Osage shavings- burn HOT

[richpierce]

Man, I am generating bushels of shavings from osage orange and they may be the hottest fuel I have ever used.  I think you could propel a rocket with this stuff.  I think it's marketable- compact the shavings, seal in plastic bags and sell at gas stations, mini-marts with the firewood bundles.

[bootboy]

sounds like good fuel for the forge

[Ryano]

Yep, its all I use for kindling anymore, don't even need much to get a hot fire going.

[tom sawyer]

I keep a washtub full of them for starting fires.  That and hickory twigs from the tree out front, keeps me in kindling.  I think its the surface area that makes the shavings burn so hot and fast.

[Ryano]

Yes, but I read some where that osage makes more btu's than any other wood. It burns very hot!

[duffontap]

Yew was a favored firewood during the years it was harvested for bark.  I randomly cut my dad a bunch of otherwise worthless yew for firewood a while ago and he has told me about three times that he has never used anything like it. 

Yew and Osage are first-string firewoods.

           J. D.

[SimonUK]

Is yew not harvested for bark anymore? That's good news!

[Ryano]

Yew and Osage are first-string firewoods.

Is there anything there not good for? lol

[duffontap]

Is yew not harvested for bark anymore? That's good news!

It's been about 10 years I think.  It is good news!

Ryan--I'm with you!

[Ryano]

Ok, I gota ask what was the bark used for?

[Pat B]

Taxol, a chemical used in cancer research. 
I think red oak and standing dead live oak as primo, #1 firewood. I can hardly make myself cut up any osage for firewood. I usually generate a 30gal trash can or 2 each year of wood shavings and most goes for kindling.      Pat

[duffontap]

Ok, I gota ask what was the bark used for?

Cancer treatment.  Drug companies got contracts for dump truck loads of bark from high altitude Yew.  The Yew was cut down, everything 1" in diameter was stripped and the wood was left or used for firewood if it was close to a road.  That's not the worst thing that I've ever heard happen to Yew.  I have a friend who was hired by the National Forest Service for a whole summer to cut, machine pile and burn yew at 5,000-6,000 feet in elevation.  It just makes a guy want to cry. 

         J. D.

[SimonUK]

So how are they making taxol these days? I thought it was difficult to synthesize artificially.

[carpenter374]

osage burns very hot. i have used it for basic forging. it is also one if the few woods that will burn green or dry. i know folks out here that use it to keep their wood stoves hot all night while they sleep.

[Postman]

They are producing taxol in labs, but probably will switch to bacterial production - they'll take a gene from the yew, splice it into a bacteria and the bacteria will make taxol using "renewable" portions of the yew (braches,ect??) as a starting point.... maybe a cash cow for yew harvesting bowyers in a few years