I have a large rifle sized blank of Osage Orange. Very hard and heavy, I thought I'd use it for a target rifle when I cut it in the '60s.
Hard and heavy is an understatement. I had some old osage orange that was in blocks cut from a large tree limb.........about 7" in diameter. We had a run of custom skinning knives made by Larry Page of Aiken, SC, and scaled with it. You could hit the end of a block with a hammer and it would ring, almost like iron. Densest wood I've ever had any dealings with.
I have some short starters for m/l rifles that are turned out of persimmon..............another very dense wood.
SRH
