hey guys i had a small question here i was wonderin how many people have burned osage orange and how hot it burns in comparison to what you guys normally burn
If anyone in my area has any that they don't want, I'll be right over! One of the hottest burning woods around. Usually more of a bush/small tree in my area...
It's just about the hottest burning wood in North America. Best suited for wood stoves as it pops and spits sparks. Use caution when opening the stove door because of the sparking. It burns with a blue flame as though you were burning natural gas mixed with O2. Get all you can get! I will be burning some next season.
Yep, most are smaller trees here, also. I have one in the middle of a field, I am going to cut down. it might make 3/4's of a rick and a couple more smaller that really are not much more then brush, but in the way, so I will cut them down two, this winter, sometime. But I have never burned it as far as I know.
It burns great, it throws a lot of heat & burns longer than most. In my opinion the older it is the hotter & longer it burns. I have Osage aged from fresh cut - to cut about 50years. The oldest are old fence posts.
Ive only burned it for one season towards the end as a matter of fact. Tis very heavy green or aged. Seemed a little tougher to start with a cold stove but starts fine on a bed of coals. Definitely outlasts any other wood I've burned thus far. Does pop and crack like has been mentioned. Cant say that is burns a lot hotter than others. Ive over fired the stove more this season with mulberry than i did with hedge. Id say its the best wood you can get for long burn times. Hard on chains though. Did aquire this load and split it up for next season.
now i know ive seen it a handfull of times primarilrly in a gated community were nice hauls and piles man ...... gotta say im kinda jealous but in a good way
I have cut and burned tons of hedge. In high school I paid for my truck by cutting hedge posts and firewood. In the past 20 years though most of the fencerows that used to be around have been bulldozed to get more ground to farm. I will cut anything 3” or bigger into firewood, and try to get fence posts when I can. I pile the brush and call the neighbor: he chips all the hedge he can find into IBC bladders and lets it dry for a few years. He then uses it in his forge to make knives. I won’t use straight hedge in my insert as it gets too hot- I have a warped firebox to show for it. I use it when it gets below 0, mixed with some walnut or elm so I don’t get a huge pile of coals
Worked with it for most of my life. All the fence rows used to be hedge rows growing up. Almost all the fenced are gone now. Big farm operations don't run livestock so they have bulldozed alot of it. I cut alot for fence posts and the smaller stuff was firewood. When I was too young to run a saw I picked up the firewood. I sold alot of hedge and oak as firewood. Hedge makes good fence posts. I have a small pile of 40 year old posts cut up into short firewood. Only burn it on the coldest nights. It grows big in NE Missouri. We have a corner post made of hedge, about 2.5 foot diameter and over 12ft long. Dad didn't want to rebuild that fence ever again