JLiberty wrote:Ocelot55 wrote:Does that wood seem heat resistant?
Yea, it seems really heat resistant. I figured it would, because it is an extremely hard wood. It only gets slightly warm in my hand while smoking, though I have been taking it easy during the break in.
Thanks for the insight, I am really hoping to try my hand at making a few more.
Edward, we usually call them Hedgeapple, and I had never heard the name horse apple, but it is really interesting. I believe it when you say they were used as gears, I am pretty sure I could run my pipe over with my car and it would be fine, haha. (Not that I would try, I am much to attached to it already!)
Thanks for the warm welcome!
I dont know just why we call them horse apples. We had horses, and I never saw them eat one of those stinking things. I've heard that livestock will eat the fruit when theres nothing else around, but I've also heard they're poisonous in large quantity.
Another thing about Bois D'arc, the reason they're called hedgeapples, they were used as fences on the prairie before barbed wire came along.
You could plant seedlings 18" apart and within 4 years the trees would grow together into a living fence.
Collecting the seeds was big business in Texas Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The sales pitch was, they made fences "Horse High, Bull Strong and Pig Tight".
After Barbed Wire, the hedges were cut down as fence posts and corner posts for wire.
Lots of history in that humble tree.