Did I finally find Osage??

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claydogg84

claydogg84

Minister of Fire
Sep 9, 2013
1,792
Salt Point, NY
Power line company took down a massive amount of trees and I ended up with 3 "over the cab roof" full loads of mostly Black Locust, some Ash, Red Oak, White Oak, and a few pieces of what I think could be Osage. Also the last 2 pictures I initially thought were BL too, but the color of the wood is not as yellow and it's full of little thorns on the bark - Honey Locust? First 3 pictures are what I hope to be Osage. image.jpgimage.jpg image.jpgimage.jpg image.jpg
 
In my opinion, you have found mulberry. No reason to be sad about it either, good wood. :) Bark is what I am going by......
 
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Hickorynut said:
In my opinion, you have found mulberry. No reason to be sad about it either, good wood. :) Bark is what I am going by......
Click to expand...

When I saw it, my initial reaction was Mulberry, but I've never dealt with either so I wasn't sure.
 
Hedge will have a HEAVY white sap and sticky as heck around just about where the bark starts. I didn't see that on this. So mulberry but just about as good.
 
We'll need to see some splits for definitive analysis. It looks like you could have hedge, but also honey locust / mulberry.
 
But actually the end split doesn't look right for osage, so I'm thinking it's something else.
 
Keep in mind the top 3 pictures are from a different tree then the last 2.
 
Mulberry.
 
I see mulberry, and elm maybe.
 
Claydogg, I actually think the last couple pics(from the bottom) look like mulberry bark, but I could be wrong.....
 
Hickorynut said:
Claydogg, I actually think the last couple pics(from the bottom) look like mulberry bark, but I could be wrong.....
Click to expand...

The last 2 pictures had small thorns coming directly off the bark, but they fell off while stacking in the truck. They are 2 different trees for sure and the heartwoods & weight aren't really comparable. The top wood was heavy like oak. I haven't heard of any other trees that have thorns aside from Honey Locust, so I assumed that's what it was.
 
claydogg84 said:
What is the distinguishing difference between Mulberry and Osage?
Click to expand...
Bark is different. Mulberry is somewhat yellow but Hedge is neon yellow on a fresh split or cut. Unfortunately, these pics don't show the yellow very well. It is unmistakeable.

022.JPG 025.JPG 027.JPG
 
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gzecc said:
Now I see some locust in the background.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the bark on a couple of those looks pretty thick and deep, kinda like BL...
 
Woody Stover said:
Yeah, the bark on a couple of those looks pretty thick and deep, kinda like BL...
Click to expand...

My pile is full of Black Locust. It's all mixed together but the pieces of Mulberry are definitely different. Plus, the Mulberry came from a different area completely.
 
Pennsyltucky Chris said:
The last is elm.

I'm not sure if you have locust or mulberry. This is mulberry I split last spring:

3f45a06e047efd2fa9f740015d736600.png

986eceaed10e42cbd9efe2e560545197.png
Click to expand...

Elm has thorns on it? I've dealt with a ton of American Elm and it has never had thorns. I'm nearly certain it's not Elm. And I get a lot of BL around here, so I'm certain the other stuff isn't that.
 
Split a round open today. Chips were neon yellow when cutting and its a pretty bright yellow inside. image.jpgimage.jpg
 
Pretty bright yellow is not the yellow of osage - osage is so bright it is unmistakable as mentioned above. Also, if you split it with an axe it's not osage - you wouldn't split osage without mentioning the stringy, clingy wood that makes elm seem simple.

Maybe mulberry is my best guess
 
Hedge does have thorns on it. They are sort of broad compared to what we normally think of as thorns but they are present. I have no idea what hedge looks like when split because I just deal with it as a growing plant. I sometimes need to trim off a branch and the thorns give me lots of trouble while I'm working it.
 
Black Locust has thorny twigs, and the branches in the last two pictures might be Black Locust branches. At some stage as a branch grows from a twig to a major branch, the thorns disappear. Branches a couple of inches in diameter normally have thorns.
 
BobUrban said:
Pretty bright yellow is not the yellow of osage - osage is so bright it is unmistakable as mentioned above. Also, if you split it with an axe it's not osage - you wouldn't split osage without mentioning the stringy, clingy wood that makes elm seem simple.

Maybe mulberry is my best guess
Click to expand...

Personally, I had no trouble splitting osage at all after I let it sit a few months. And I do remember some of the branches having thorns. None of my splits had that white sapwood, though, they were orange all the way through. But the pic of your split looks very similar to woody stover's. The grain and color look right for osage. I've never dealt with mulberry.
 
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