Do any of you use chinaberry for firewood? We have a lot of it growing along fencelines and irrigation lines on an out of shape farm that we are turning into a hay field. If it is useful as firewood, it will save me from just piling it and buring. Thank you.
Caveman
If it is big enough to saw, it makes beautiful cabinetry and furniture wood. Turners love it for the rich reddish-brown color and its ability to take a high polish. I 'spect it would burn OK too.
Thanks, Tom. I read that it can make nice lumber on the FF a week or so ago. Most of what we have has coppiced from cut stumps and is either small dbh or the larger trees do not have much straightness. I may save some for turning but really what I want is for this stuff to disappear. Caveman
I find it marginal for firewood. If you have access to oak and hickory, it will be in the bottom quartile for firewood desirability. However, you might not have access to the best firewood species, and it is about as good as yellow poplar or sweetgum, so if you don't have many options it will work OK.
What makes good firewood depends a lot on your perspective. If you live in Canada and want to heat your whole home with firewood, then you would want to get as much bang for your buck as possible. If, however, you just want to make a little heat and and a little atmosphere (and seeing as how you're in Lakeland, FL, I would assume that is the case) and do a little property improvement to boot, then Chinaberry is hard to beat. If you're going to be cutting it anyway, then what the heck, why not make a little firewood? It splits easier than red oak, and that's saying something! Certainly more enjoyable to work with than sweetgum.
Thanks for all of the comments. I have some that are essentially weeds. Also, one of my students has a firewood business. He usually sells oak (water, laurel, and live in order of preference). I talked him in to taking some Australian Pine. His customers liked it. Based on what I've read in all of your posts, I will probably just push all the chinaberry into piles and burn it. If I can find any straight pieces, I may make a board or two out of it. I do not have a fire place. The a/c is running now and it is almost 11p.m. Caveman
I didn't realize you were trying to sell it. Yes, pushing it up and burning it is probably the way to go. People who buy firewood generally expect more dense woods than Chinaberry.
Yea if you buy it you want top tier for your area quality, unless you pay a bargan price. If he is selling water oak his customers are getting shorted if thats his preferred wood. Its easy to split but not as dense as red oak or white oak Rubra and Alba. The live oak is a different story. If i had a splitter and or was buying it i would use all live oak if it was given to me. It really has a twited grain most of the time. But the heat that stuff will throw of is unreal!