Non Bearing Mulberry Wood...What You Think?

[stick burner]

Got a chance to buy a cord of seasoned non bearing Mulberry wood for $75.00. It's is seasoned. Looking at it, it seems like a pretty dense and decent wood to burn in my stove. Any comments on burning this wood? Never used it before.

Thanks
Stick burner

 

[Crisnnik]

I personally have no experience with it either, but I did run across this link a while ago, and it is listed on there. Heat value seems good, it only states it tends to be "sparky". Have a look ...

http://extension.usu.edu/forestry/HomeTown/General_HeatingWithWood.htm

 

[begreen]

Lucky you, that's a great deal!

 

[PA. Woodsman]

It's an above-average fuelwood although it does tend to "pop" as mentioned above. You can't beat that price-get it!

 

[realstihl]

Just a step below hedge wood. It will pop and snap some and give you a kinda light show if you have a glass door. I've burned it many times. Good stuff!

 

[Mmaul]

Burning some next year.

 

[JBinKC]

Take it and save some for the smoker if you like to smoke poultry.

 

[adrpga498]

Great wood, had 1 free cord last year. I would rank it near the top as btu heat out-put.

 

[colsmith]

I don't know the significance of "non-bearing," but we burned mulberry last year and this and it is great stuff. A real pain to split, very dense stuff, but it burns for a long time. Takes a while to dry out, too. You can tell by the color how seasoned it is, it changes color a great deal, getting much darker as it dries out. We use it mostly for overnight burns, as we have a lot of light fluffy wood like willow and boxelder that you can really only use when you are around to put more wood in frequently. I would be burning more of it, but an awful lot is still in the 'to be split' pile since I have such trouble with it. When I was first getting into the whole wood thing I downloaded and studied a lot of charts about wood, BTUs, ease of splitting, etc. I have a very detailed one from the U of Nebraska that has the nerve to say mulberry is easy to split. Ha!

 

[Corey]

Just a step below hedge wood. It will pop and snap some and give you a kinda light show if you have a glass door. I've burned it many times. Good stuff!

Well, maybe a couple of steps - most charts I have seen ((broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)) have some BTU/cord order like:

Osage Orange (Hedge)
Hickory, Shagbark
Eastern Hornbeam
Beech, Blue
Birch, Black
Locust, Black
Hickory, Bitternut
Locust, Honey
Apple
Mulberry
Oak, White
Beech, High
Maple, Sugar

With hedge and mulberry at 33 and 26Mbtu/cord respectively. But still good wood for the price.

 

[realstihl]

Yeah, I can't believe where locust came is on that chart. From my experience Mulberry burns way better than Locust. The Locust I'm comparing it to is the kind with lots of thorns. Honey Locust?

 

[Jags]

I have got to say that Marcia is the first person I have ever heard refer to wood as "fluffy". :lol: Cracks me up, yet very descriptive for some wood species. I hope you don't mind if I use that on occasion.

Grab that wood. It is good burning stuff, and at that price you should get it fast.

 

[gpcollen1]

Yeah, I can't believe where locust came is on that chart. From my experience Mulberry burns way better than Locust. The Locust I'm comparing it to is the kind with lots of thorns. Honey Locust?

I believe the Locust with thorns (3 thorned) is honey - Gleditsia Triacanthos

 

[DiscoInferno]

I don't know the significance of "non-bearing," but we burned mulberry last year and this and it is great stuff. A real pain to split, very dense stuff, but it burns for a long time. Takes a while to dry out, too. You can tell by the color how seasoned it is, it changes color a great deal, getting much darker as it dries out. We use it mostly for overnight burns, as we have a lot of light fluffy wood like willow and boxelder that you can really only use when you are around to put more wood in frequently. I would be burning more of it, but an awful lot is still in the 'to be split' pile since I have such trouble with it. When I was first getting into the whole wood thing I downloaded and studied a lot of charts about wood, BTUs, ease of splitting, etc. I have a very detailed one from the U of Nebraska that has the nerve to say mulberry is easy to split. Ha!

I feel like we had this discussion before, but I've always found mulberry to be quite easy to split, even the crooked stuff (most of it) seems pretty brittle. Biggest pain can be standing up a misfit piece and finding a good surface to hit. Are you finding straight pieces hard to split?

I'm a fan of mulberry in general since I like all the popping. But since the logs are seldom regular it can be hard to pack a firebox with them.

 

[stick burner]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone. Bought the wood this morning. You guys are great.

Stickburner

 

[colsmith]

DiscoInferno: Is it when the mulberry is really really dry that you find it easy to split? I haven't found it easy to split whether green or being cut a year or even two years on the big hunks. Even the straight normal sized hunks are often difficult unless very dried out such that the checks are sizeable. There are several hunks that were firebox length already that I had hubby cut again so they are only about 10 inches long, since they were impossible to split otherwise. Could be regional variation in the type of mulberry tree?!? We have gotten mulberry wood from more than one source, so it isn't just one difficult tree. We have a lot of apple trees and hence apple wood from time to time, that is so much easier to split, even though that darn chart says it is harder to split than mulberry. Off topic, was glad to hear in that one thread about user names that you don't actually like disco, because it is true that Disco Sucks.

Jags: Glad to amuse you with fluffy wood, but you know what I mean, dried willow is so light it weighs almost nothing. When you scrounge free wood, you often wind up with the less desireable stuff, but hey, it all burns, right?

 

[wg_bent]

I agree with others on the others that Mulberry is a great wood to burn. It splits great till you get to a know...but then that's most woods. It does pop, but is fun to watch it burn. I look for it when I can find it since I consider it a good over night wood as I know there will be coals left from it in the morning similar to oak or locust.

Good thing to grab.

On a side note, I was discussing mulberry just yesterday with my father, and I think there may be a couple varieties. The kind we're talking about here has an almost mustard color wood with very straight grain. I've come across a tree that a friend said was mulberry, but it had a more knarly grain pattern, and a VERY prominent bunch of bright pink or red streaks in the wood. This "pink" stuff is no where near as good a wood as the "mustard" color wood, but then again, I"m not positive the "pink" is mulberry.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I agree with others on the others that Mulberry is a great wood to burn. It splits great till you get to a know...but then that's most woods. It does pop, but is fun to watch it burn. I look for it when I can find it since I consider it a good over night wood as I know there will be coals left from it in the morning similar to oak or locust.

Good thing to grab.

On a side note, I was discussing mulberry just yesterday with my father, and I think there may be a couple varieties. The kind we're talking about here has an almost mustard color wood with very straight grain. I've come across a tree that a friend said was mulberry, but it had a more knarly grain pattern, and a VERY prominent bunch of bright pink or red streaks in the wood. This "pink" stuff is no where near as good a wood as the "mustard" color wood, but then again, I"m not positive the "pink" is mulberry.

I know of Red Mulberry and White Mulberry-there may be more varieties of it. It's amazing how the cut-side of one of the species is yellow when freshly cut then turns reddish-brown when dry.