Hedge Your Bets

[Firefighter938]

A friend cleaned up some fence rows and called. I went and cut a truck load if this:





What say ye!?


Starting to get behind. I better start splitting!

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Mulberry

 

[D8Chumley]

Nice score! I'd say mulberry also

 

[osagebow]

Great stuff, groovy sparks. Should be good to go winter after next.

 

[Scooter422]

Hedge I scored last summer. If your clothes aren't stained yellow after cutting.... its not hedge.

 

[Firefighter938]

Hedge I scored last summer. If your clothes aren't stained yellow after cutting.... its not hedge.

They are stained yellow, the wood was a little gooey, but i didn't see any thorns and the bark doesn't seem right for Osage. I was leaning more towards mulberry as well, but won't be disappointed in either

 

[Osagebndr]

Great bow wood. Mix it with some other species when burning, a stove full of that stuff can scare the crap out of ya.

 

[Scooter422]

Mulberry is good stuff! I've cut both but after cutting hedge my shirt gets pitched and I have a yellow stained skin for a week.

 

[Woody Stover]

Hedge should look orange when the bark is chipped off, I think. Disclaimer: I haven't cut very much Hedge, and have only cut small Mulberry, so I don't know what the bark looks like on a big Mulberry.

 

[Paulywalnut]

The chain saw blade throws sparks cutting hedge. Very yellow and wet. Great hot stuff when seasoned.

 

[BamaScroungr]

Well I hate to repeat myself and I could be wrong, but, I've processed both mulberry and hedge, and, this: mulberry has the white sapwood, hedge doesn't--it's orange (osage orange) all the way through. If anyone has a different experience with hedge, school me. But this is my experience.

 

[Scooter422]

Hedge will be almost neon yellow when cut fresh and does have white sapwood. When dead with no bark it will be orange in color. Mullberry is a light tan color when fresh cut and will season out to a dark reddish brown. Usually seasoned Mulberry is darker than seasoned hedge.

 

[CountryBoy19]

The chain saw blade throws sparks cutting hedge. Very yellow and wet. Great hot stuff when seasoned.

I've cut numerous cords of hedge and never had the saw "blade" (it's actually a chain) throw sparks... did you forget to put bar-oil in your saw?

FWIW, the bright neon yellow color is almost identical in hedge & mulberry. Tthe slight variations in sapwood aren't reliable enough in all geographic regions to accurately determine hedge vs. mulberry on an internet forum. Even though the bark has subtle differences I still wouldn't use that as a 100% indicator. Leaves/seeds are the only 100% certain indicator, anything else and people are making educated guesses.

That being said, multiple things all add up to this most likely being mulberry. The bark texture and the bark color (color deep in the grooves) lead me to believe that the more likely option is mulberry.

 

[kennyp2339]

Wow - nice score, I've burning a mix of that all winter and I love it, don't let that wood fool you, when it dries out it becomes supper light, but it burning like gasoline and lasts pretty long.

 

[Corey]

Looks like mulberry to me. Still good wood, just not the 'King'. Hedge should have a more flaky bark and an almost snow white ring of sap wood. Couple of good pics of hedge above.

 

[Applesister]

Neither grow in my climate, but someone posted a simple test here. If you put shavings in a cup of water, hedge will dye the water yellow.
But I bet mulberry does too. Lol