file and the other from an industrial hacksaw blade. I used bodark for the handles. Oils just wouldn't penetrate it. Approx 25 years later, one of the handles cracked.