Pin oak for firewood

[Johnnyjeep]

Have some woods on my property and trying to find the best fire wood for my wood stove. I have pin oak, mulberry, and abundance of sweet gum. Trying to get more information on pin oak as far as BTU's and coaling affect for all night heat. 

[barbender]

Pin oak is in the red oak family. It probably doesn't have the exact same amount of btus as northern red oak that you would find in firewood but charts- but it would be very close no doubt.

[cutterboy]

Pin oak when dry is an excellent firewood.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Any wood is better than trying to burn snow balls all winter.  :D   Pin oak is good firewood but its got to be dry and it takes oak quite a while to get dry..    Split it small and stack it where it gets plenty of sun and wind and don't cover it with a tarp.
Mulberry is okay as well.    May take more wood but you'll get heat.
I don't know about sweet gum. I only have black gum round here and I avoid it because splitting it is hard.   It just dont split nice at all.   Better to saw gum into ties. 

[Al_Smith]

Mulberry is second cousin to Osage Orange ,burns good .It also produces fruit the starlings love to eat then make bombing runs on your freshly washed automobile .They have very good aim too .

[barbender]

I love most birds, but not starlings😬

[GRANITEstateMP]

I despise Starlings!

[Al_Smith]

Okay side track time .Starlings it is .It has been rumored some great fan of Shakespeare from I think in NYC tried to get the city to be like the time of the poet and imported the dang things .They of course are like invading weeds and took over .They do serve as good target practice if nothing else but I doubt they are edible .Eugene Schieffelin did the dirty deed around 1890 .

[GRANITEstateMP]

we have a nice older gent that uses the starlings for target practice up at the farm. We are glad every time he shows up!  ;D

[doc henderson]

Mulberry and most oaks come in around 25 million BTUs per cord.  95% of what we burn is Mulberry.  Osage Orange is 32 million and pops and sends out embers, so only good in a stove.  In Alaska they burn softwood and would love to get some cottonwood at 18 million BTUs per cord.  "Dance with the one who brung ya".  got to use what you got.

[barbender]

I always say, up in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming the common firewood is dead standing Lodgepole pine. I could've swore it kept me warm in the cabin🤷‍♂️ Even in MN, I'm not picky at all. If I had an indoor woodstove I would be more selective, but in the OWB it's become a guilty pleasure to see how nasty and worthless of wood I can keep the house heated with😁

[Ianab]

Radiata pine is the most common firewood here in NZ, probably because it's the most common tree.  :D

All wood is similar energy for weight when dry, but as it's sold by volume, you naturally don't want the lighter woods, unless it's at a steep discount. Also NZ doesn't get crazy cold, so a cheerful pine fire in woodstove will keep you warm, even if you have to fill it 2X as often. Or more to the point, you can sell eucalyptus, sheoak or native hardwoods for at least 2X what pine fetches. 

We have the same starlings here, but they aren't considered as a pest, and most farmers actually like them because they eat a species of native grub that eats grass roots in pasture, and can kill large patches of it in summer. They are probably a mixed blessing as they can also eat some crops, but on average the number is grubs, caterpillars, grasshoppers and ticks they eat seems to make up for it. NZ native birds aren't adapted to open pasture life like many imports from Europe. 

[KEC]

I would cocur with the comment that Pin Oak is good firewood, but like other oaks, is stubborn in giving up its' water. Starlings do eat pest insects and larvae, including lawn grubs. They also provide food for Merlins, Barn Owls and probably Coopers' Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Unfortunately, starlings compete with native birds for nesting cavities.

[Magicman]

and abundance of sweet gum

No, I would never ever try to burn Sweetgum.

Actually go ahead and burn it and you can say no next time.  ;D

[Al_Smith]

Talk about gnarly stuff .I just today finished splitting up a big limb that tore off of a big white oak .150-200 years blowing hither and yon in the wind makes for some tough wood .That danged thing was about like elm .Heavy as lead too .

[Tom King]

Sweet Gum is only good to burn when you want to keep a fire going, but you don't want any heat.  Nobody needs much of it.

[Sauna freak]

Here in MN we have an abundance of Northern Pin Oak.  It is rather variable wood, and often hybridized with Red or black oak adding to the confusion.  I generally consider it on the "very good" side of firewood.  It is harder to process than true Red Oak.  Burn is very similar.  The branch wood seems to burn faster and hotter than the trunk wood.  It has many heavy knots that will burn slowly in the trunk.  It produces very good coals on a slower burn, tends to burn into clean ash rather quickly with the dampers open.  I absolutely love it split fine for heating the sauna and producing quick heat in the house stove.  It is susceptible to armilaria fungi in the sapwood after mortality, and will quickly lose BTUs standing dead.  It's best cut green or very freshly dead and dried 1-2 years.  The bark is very messy.

