Thread: whats the name of this ?

Thanks for that wood kid.

I know why it is called cockspur. I tangled with plenty of the rotten things in my younger days. In fact a farmer mate of mine decided to pul a couple of big ones out with his tractor so he could safely burn them. Gues who drew the short straw and had to crawl under the bush to hook up the chain!!

The hook on the chain was of substaible size but was probably formed from Cheddar cheese. It simply straightened out, thus ending the erradiation program!!


While you are wandering around the bush see if you can get some of what my father referred to as White Myrtle. It would have the right properties for making chair legs.

Thanks Woodkid.
By using a search for 'cockspur thorn' I had a much better outcome trying to find the information I wanted on the internet.
Previously I had gone through my books ie "Wood in Australia", etc without success and a search on the internet for cockspur had only found vines, etc overseas.
According to one page I found it's scientific name is Maclura cochinchinensis.

Yea its good wood and its different and easy to use. ive made some pens with it and some legs for a box im making. I will also research white myrlte and see if its around here.

Yea thats the right scientific name. What did you all find out about it?

I didn't find a lot about the timber for use in craft - probably because the pieces are so small. This page was very good for general info with nice pics of it as a plant, etc
http://keys.trin.org.au:8080/key-ser...nchinensis.htm

Stan Ceglinski - "Big Stan" from the "Timber and Working with Wood Show" gave me the piece for my collection. There was a very interesting friend with him at the time who spoke about how his father had told him to always tie the bullock teams to cockspur when he was travelling. Due to it's root system it was very difficult to pull out!

My Grandad said that when they were clearing to make plantations they just chopped it off. Its an easy timber to use its not a softwood though. You wont find much out about it for craft because not a lot of people know about it which it is a good thing.

Originally Posted by artme

Cockspur is often found under trees where the birds that eat the fruit poop the seeds.

I don't think it is native and any farmer I know on th coast of NSW hates the stuff.

Artme - if you are talking about Maclura cochinsinensis, it is a native, I'm afraid.
http://keys.trin.org.au:8080/key-ser...nchinensis.htm

Quite a few pesty plants got here under their own steam! As you say, the birds like the fruit, and the seeds like the bird poo...

'Orrible stuff to run into. We have quite a few plants on our little hectare, & every now & then a drooping branch catches me as I try to sneak by on the mower. None big enough to harvest for stool legs, yet, but they are working on it.
Cheers,

Haha yea we are working on making a mini scrub at our place and hopefully if i own it in 40 years or so there might be some useful timber to cut if its allowed but by the way things are looking thats not going to happen. the worlds going to be a hard place for woodworkers in the future.

Originally Posted by IanW

None big enough to harvest for stool legs, yet, but they are working on it.
,

the rare stuff I gots cupped up pretty bad now anyway....don't think it'll happen at my place anyway