What's So Bad About Largetooth Aspen Firewood

[MapleNeil]

Hi,
So I've been searching long and far for hard maple and oak and beech when there's tons of largetooth aspen already lying on the ground just waiting to be cut up.  Then I tried burning some of the largetooth aspen that had dried from last year.  This wood still seemed quite dense but it must have been dry because it burned very well.  The bark worked well as kindling and it caught right away and seemed to burn well.  So why is aspen considered a junk firewood? 
Thanks,
Neil

[Clark]

It rots quickly if not stored under ideal circumstances. Other species have a higher btu/cord content.

Granted, all wood has basically the same BTU's/pound but you get more pounds in a log of oak or beech then you do in aspen.

Clark

[Gearbox]

Some of the cleanest wood I ever burned was leftover peeled aspen .The truck couldn,t get it all on and left me with 4 cord of peeled aspen dry from the spring peel . very little ash . I still burn it in my boiler spring and fall just to keep my woods clean . Gearbox

[4x4American]

It grows like a weed around here and few burn it.  We will chip the whole tree instead of send it through the firewood processor.  People complain if they buy firewood and there's popple in it.

[rjwoelk]

Our aspen or cottonwood has a lot of ash really fluff stuff, or is that from the bark?  We use birch and jack pine, I find the pine has very little ash.

[Ianab]

I think it has a pretty high moisture content when it's green. Means you have to collect a heap of heavy wood as you gather it. Similar in weight to the denser hardwoods. Then it dries out into a light weight wood, with less BTUs per cord.

So given the choice, people would collect a cord of Oak or Maple, that weighs about the same green, but had 2X the BTUs when it's dry.

Having said that, there is no particular problem with burning it if that's what you happen to have laying about, or want to get rid of it. It burns just fine, and makes heat. Just need to feed the fire more often.

[Ljohnsaw]

I used rounds several times for Cub Scout camp outs.  We had to haul it in a half mile (being light was nice), easy to split (yep), wanted a easy to light fire (yep) and a short burn (about 2 hours) and aspen fit the bill.  Plus it gave big flames.

[Weekend_Sawyer]

The firewood chart I refer to shows Aspen as 13.7 MBTU/cord and White Oak as 24.2 MBTU/cord.

Jon

[thecfarm]

I burned a lot of aspen that I had cut off from a grown up pasture. I also burned alot of hemlock in a wood stove too.  ;D  If it works for you,meaning you are warm,and you are happy with it,what more can you ask for?

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Yep, and if it's what you got, it's what you got.

[BEEMERS]

Theres nothing bad about it!! It burns hot and clean..easy to cut/split..It is probably 2/3 the heat value of oak and a shorter burn time.But if its there and easy to get,take it.
I have people who clean up the aspen tops and whatever oak and maple are mixed in with it.They burn Aspen in day,oak at night and they mix it...people..as in ONE family!! I burn Aspen mixed in with oak and I have more oak than anyone.
I have a hundred people who want to cut firewood off me and when I tell them they have to mix some aspen and not cherry pick the oak the run away as fast as they can..its all about perception and around her aspen has a bad rap..from people who have never burned it!!
I get so upset about people walking over perfect Aspen firewood carrying wet oak a quarter mile up a hill and turning their noses up at aspen on top if the hill.
If the option between oak and aspen with the same effort...oak is the better choice.
But when you can produce aspen into firewood with a quarter to a sixth the effort of oak...and that's exactly the situation here that people turn their noses up at everyday....I don't see how aspen in that given situation isn't the much more sensible choice.
people will work their butts of to get some oak and with the same efforts could have had 3-4 times the BTUs with a pile of aspen you can pull right up to cut and load and be gone. All about perception.
If you refuse to burn a certain kind of wood versus your preferred species of wood..youve probably never been cold..

[BEEMERS]

Sorry to continue my rant..some people where Im at have an outlet in Detroit suburbs for White Birch..Its what people picture as firewood. They probably saw  a painting of a little cabin with a little firewood on the front porch when they were a kid..paying $150 a face cord..that was a few years ago might be more now I don't know.
Perceptions..

[Grizzly]

When I was hauling poplar to LP's mill in Dawson Creek, our contractor took every log that wasn't good enough and used it for firewood. I asked him why? I mean we all know it's junk, right? Well he tells me that it's great so long as you buck and split it immediately after harvesting and then pile it and let is season for a year. He said less btu's but no real ash to speak of. I've only had green poplar here so I can't test this yet but I have no reason to doubt the fellow as he'd been burning it for years.

Lyle

[4x4American]

It is also a good wood to burn to heat up a cold home/cabin when you get back from being away and the stove has gone out.  Or cooking, for those of you that cook at deer camp or just on your woodstove in general, it's a good wood to burn because it gets hot quick.

[4x4American]

I've also burnt quite a bit of tulip before when I lived south of where I do now and it was very common in the woods

[BAR]

Back on the farm in Maine, my Mother always wanted 'popple' (or alder) for her quick, hot, summer evening  biscuit fire in the old cookstove.

[thecfarm]

I have burned hemlock alot. I was told by some that it can't be done. My Father would always say it's not the quality of the world but the quanitity of the wood that is important.

[SwampDonkey]

Mom's uncle burned 3 or 4 cords every year in the kitchen stove, but had lots ahead when they would get to cutting a bunch. Along his field there was all kinds of it. He had hardwood, but that was mostly 3/4 mile on the back of the lot. Aspen was handy, so it got burned.  ;D My uncle would haul it with the horse and sled in the spring that was cut 4 foot. They had a saw horse by the woodshed to cut firewood length.  8)

[beenthere]

Aspen is a hardwood too.  ;)

[Corley5]

I've burned my fair share of it both in the old indoor stove and the OWB.  It's OK.  I prefer to have some hard hardwood  ;) like sugar maple or beech mixed with it to make some coals.  Otherwise I've got to stay on top of it and put wood in before it needs wood or it burns down to fluff with nothing to start the new wood.  It makes heat.  It just takes more of it

[Tom L]

I have burned hemlock alot. I was told by some that it can't be done. My Father would always say it's not the quality of the world but the quanitity of the wood that is important.

I get the same thing around here with sweet gum, while not perfect it is all free and doesn't make a bad firewood, just have to watch how big of a diameter I put in the processor, once it gets stuck it is a terror to get unstuck on the wedge

[SwampDonkey]

Aspen is a hardwood too.  ;)

I can go along with deciduous or weeds, but hardwood it ain't.  8) :D :D

[beenthere]

A hard wood it is not, but a hardwood it is.  And you know better too.  ;D

[Weekend_Sawyer]

Ha! he talked a circle around you that time SD.  :D

[petefrom bearswamp]

Bigtooth or quaking aspen will keep you warm walking back and forth to the woodpile.
Works good if you dont mind doing this.
If it is free and you dont mind the above is is very suitable.
Hardwood is a common name given to any broadleaf tree.
Not all hardwoods are deciduous, ie Live oak etc.
Not all hardwoods have hard wood ie Basswood, Butternut and the aspens to name a few..
Not all conifers keep their needles ie Eastern and western larch and the exotic larches thus are deciduous.
Hemlock burns really good in my slab pile.