What About Orange Osage?

[cosmicfolklore]

Long time pipemaker and owner of The Briary, Skip Elliot, has been making pipes since ‘72ish. And, lately he has been experimenting with making bowls from orange osage. It’s a lovely warm colored wood that when polished has an irredecent look to it. They are beautiful pipes, but he has sold them faster than I can get a picture. He has researched the wood, and finds it to be nontoxic for pipe purposes. One of the store’s clerks reports that it adds a subtle aroma of spices.

And, for once, Skip may be actually making a pipe specifically for me, knowing my style of pipes... ::
My question is, would you consider a pipe made of osage? Or, would you have to wait until a lot more osage pipes hit the market, and listen to feedback? What would keep you from smoking an osage pipe?

 

[woodsroad]

Orange Osage sounds nice, but I'd wait until you'd smoked a few bowls before taking the plunge. It's always nice to have a canary in the coal mine.

 

[hawky454]

Sounds nice but I stick with briar only. Not too keen on the idea of any other wood than briar. I would love to see some pics though as I could always change my mind.

 

[badbeard]

I would definitely be interested. There are a lot of other woods that make fine pipes such as Morta, Hard Maple, Canarywood, Myrtle.. As long as it's sufficiently hard and doesn't contain anything toxic, I don't see any reason not to love it.

Looks like Orange Osage falls at ~2,620 lbf, and Briar ~2,090 lbf on the Janka scale, so no issues there. The only thing I would be interested in is the heat and moisture dissipation characteristics.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I’ve asked Skip for pictures. He was the one wanting me to ask the forum. I will post them as I get them.

 

[zack24]

I've used it for decoration- I'm not aware of any issues with toxicity. My biggest issue is that it burns like crazy when sanding with fine grits. Let's see some pics!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I’m anxious to see what sandblasting does to it. But, as soon as my pigeon gets to Skip, and he can send the pigeon back with polaroids, I’ll post them.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I use the fruit to keep pests at bay, never thought of the wood for pipe making. Interesting.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Here's one from another forum I haunt.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Thanks Duane. I was going to have to go to Skip’s studio to get a picture, and with the way we both talk one and on, it would have been tomorrow before I got back home. ::

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Thanks Duane, I was going to have to go to Skip’s studio to get a picture, and with the way we both talk on and on... it would have been tomorrow before I got back home. Who made this one?

 

[Chasing Embers]

A fellow from Maryland called "Jthompson1995".

 

[kcghost]

In my part of the woods we call it Osage Orange.

 

[mayfair70]

It will eventually turn a very dark brown. It was used as a clothing dye in WWII and the clothes would not get jungle rot. If I recall, the soldiers wearing them has less instances of fungal type infections as well. I wouldn't smoke out of it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

In my part of the woods we call it Osage Orange.

Around here, we call them hedge apples.

 

[jitterbugdude]

In my part of the woods we call it Osage Orange

My neck of the woods too, but then again that's what it is actually called... Osage Orange.

 

[snagstangl]

I know it will dull the hell out of chainsaw in one or two cuts. They liked to use it for fence posts in my state of Iowa because it wouldn't rot easily. But don't let one of the spikes on them get you, hurts like holy hell for the first few minutes. Sure I would smoke one if you gave it to me.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Actually he ran this pipe by tonight, and called it orange osage, and I got to say, “no silly, it’s known as osage orange,.. or hedge apple,” like I was an expert of trees, ha ha. Anyways, I’m about to put a band on this one. I couldn’t capture the irredecense (or shimmer) well with the picture, but I tried.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It looks dull in pictures. Hmmmm.... I didn’t do it justice. :?

 

[Chasing Embers]

Wow, that's a pretty thing! If he makes a cutty, I want it!