In today’s battle we have some of the very top dogs of the heating world. In fact many a campfire tale has been told on the overwhelming heat these two can throw off. Even rumored to ruin stoves in the process. Let’s meet our contestants. One on side we have Hop Hornbeam also known as Ironwood. Coming in at an incredible 26.4 MBTU per cord and 24 months seasoning time. On the other side we have Osage Orange or as his buddies call him Hedge. Packing a jaw dropping 30 MBTU per cord and seasoning in only 12 months time. Who’s it gonna be folks!!!
I refer to carpinus caroliniana, american hornbeam as Ironwood Ostrya virginiana American hophornbeam Is not as hard as hornbeam, but may burn hotter idk. I see more Hornbeam than Hophornbeam and don’t know if hedge even exists here, so I’m voting for Ironwood.
Dont know about Iron wood... But I'll Hedge my bet on Hedge....... ... Its the backbone of my middle of the winter go to wood... It can be a bit fussy to get going, but once she's gets going she'll throw out some heat. I've heard of some stoves that got the melt down... but I think the main thing is being air tight and adjusting the air to control the fire... The one thing that I don't like about it is when your cranking your stove for those BTU's is the coaling that you get from it. Which in turn can be fun to try to burn down, cause of all the firebugs that come from it when you open the door and give it that new oxygen... Can get kinda of hairy at times......Speaking of firebugs... It can be like 4th of July at times in the stove... Pretty awesome site to sit back and watch... But it'll always have a place in my wood pile...
I've been out on many jobsites and never seen hop hornbeam in my area. Osage orange only once. Interesting to see what the others have to say.....
I grew up with Ironwood in our small woods. Dad was an assistant with the Boy Scouts and we had kids camping in a pine grove almost every weekend and many weeknights all summer long. I ended up cutting all the wood for summer camp with a bowsaw, crosscut, and an axe. Probably 90% was Ironwood. We used it for making monkey bridges across the swamp and towers to climb on. I was spoiled at an early age and didn't even realize it. There was tons of nice straight trees of all sizes up to 10" DBH of it in the woods with a few larger ones here and there. Dad was adament about not wasting it. Nothing went in the brush piles any larger than 1" diameter if it was anywhere close to being long enough to be firewood. The woods we live in today has some Ironwood and I cut it sparingly and love coming across it in the woodpile to throw in the stove on a cold day or night. Nostalgia is part of it too along with it being a great firewood. We have 1 Hedge tree in our woods of 63 acres (that I have found). My wife highly values the "apples" for her crafts and I obey the strict orders to not cut it down although she picks up most of them from a grove next to the road over by my Mother's place since she doesn't have to carry them out of the woods. I would like to get a small grove of it going back there just to say it's there even though I would never benefit from it. I have to go with Ironwood due to my history and the fact that I never get to burn Hedge.
Voted Ironwood because I have no experience with Hedge. Disqualified but anyone who has used both and votes Hedge. Will gladly give my vote because I have heard the stories of this legendary species. Must be some awesome stuff!
My vote goes to Hardhack as that is what Ironwood is called. Never burned any OO don't know if there is any in this area?
Osage Orange (Hedge, Bois-D'arc) is a BTU Monster. A little difficult to process- hard on a chain, tougher to split, thorns and limbs. I asked a local who's 98 years old, sharp as a tack and knows EVERYthing about this area, how long a Bois-D'arc fence post would last (I've never known of one rotting, ever). He replied with exclamation, "There's no limit! I could show you a corner post that was old when I was a kid, still solid a rock! No limit!". Not much Ironwood in my area and they're small.
I’d call a 10-12” ironwood big. Saw a big multi stemmed ironwood on Wednesday and left it alone. No telling how old it is. I’ve got a 6-8” er in my yard and it would have to die before I cut it down. I love seeing old gnarly twisted ironwoods in the woods. It’s more common to see a dead European Hornbeam in a parking lot island. It’s a hard wood, but not as impressive as Am Hornbeam.
Not sure there is any Hornbeam (Ironwood) around these parts. Osage is my vote. Longevity is great, cut, split or don’t then forget it. No reason to worry about rot/decay, top covering or any of that jazz. Throws great heat, I have had no problems starting it. Plus you can cut it to 8’ -10’ lengths for fence post & 40-50 years later or longer when the fence is taken out you have firewood. All of these rounds came from posts I helped my dad set when I was between 5-8yo. The fence came out a couple years ago so I know they are pushing 50yo exposed to the elements.
