ONEWOOD

ONEWOOD

Onewood is David H Janowitz.  Most of my products are from trees I have harvested in and around Houston, Texas.  I have access to a local sawmill where I cut the logs into useable sizes.  Then the wood is carried to my home built solar kiln for drying. (Otherwise a two inch thick board would take about two years to  dry.)  Finally, I get to do actual woodworking, and make stuff!  It is especially gratifying to go from a tree to a hand crafted finished product.  As you can see on this website, my work includes home goods like cutting boards and rolling pins, bowls and wine bottle stoppers, coasters and holiday ornaments, as well as fine furniture including hope chests, display cabinets and both formal and more rustic live-edge tables.

I love custom orders, such as these tables.  We will work together on design and wood choices to make your ideal finished product.  In addition to my own stock of local woods, a wide assortment of other varieties are available at local stores.

The items shown above, (scroll over "Shop" at the top of the site,) are available for sale.  Local pick up in Houston anytime, and I can ship at cost plus a nominal packing fee.  The later section Items without a price are gone, but I can approximately recreate most of them too.

To mail order on line, use the contact me feature below.  I accept Square and Paypal

Contact Me

David H Janowitz

2429 McClendon St

Houston, TX  77030

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onewood@att.net

OSAGE ORANGE

My favorite wood! The hardest North American wood.
Maclura pomifera, also called Bois d’Arc, (French for “wood of the bow”) Bodark, Hedge, Hedge Apple, Monkey Ball
The trees often grow crooked and bent, making larger sized lumber rare.  In the fall, these have 4” bumpy green fruit.  Most animals will not eat them, though squirrels will open them for the seeds if they get hungry enough.  Despite the name, Osage Oranges are not citrus trees, nor related to the orange, and have no noticeable scent.
The tight grained yellow-orange wood is very dense and is prized for tool handles, fence posts, and other applications requiring a strong stable wood that withstands rot.  Straight-grained Osage timber (most is knotty and twisted) makes very good bows.  Unlike many woods, Osage wood is very durable in contact with the ground.  Smaller logs make good fence posts, being both strong and durable. In Arkansas, in the early 19th century, a good Osage bow was worth a horse and a blanket.  A yellow-orange dye can be extracted from the wood and is used for dying yarn and fabric.  Florists use the fruits for decorative purpose. 
Palmer and Fowler's Fieldbook of Natural History 2nd edition, rates Osage orange wood as being 2.5 times as hard as white oak (Quercus alba) and having twice the tensile strength. The hardness of the wood makes it more difficult to work, especially when fully dry.  The amazing bright yellow wood gradually turns a deep orange-brown over a few months, with great iridescence and reflectivity, making it beautiful for any woodworking project.  I have a wide variety of boards, including some slabs over 20" wide.

WATER OAK

There are more than 60 varieties of Oak in North America. Oaks are divided into two main groups, red oak and white oak.  Red oak has a more open grain structure, and is considered less durable in outdoor use.   Water Oak is a red oak variety.  Mine has all been cut down from urban Houston trees.  Fortunately, those were all replaced with new trees, and I saved some of the wood.  The color varies from a light tan, generally the outer sapwood, to a darker red-brown, or grey-brown in the heartwood.  I have a stock of boards up to 22" across, both live edge for slab type table tops, and finished cut for furniture and other projects.  You can come to my shop to visit, design a project, and choose particular wood.

CHERRY

Cherry is another wood I have had to purchase, but is widely available.  cherry is known for its red tones, though it may also be a pale tan, especially in the sapwood.

MAPLE

Maple again, is widely available, but I have so far not acquired a source of logs, and have had to purchase what I need.  Maple is a hard wood with closed tight grain, and usually a light tan color.  Many fancy grain varieties exist such as wavy, birds-eye, tiger, and others.  This rolling pin is an amazing piece of curly maple

CEDAR ELM

Elm usually has a light tan straight grain wood.  I had never heard of Cedar Elm until recently, when a group of us from the Woodworking Club of Houston salvaged some logs from a tree which blew down in Hurricane Harvey.  This wood is named for growing in flat valleys, near Cedars.  Some of my boards also include numerous dark spots when the tree grew over its own tiny twigs.  I will add more photos as I make more items from this unusual wood

WALNUT

Walnut is an especially dark, chocolate brown hardwood.  Most of my walnut stock was purchased, though from regionally grown trees.  The amazingly patterned bowl below was a remnant leftover from a large veneer log.  Most walnut has much straighter grain, though unusual patterns are available for a higher price.