[Al_Smith]

I'm not aware of any use of pin oak other than perhaps blocking type stuff and fire wood .I do have a couple of larger ones though but less in number than the northern reds and white oak .The white is the predominant .
The way with a pin is as the folliage grows it attrophies the lower limbs because of no sun light which die and hang on for years before they break off  . They way a pin grows with limbs popping out every where reminds me of a pine tree .Pine BTW is not native in this part of Ohio .Fact on the sides of my 600 plus foot long drive way I have a couple of pins that should be dead wooded . I don't think I can reach it with my pole saw .

[ToplineMike]

 

 

[fluidpowerpro]

OK...so whats this graph showing?

[doc henderson]

millions of BTUs per cord,  Osage is 33 million BTUs per cord.

[Magicman]

Of course much depends upon who's chart it is:

Our chart of the BTU values of wood species can be found below

[th]Wood Species[/th] [th]Pounds / cord[/th] [th]Million BTU's per cord[/th]
Osage Orange (Hedge)	4,728	32.9
Hickory, Shagbark	4,327	27.7
Eastern Hornbeam	4,267	27.3
Ironwood	4,016	27.1
Beech, Blue	3,890	26.8
Birch, Black	3,890	26.8
Locust, Black	3,890	26.8
Hickory, Butternut	3,832	26.7
Locust, Honey	3,832	26.7
Apple	4,100	26.5
Mulberry	3,712	25.8
Oak, White	4,012	25.7
Beech, High	3,757	24
Maple, Sugar	3,757	24
Oak, Red	3,757	24
Ash, White	3,689	23.6
Birch, Yellow	3,689	23.6
Juniper, Rocky Mtn	3,150	21.8
Elm, Red	3,112	21.6
Coffeetree, Kentucky	3,112	21.6
Hackberry	3,247	20.8
Tamarack	3,247	20.8
Birch, Gray	3,179	20.3
Birch, Paper	3,179	20.3
Birch, White	3,179	20.3
Walnut, Black	3,192	20.2
Cherry	3,120	20
Ash, Green	2,880	19.9
Cherry, Black	2,880	19.9
Elm, American	3,052	19.5
Elm, White(Russian, Siberian)	3,052	19.5
Sycamore	2,808	19.5
Ash, Black	2,992	19.1
Maple, Red	2,924	18.7

[Magicman]

And:

Firewood BTU of Eastern Hardwood Species

Inconsistency between charts may exist due to different laboratory variables

[th]Species[/th] [th]Million BTU's per Cord[/th] [th]Pounds Per Cord Dry[/th]
Osage Orange	32.9	4728
Shagbark Hickory	27.7	4327
Eastern Hornbeam	27.1	4016
Black Birch	26.8	3890
Black Locust	26.8	3890
Blue Beech	26.8	3890
Ironwood	26.8	3890
Bitternut Hickory	26.5	3832
Honey Locust	26.5	4100
Apple	25.8	3712
Mulberry	25.7	4012
Beech	24.0	3757
Northern Red Oak	24.0	3757
Sugar Maple	24.0	3757
White Oak	24.0	3757
White Ash	23.6	3689
Yellow Birch	21.8	3150
Red Elm	21.6	3112
Hackberry	20.8	3247
Kentucky Coffeetree	20.8	3247
Gray Birch	20.3	3179
Paper Birch	20.3	3179
White Birch	20.2	3192
Black Walnut	20.0	3120
Cherry	20.0	3120
Green Ash	19.9	2880
Black Cherry	19.5	2880
American Elm	19.5	3052
White Elm	19.5	3052
Sycamore	19.1	2992
Black Ash	18.7	2924
Red Maple (Soft Maple)	18.1	2900
Boxelder	17.9	2797
Catalpa	15.9	2482
Aspen	14.7	2295
Butternut	14.5	2100
Willow	14.3	2236
Cottonwood	13.5	2108
American Basswood	13.5	2108

[Ianab]

You probably get some variation from tree to tree, or regional / climate differences. But a good guideline is how dense (heavy) the wood is once dry. That's approximately the amount of fuel you have. Like how much propane is in a tank can be judged by it's weight. 

So denser wood like Osage Orange and White Oak will always be in the upper end of the scale. Lighter woods like Cottonwood and pine will be at the lower end. Cottonwood is especially unpopular because it has a lot of water when green, so it's about the same weight as Oak to collect green, bit once dry you only have 1/2 the fuel actually left. So given the choice, you collect the denser and higher BTU woods.

Of course if you have to cut up and haul away a less desirable wood anyway, then most of the work is now done, so may as well keep the free firewood.

[Al_Smith]

I've got white oak and hickory on the high end and cotton wood and bass wood on the other .Plus cherry and white ash some where in the middle .If it will fit through the stove door I'll burn it .