Back in the day i cut and burned alot of the Osage Orange. I cleared two fence rows for farmer friends. I have heard so many stories about Osage and Mullberry. A few things i know for a fact about these woods are as follows. Osage and Mullberry are "high octane" BTU woods. Both almost require an air tight stove to prevent a runaway stove. Both spark a lot when fresh air is introduced by opecouldning the door to the stove. I used a square cutter chain back in the day to cut these woods. (i was told it was the only chain that would cut Osage. (I have found that not to be true) Contrary to what i have heard i did not experence the chain needing more attention when cutting these woods. I have only cut in the late fall or early spring. (can anyone else chime in here) Never have cut either wood in the winter or when they were fully dried. Hand splitting is quite a chore, stringy and will not pop apart like Oak I have used Osage for handles and with good tools I could work it fine. I guess im looking for facts and not myths regarding these woods, locally they are everywhere and everyone seems to want them "cut down". I personally like them both, and respect that they are a "high octane" wood. I have visited a few on line sites dealing with Osage and Mullberry but none specific to harvesting for heating wood. I did a forum search and got a few hits, could we compile facts and experences by species? Could be a useful tool. I know the Osage is somewhat regional but does anybody else have significant experence with these woods?
I burn a chitload of hedge. Most people think it will, and I quote "melt your stove" or "warp your stove" and walk away from it. In my experience it doesn't burn any hotter than other species of dry wood...just longer. Most of the hedge I cut is dead...was girdled 20 something years ago by the landowner. It is hell on chains...literally throws sparks because of its naturally high silica content. This is what gives it that "fleck" that catches light. Green hedge cuts like any other wood. Dead hedge brush sucks because it is so strong...doesn't break like other stuff...even finger sized twigs...so if you snag on in another tree it is darn near impossible get down without equipment. Hedge is all kinds of heavy. It is really easy to overload a trailer with it. It can have some nasty wave to the grain that makes it damm near impossible to split. These are the only rounds that stopped my splitter...ever. That's an XL glove for reference. It was exactly the same length as my 8lb maul and handle, however long that is. With all that being said, it is still worth the effort and my favorite wood to burn.
When wood is put into BTU terms, hedge (osage orange) is top of the list wood types. (30 million BTU/cord) Hedge is near 10 million, (30% more)BTU per cord more than Ash, Cherry, Birch ...etc 5 million BTU per cord more than Shagbark hickory & White oak & twice the BTU per cord of most types of soft wood (pines & poplars) To focus on the highest BTU types will be "More bang for your buck $$ " The new, efficient, airtight , cat stoves love dry , high density wood types Hard for me to imagine how long of a burn time I'd get with a full load of hedge (dreaming now )
I hear all the mystical stories of this hedge/osage orange from you guys on here - never set eyes on one. It's better than the hickory and white/red oak that I burn overnight and from what I hear dries faster. Seems like the best wood out there - then again if there's none around
I've never burned 'Hedge-apple,' as they call it here, but I have about about 1/4 cord that's been in rounds for about a year, that I need to get stacked and drying. I'm not worried about it rotting if I don't get around to it right away. There's some more that I might get, along with some White Oak, but I don't know if the guy is gonna ever call me to get it....hopefully, he gets sick of it lying there pretty soon. Burned plenty of Mulberry, though. Great stuff, but don't mess with it if you have carpeting near the stove. Black Locust is in the same vein...a bit more dense than Mulberry, and just as sparky.
Id love to stumble on some Osage on these old farms around here !! Only thing in our woods that is maybe close to being as hard is Ironwood I guess ........... P.S...........Love the pics and all the great facts
OO burns hot. Much hotter than oak. Easy to overheat your house with if you are not used to it and I wouldn't load up an old leaky stove with it- that's probably where all the melted down stove stories come from (behaves fine in my cat stove). The brush and thorns are hard to deal with. It's good stuff but I'd rather deal with oak myself.
I have access to a lot of Mulberry but not sure it is any better then Oak but if it is its hard to tell for me.
The charts I've seen have got it about the same as White Oak, 25.7 mBTU/cord. Hedge-apple is up around 33. That's as far above White Oak as WO is above Red Maple....a quantum leap. You can see by the ends that it was pretty dried out, but it was still dammed heavy! There's a lot of it around here (lukem burns tons of it) but I haven't run across that much. I have a shot at a log of it if the guy calls me, but no big deal if he doesn't. It's right behind my MIL's house, he's clearing a lot, and would be easy to get. It's a big trunk, almost 30", but kind of oval. There's another one, almost as big, still on the lot. At least I can look at it from time to time. It's sort of a novelty wood for me; I can get plenty long burns out of the other primo stuff I have. I guess if you needed 16-hr. burns out of your squirrel stove, it would be a necessity. If you really don't like to mess with loading the stove, it's got more value to you I imagine. As a 'wood guy,' though, it certainly has a mystique, an aura... This is my total Bodark stash....maybe one-third cord. It'll be enough to see what all the hoopla is about, anyway.... Plus the "back-seat score."
Heck, you hardly need that good a wood down there in AR. I'll take that nasty heavy stuff off your hands... I'm looking forward to splitting that stuff. The pics don't do it justice; On a fresh split, it's neon yellow in color.
I've seen a lot of Osage Orange or Hedge in Iowa while hunting. The fruit that falls off is pretty bizarre. The locals say it is unreal how long it will last as cornerposts if you can find a straight enough one.
