Osage and my Harry Potter moment

[Soundchasm]

I got some Osage this summer (downed 2010), split some pretty small and kept it dry. Got a hankering to find out what all the stink was about with this primo wood.

So, I get a good coal bed going with ash, and then add an osage split. I have the door cracked a little to help it catch. It starts to spit, so I close the door and open the air. After a while, I go to stir things around with my poker.

Get a few sparks and then WHAM, "Expellios Sparkulos Flagrante!!" Stupid magic wand poker. You never know what you're going to get mail order these days...

I've tried a few more experiments, but this stuff spits like a cobra. How on earth would you ever get a fire going from scratch when your program consists of cracking the stove door for 5-10 minutes? The only thing I can think of would be to add this stuff to an established fire and slam the door shut. I may have to forbid my wife from using it next winter. I did enjoy the burn, however.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[Osage]

I got some Osage this summer (downed 2010), split some pretty small and kept it dry. Got a hankering to find out what all the stink was about with this primo wood.

So, I get a good coal bed going with ash, and then add an osage split. I have the door cracked a little to help it catch. It starts to spit, so I close the door and open the air. After a while, I go to stir things around with my poker.

Get a few sparks and then WHAM, "Expellios Sparkulos Flagrante!!" Stupid magic wand poker. You never know what you're going to get mail order these days...

I've tried a few more experiments, but this stuff spits like a cobra. How on earth would you ever get a fire going from scratch when your program consists of cracking the stove door for 5-10 minutes? The only thing I can think of would be to add this stuff to an established fire and slam the door shut. I may have to forbid my wife from using it next winter. I did enjoy the burn, however.

Thanks,
Greg

I have burned hedge for 30 years. Yeah it sparkels and takes a little longer to get going. But it heats like no other.
Have heard that some mfg's would not warrant their stoves if hedge is used. Not sure if that is true.
Take a couple of small rounds and bang them together and it sounds like a couple of pieces of steel.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Just don't mix locust and osage. Your stove will be in a liquid form in the morning.
Good stuff though. It does work well mixed with other woods.

 

[HackBerry]

I burn it in a open fireplace mixed with walnut and hackberry. I keep a few splits on hand for the cold days. Once it starts to coal if any oxygen hits it you will have a nice display rivaling the 4th of July. After the log has completely burned down to a bed of coals the sparkling is minimal and it stays HOT like a forge for a long time.

 

[Applesister]

My mother told us kids when we were little the flying sparks were Imps leaving the wood. Or little devil spirits. I dont know what woods we burned that sparked but they were mostly pines and sugar maples in an open hearth fireplace.

 

[Paulywalnut]

My mother told us kids when we were little the flying sparks were Imps leaving the wood. Or little devil spirits. I dont know what woods we burned that sparked but they were mostly pines and sugar maples in an open hearth fireplace.

Ah devil wood!

 

[Soundchasm]

I'm going to make sure that I never try to start with Osage. With the door cracked the minimum amount possible, non-trivial sparks were traveling several feet. And man, those things are FAST! Zing!!

 

[HackBerry]

I'm going to make sure that I never try to start with Osage. With the door cracked the minimum amount possible, non-trivial sparks were traveling several feet. And man, those things are FAST! Zing!!

Zip, crack, sizzle sizzle. It's hard to start but makes a fine bed of coals on a cold winter day. I cut some Osage limbs off a windfallen tree. Tap them on concrete and they sound like iron. The tree could have been dead for 20 years for all I know. The stuff doesn't rot.

 

[Osage]

Zip, crack, sizzle sizzle. It's hard to start but makes a fine bed of coals on a cold winter day. I cut some Osage limbs off a windfallen tree. Tap them on concrete and they sound like iron. The tree could have been dead for 20 years for all I know. The stuff doesn't rot.

We use it for fence posts here. Most will out last the person putting them in. When I was a kid we had an old shack that we stayed in that was close to the cattle when they were caving in the winter. It had a old topsie stove in it, we would load it up with old hedge posts. It's a wonder we didn't burn the old place down, it didn't have any electricty but you could almost read a book just from the glow of that old cast stove.