Black Locust - Janka hardness 1,700

Osage - Janka hardness 2,600

Both are very hard woods but Osage is much harder than Locust

Call makers usually call it Hedge. Hedge is short for hedge apple. Lol. I love turning it. Most of my Coon squallers are made out of Hedge

Just buy you some LV and be done with it. Just wear a respiratory when turning it

If you use Osage,the yellow heart is what you want. Chop or drawknife all the white off and seal it all over while it drys.The white will dry faster and cause a crack in the heart if you don't remove it while it drys. Longitudinal cracks won't hurt anything in a mallet though.

I use to cut it and dry it for self bows.Osage is the best bow wood in the world.

Always wear a respiratory when turning wood. Just don't confuse it with a suppository.

true, but LV is a different animal. I mainly wear a mask when fooling with exotic woods. Domestic woods I don't worry to much.

Dust is dust, but a lot of exotics do tend to pose a higher risk of alergic reactions. Especially members of the rosewood family.

Also most lv sold now isn't really lv.

I never seen any LV that wasn't LV. I also have contacts to where I can get any type of wood a person wants. I can get a lot of the stuff at a good price as well

My paw paw and I cut some about 20 years ago and made some post braces for a gate. They are still there.

I have some growing but I don't think they are near big enough for what you are wanting.

How big a piece do you need?

I rented a chainsaw back in Texas to trim some oak. I had to sign a disclaimer that if I used it on Bois d'ark, I get to buy the chainsaw from them.

If anything is harder than osage (mock) orange, I wouldn't want to fool with it. A chainsaw blade doesn't have a chance with it and it will last forever. The older it gets the harder it is. I've got mock orange fence posts in wet areas that are at least 75 years old

How much you want for some of those fence post.

Deerslyer and ridgestalker, all I need is a 4 foot length about 8-10 inches in diameter. Or 2 at 2 feet long. I only need to make a mallet and a handle. Thanks.

I'll do some calling around

I reused some locust post we had sawed square when I was about 8 or 9 years old this month.{I'm 54} Still hard as a rock. If you ever had the privilege of TRYING to drive staple into a seasoned locust post you'll love T posts. If you need some give me a holler

Old timers use to hand carve oversizeds tools like mallets out of huckleberry root with a knot. I have used one with a steel wedge to split wood. May try that if you are into hand carving. As far as handle goes hickory should be good.

I don't do any woodwork for hobby or anything but if anybody ever needs handle for hand tools it's hard to beat a hockey stick