Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations extremely old tree

Okay i know this isn't the creating habitat forum but, it doesn't get much action reading wise so i thought i would come here and ask my question. Anyway i was looking through a magazine or a internet article about how different kinds of wood held up better than others for cover, but i can no longer find the article. Most where 4 or 5 years at the most, but there was this one that was 30-40 years until it had been eroded away by waves and what not. I think it started with the letter "B" and i know it wasn't balsa becasue that crap breaks really easy. Anyone how could help me would be much appreciated. Also what wood last longest besides the kind i was talking about? Is it oak and how long does it take oak to finish souring? Anyway thanks and god bless to all.

Osage Orange or as some call it Burdock lasts over a hundred years & is utilized as fence posts same for Locust. You can still find lots of fence post of Locust & American Chestnut in the Appalachains that were planted over 100 yrs ago.

It might be a beech tree. Those trees are hard as a rock and are just plain tough.

Another vote for Osage Orange, here in Ohio better known as Hedgeapple.

We have a third of a mile of Osage fence rows. The last time they were cut for fence posts before we bought the farm (no pun intended) was about 105 years ago (and old Warner Smith, who owned the property then, used an axe. Must have been one tough guy to cut this unbelieveably hard wood by hand). It doesn't matter where these posts have been - laying on the ground, above ground, under ground in soil that's wet 9 months a year - those old posts are still harder than hell and make good firewood. (I have reused a few as fence posts, but hundred year old Hedge is even harder to nail into than new Hedge.)

Osage Orange is very dense (the heartwood sinks in water); I feel that's the secret to why it lasts so long and, as firewood, burns so hot. The only downside is the incredible number of thorns (which only seem to grow below the browse level established by cattle/deer). It would by my choice for long lasting wooden structure in a pond - it's what I used for the posts under my dock.

It's called bois d' arc (Bodark)in Texas. I once made some custom knives and decided to use it for the handle. Beautiful grains and lots of colors.

I tried to make finger grips with a grinder sporting a carborundum stone. It only charred the wood. Had to use a rasp. The only downsides is that it is hard to work with and sometimes splits years later.

I think it would make great structure. I think I would let it cure before I used it.

Here is a hint, when putting together the hardest of the hard wood, drill a pilot hold for the nail or screw. Some old iron wood trees from the desert would be a great choice for pier supports.

Sounds like we're mostly on the same page. The tree being described sounds like what I've known as "bodark," as Dave said. Osage orange, burdock, or hedgeapple, I'll bet it's the same tree. Bodarks also produce a large green fruit that we called 'horse apples' because horses liked to munch on them. They have a milky fluid in them. The wood is very hard and strong, but most of the ones I've seen have a tendency to be rather crooked and knotty.

I have a cousin who tools pens out of bodark wood from the farm north of Dallas. I just snapped this - sorry it's a little blurry:

Thanks guys i live in texas and there are alot of those trees with horse apples on them. Thank for all the help.

I agree...Boise d'arc it is. Comes from the fact that osage orange, (aka, hedge or hedgeapple, or bodark) makes some of the best recurve bows in the world. Original Americans knew it...used it extensively.

Stuff lasts forever, underwater that might literally be true. I've seen logs laying in the crick near where I grew up that are still in the same spot...and look exactly like when I first fished around them...35 years later.

And the Hedge/Horseapples themselves serve as forage (through mid-Winter, here) for wildlife including deer and squirrels.