Shrooms from hedge apples

I discovered this wood by accident. When I first moved into the house, I was using a chain saw to cut wood. I remember being fascinated by yellow sawdust that shot from a few logs. I also remember cussing this, because this was the most dense (densest?) wood I have ever sawed.

A year or so later, I was playing on the lathe and just wanted to turn something. I went to the wood pile, searched through some logs, and chose the one that was solid and very heavy.

I decided to make a little goblet. After rounding the stock, I quickly fell in love with this log. In addition to the shavings that were a beautiful color yellow (almost canary yellow), this wood was a pleasure to work. As smooth as walnut - not a chip or a splinter to speak of, it was also as dense as any wood I have worked. This wood just continued to impress me when it came time to sand and finish it. Sanding it up to 600 grit produced a surface that, for lack of a better description, is practicaly feels like silk. A basic poly finish, then produced tones in the grain that are almost iridescencent. Honestly, the nicest wood I have ever worked.

Some research revealed that this tree is known by a number of names: osage orange (if you're a woodworker) and hedge apple (if you're a farmer). This is either very expensive and hard to get specialty woods (if you're a woodworker) or damn hot firewood (if you're a farmer).

Amazingly, as the wood ages it darkens up to a very deep rich orange. The photo above shows a mushroom turned with in a few days of the photo, and the goblet turned about two years before the photo.

The other shroom is red oak out of the wood pile also.

The more I learned about this tree, the more appriciation I had for it.
The wood is used for musical instruments, railroad ties, bows, and having almost as much energy as coal. The fruit is an effective pest repellent for crickets and other bugs.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1016/is_3_106/ai_65774772

http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1997/10-10-1997/hedgeapple.html

Here is a photo of the fruit (about as big as a grapefruit)
http://members.iglou.com/perkins/newkpf/2001_11/home3507.htm

...so that's my favorite wood.