Osage or Ironwood.

[frassettor]

Was wondering what wood is stronger.. Osage, or Ironwood?

[Osagetree]

osage of course!  

[Flinttim]

Yep, the hedge is tops between the two but if you have the hophornbeam use it. We are talking hophornbeam, right ? Not hornbeam ?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Hedge Apple AKA Osage

[onemississipp]

That would depend on which Ironwood you are talking about.

* The name Ironwood is actually a slang term given to the hardest wood of an area, region or country. There are over 80 species of wood in the world, referred to or having the word Ironwood in them.*

Probably the best way to appreciate the relative hardness of different woods is the concept of "specific gravity," a numerical scale based on 1.0 for pure water. Without getting too mathematical, the specific gravity of a substance can easily be calculated by dividing its density (in grams per cubic centimeter) by the density of pure water (one gram per cubic centimeter).

Trees With Dry (Seasoned) Wood That Sinks In Water

Olneya tesota
(Desert Ironwood): 1.15
Guaiacum officinale)
(Lignum Vitae): 1.37
Cercocarpus betuloides
Mountain Mahogany: 1.10
Diospyros ebenum)
Ebony: 1.12

Very Heavy Wood

Prunus ilicifolia
Hollyleaf Cherry: 0.98
Diospyros virginiana
Persimmon: 0.83
Quercus engelmannii
Engelmann Oak: 0.94
Carya ovata
Shagbark Hickory: 0.83
Acacia greggii
Cat's Claw Acacia: 0.85
Ostrya virginiana
Eastern Ironwood: 0.80
Quercus chrysolepis
Canyon Live Oak: 0.85
Lyonothamnus floribundus
Catalina Ironwood: 0.80
Quercus agrifolia
Coast Live Oak: 0.83
Robinia pseudoacacia
Black Locust: 0.79
Prosopis glandulosa
Mesquite: 0.77
Maclura pomifera
Osage Orange: 0.77

you will see these numbers change small amounts from one reference to another.

Trees vary from place to place and from tree to tree depending on the environment in which they have grown.

[onemississipp]

Here is something I did not know about Osage

"* Osage Orange {Maclura pomifera} is the species of wood that produces the most heat when burned, approximately 33 million BTU's per 20% air dried moisture content cord. A cord of wood is 4 foot wide x 4 foot high x 8 foot long {128 cubic foot} and has on average 80 cubic foot of burnable wood, the rest is just air space. "

[onemississipp]

Here is another list....

Kiln Dried 6% - 12% Moisture Content

African Blackwood - {Dalbergia melanoxylon} Average Specific Gravity 1.18
Billian - {Eusideroxylon zwageri} Average Specific Gravity 1.17
Black Ironwood - {Olea laurifolia} Average Specific Gravity 1.08
Brazil Ironwood - Caesalpinia ferrea} Average Specific Gravity 1.18
Brazilwood - {Caesalpinia echinata} Average Specific Gravity 1.22
Burma Ironwood - {Xylia xylocarpa} Average Specific Gravity 1.26
Ceylon Ironwood - {Mesua ferrea} Average Specific Gravity 1.10
CocoBolo Rosewood - {Dalbergia retusa} Average Specific Gravity 1.11
Desert Ironwood - {Olneya tesota} Average Specific Gravity 1.13
East Indian Satinwood, Ceylon - {Chloroxylon swietenia} Average Specific Gravity 1.02
Ebony - {Diospyrus crassiflora} Average Specific Gravity 1.03
Ekki - {Lophira alata} Average Specific Gravity 1.03
Greenheart - {Ocotea rodiaei} Average Specific Gravity 1.03
IPE - {Tabebuia serratifolia} Average Specific Gravity 1.09
Kingwood Rosewood - {Dalbergia cearensis} Average Specific Gravity 1.18
Knobthorn - {Acacia nigrescens} Average Specific Gravity 1.17
Leadwood - {Krugiodendron ferreum} Average Specific Gravity 1.29
Lignum Vitae - {Guaiacum officinale} Average Specific Gravity 1.34
Macassar Ebony - {Diospyros celebica} Average Specific Gravity 1.07
Marblewood - {Diospyros marmorata} Average Specific Gravity 1.03
Mountain Mahogany - {Cercocarpus ledifolius} Average Specific Gravity 1.11
Quebracho - {Schinopsis balansae} Average Specific Gravity 1.26
Satine, Bloodwood - {Brosimum paraense} Average Specific Gravity 1.01
Snakewood - {Piratinera guianensis} Average Specific Gravity 1.37
Sucupira - {Bowdichia nitida} Average Specific Gravity 1.01
White Topped Box - {Eucalyptus quadrangulata} Average Specific Gravity 1.01
Womara - {Swartzia leiocalycina} Average Specific Gravity 1.27

[onemississipp]

The heaviest and the hardest wood in the world is Snakewood {Piratinera guianensis}. It's specific gravity averages 1.30.

[Ray Hammond]

it depends on what you are going to do with it- I know that desert ironwood makes the greatest knife handles of any wood I've run across.

It is the heaviest North American wood, requires nothing but a buff to finish because of its extraordinary density due to slow growth and close ring structure.

I wouldnt build a recurve bow riser out of it, though. Maybe a longbow riser would work great. It all depends on what you want to do with it which way you should go.

[onemississipp]

Here is a link that puts Osage at .85

 http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/HardwoodNA/htmlDocs/maclura.html

and also gives Mechanical Properties.

[onemississipp]

You can find tech sheets here

 http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/techmenu.html