Anybody have experience with Ironwood

Anybody have any Experience working with Ironwood ? Thank You

Pretty hard wood. What are you using it for?

I turned a lot of green ironwood, AKA Eastern Hophornbeam, on a lathe, around 20 years ago. It split badly, fairly far in from the ends, as it dried. The long pieces, I let dry, did much better. The ends cracked but the interior parts stayed good. The wood got surprisingly light with time. I really like the muscle like appearance of the natural wood. A lot of people in Ohio call it muscle wood. The thickest piece I worked was maybe 7 or 8 inches thick. The ironwood trees stay really small in my area. You could not get much of a board out of one.

Keith

I make primitive bows form American hop hornbeam, called ironwood around here. Very hard, very dense. Logs split terribly once the batk is removed. I cut them in the winter, strip the back with a draw knife and shellac the entire log.

Ironwood is also a common name for blue beech here, which is known as musclewood in other areas. All I know about that is it is very dense.

Do you have a picture of the trees in question?

I love the look of the wood

Wow, thats no ironwood I am familiar with.

We use to burn alot of it here. Burns like coal. Like keith said it doesnt get too big around here either. If its thigh thick its pretty fair.

Eastern Hophornbeam is very light colored, almost white, that's something else. There's a lot of different common names for wood and fish too, that mean different species in different parts of the country.

Keith

If you are going to cut an ironwood, with a chainsaw. Do it last thing before heading home , or plan on resharpening your saw. They will dull it in a hurry. old243

true!!

if you cut it with a chainsaw in low light you can actually see sparks flyin' off of the chain! and oh yes, its dull fast.

The pictured wood is desert ironwood from southwestern deserts. Its an expensive and very hard wood. The burl is very expensive and used a lot for knife handles. The stuff in the midwest and other areas is mostly just good firewood.

I made a pair of grips for my 1911 out of that desert ironwood. I bought the wood online and cut it with a bandsaw then filed to the shape and contour I wanted. Turn out beautiful with several coats of hand rubbed oil. What the guys back East and up North call ironwood is completely different wood.

Ironwood

Made a self bow from Ironwood ( E.. Hophornbeam). There is a lot of it around these parts, although I have absolutely none on my place. The other "Ironwood" is more common downstate. It is called Hornbeam, Blue Beech, and musclewood, as already stated above.

Same thing with chestnut oak, or what many call rock oak. Cut a dead one, you’ll definitely see sparks flying.

The man who gave me my start in my profession also ran a sawmill.
He turned bats out of green ironwood.
I understand that some are still in use today on the local softball fields.
Albert has been gone for 13 years.

A buddy gave me two pieces of desert ironwood years ago. I made some knife scales from it. Hardest stuff I've ever touched.... and I've worked with a bunch of exotic hardwood.

Pete

Albert told me that if you didn't work ironwood when it was green, the only way to work it was with a file or a sander.
After that, BTUs constituted it's only value.

I have made several knife handles out of Desert Ironwood. Beautiful !! Very hard and dense. It is so oily that there is no real need to add any finish. It shines to where it looks like you can almost see into it.

Sounds like something that would make a nice guitar!

hornbeam is what people refer to as ironwood here.

Arizona/Mexico Ironwood

I've not worked with ironwood. True desert ironwood (Olneya tesota) comes from Mexico, California, or Arizona. It has a Janka hardness of 2980 lbs. Compare that with most oaks which are around 1300. I have worked quite a bit with Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) which grows around here where I live. It is (arguably) the hardest wood that is native to North America, at a Janka hardness of 3200. I've tried it extensively for knife scales, but I do not use it any longer. I was finishing a knife handle and accidently dropped the thing on a cement floor. It shattered into a million fragments, just as glass would shatter. Figured if it was that hard, I didn't want it for knife scales. Unfortunate, as it has some beautiful figure and color. I suspect that desert ironwood might react the same to being dropped on cement or rocks, although I do know knifemakers that use it extensively.

Hope this helps.

Jack

Thanks , I am going to make Knive scales but lately I really enjoy using Camel Bone

The dust for desert ironwood is toxic, both to breathe and to the skin (can cause a rash). Be careful sanding it.

I used a piece in the smoker, thought it was some kind of mesquite wow! Made our mouths numb.

Ostrya virginiana



Carpinus Caroliniana

Both of these are called musclewood, Ironwood, and hophornbeam

I deal with it every morning when I wake up.

In Elkas pic, the top one is it to me though not seen it that large. Grows in some wet areas and indestructible
as coon drags. The wood not dark like miners pic.
Regional "jargon" always interesting.