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Mesquite for boat building?


Greg Luckett

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The big Mesquite trees around the Fort Worth area were near water sources. About 20 years ago I bolted together a trunk that was splitting in two just below where the trunk split into two naturally. That tree was about 50 feet high. The base trunk was about 3 or 4 ft. in diameter and the two higher trunks were about 1-1/2 to 2 ft in diameter. Many places in North Texas around water, huge Mesquite trees can be found . I am thinking of along the Trinity and Brazos rivers and the little lakes and ponds in the flood plains too. We moved in 1995 so I do not think that has changed much. I bet Oklahoma has them too if you look in the right places.

When I lived in Grand Prairie I kept cutting one down that was destroying my back fence. It was about 12 inches diameter at its base and 20 or so feet high when the power company lopped off the top. I never was able to kill that stump. :lol:

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Dunno Greg. Laura has turned a couple of handles for lathe chisels from mesquite, but I've never thought about it as a wood for boats. Hard to find someone to saw it into longer boards I would imagine. Maybe you could find someone with a woodmiser bandsaw mill to do it.

Not worth a flip for fire wood by the way- too much smoke :) We tried it in a fire inside our Teepee once- couldn't keep it burning well enough to not smoke- BAD news:)

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Dunno Greg. Laura has turned a couple of handles for lathe chisels from mesquite' date=' but I've never thought about it as a wood for boats. Hard to find someone to saw it into longer boards I would imagine. Maybe you could find someone with a woodmiser bandsaw mill to do it.

Not worth a flip for fire wood by the way- too much smoke :) We tried it in a fire inside our Teepee once- couldn't keep it burning well enough to not smoke- BAD news:)[/quote']

Well, I guess maybe it was good for chasing away the bugs at least? :lol:

I was thinking of trim or hand rails or something like that maybe, since finding milled lumber would be hard. Up here I can get just about any log milled and kiln dried, for a not too steep price. I wonder what is available down your way?

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Up in east Texas, not much problem. I know of a couple of custom hardwood mills. Down here, slim to none- there ain't any timber around these parts. In fact, there is a LOT of cedar around here and to get a cedar board to repair a chest for a customer I had to buy a fence post and mill it myself.

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Up in east Texas' date=' not much problem. I know of a couple of custom hardwood mills. Down here, slim to none- there ain't any timber around these parts. In fact, there is a LOT of cedar around here and to get a cedar board to repair a chest for a customer I had to buy a fence post and mill it myself.[/quote']

Perhaps there is a business opportunity there? A small mill specializing in local cedar? :)

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  • 2 months later...

Greg, Do you know what Mesquite it is you have? Black Mesquite is good for mallets etc. and does turn well. I think most any of the Mesqutes will work well for the parts your talking about as well as quarter knees etc. There is a company in Texas that speciallizes in Desert style furniture and I believe he uses quite a bit of it as well as live oak. If you find any black mesquite of any size , well, I'd sure like to get a hold of some for mallet work.

Gary

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Greg' date=' Do you know what Mesquite it is you have? Black Mesquite is good for mallets etc. and does turn well. I think most any of the Mesqutes will work well for the parts your talking about as well as quarter knees etc. There is a company in Texas that speciallizes in Desert style furniture and I believe he uses quite a bit of it as well as live oak. If you find any black mesquite of any size , well, I'd sure like to get a hold of some for mallet work.

Gary[/quote']

No, Gary, I do not know. I moved to Michigan for a job in 1995 and have been stuck here since. I have only managed to get home to Texas twice but the next trip I will be scouting the Mesquite.

There was another tree that grew in the woods near Galveston Bay, more like a big bush. Its bark was smooth and it grew in runs about 3 to 6 feet, then would bend and curve about and the straight some more. As kids we liked to play in them because they were dense and springy. We would climb up anywhere from 10 to 30 feet and have some wild rides in the winds or just jumping from branch to branch. That wood should be good for some wood working projects. My next trip home I will take along my bow saw and chain saw and do some harvesting. :D

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