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Whats Your Big 3 of Firewood?

Started by ReggieT, January 26, 2014, 06:41:19 PM

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M_S_S

When I lived down on the west side of the Sierras it was Madrone, Calif. Black Oak, and Valley Liveoak in that order. Now it is Western Juniper, Lodgepole Pine and Pondarosa Pine. No hardwoods up here except Mountain Mahogany and I do cut it for BBQ wood. It doesn't grow very big . ED
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missouriboy

my would be red oak, bur oak, and ash.

SLawyer Dave

1.  Mountain Black Oak
2.  Eucalyptus
3.  Fruit/Nut


Here in Northern California with our thousands of acres of fruit and nut trees, Almond wood is considered to be the "best" firewood by most.  Now don't get me wrong, Almond is a great firewood.  High btu value and little splitting needed, but the bark is just so messy and it leaves a lot of ash.  My favorite by far is Mountain Black Oak.  Nice and straight, easy to split, (when green), clean wood, burns hot with high btu, and leaves very little ash.  Eucalyptus is one of the highest btu value woods you can burn.  Can be a little trickier to split depending on variety, but burns so well (and hot), that it leaves very little ash.  After that, I don't really differentiate between much else.  If I get into almond wood, then I generally save that to sell, since it goes for such a premium, (which makes no sense to me).  Otherwise, walnut, pecan, peach, prune, and olive wood are all very good choices, and fairly available in this area.

Nemologger

Clean and Sober

John Mc

Buckthorn - not that it's any better than any of the premium hardwoods (though it is pretty good as firewood) - I just get a lot of satisfaction heating my house with this invasive species, knowing I've at least tried to make a dent in the population.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

DDDfarmer

tamarack, birch, black spruce.  in that order  but will take whatever is cut  ;D
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ReggieT

Anybody ever burn any "devils walking stick/Hercules club?" ???

stumper

Well my big three are in order, what I am paid to cut and remove, then free and easy to get.

in terms of species it is hard to beat hornbeam.  I do not get it very often but it is great stuff.  Locust is also great, burns hot and does not rot.  Oak, red and white also make the list as does sugar maple.  Great wood but not on the list because they are prone to go punky to too quickly if left in contact with the ground would be yellow birch and beech.

John Mc

I burn a lot of Beech, great BTUs per cord, but Stumper is right, you do need to get it stacked up off the ground. It won't take a lot of lying around in ground contact like Oak or some other species will.

Hardhack (Hophornbeam) is the same way: Excellent firewood, but starts to go quickly if you leave it in contact with moist ground.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Magicman

Cherrybark Oak, Water Oak, and lastly - White Oak.

Presently I am stuck with burning Ash  :-\  simply because two trees fell and I utilized the tops and crooks for firewood.  I have to carry a bucket of white powdery ashes out every few days.  Not so with Oak.

When other hardwood species fall, I just let it rot.  Beetles and termites gotta eat too. 
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petefrom bearswamp

BTU per standard cord
White ash            3,485
Sugar maple        3,740
Red maple           3,230
Red oak               3,570 
White oak            3,910
American beech   3,655
Black cherry        3,145
Hickory shagbark 4,080
Hickory bitternut  3,825
Birch yellow         3,570
Birch, white (paper) 3,230
Locust, black        3,740
locust honey         3,825
Osage orange       4,845
Hop hornbeam      4,250
Burr oak               3,655
Why would anyone mess with Hercules club? OUCH
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beenthere

Pete
Are those BTU's per cord, or weight in pounds per dry cord?

Here is a link to a chart (and note that there can be some pretty big differences in individual tree wood densities within a species, so these figures are pretty general, at best.
http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

BTU's per cord are in the neighborhood of 20 million for good burning wood.
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DeerMeadowFarm

I burn mostly red oak, white oak and ash as it's the most plentiful around here. I get a lot of birch and cherry when clearing my field edges as that seems to pop up along the edges first....

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Ken on January 27, 2014, 03:34:23 AM
Sugar maple, yellow birch and beech.  Doesn't get any better than that around here

X2  8) And I could put hop hornbeam at the top for sure. But it's not abundant enough. 8)

And I've burnt ash, I was some glad when I got to the rock maple. :D Heck alders will do fine if it's only as cold as 20 degrees and you can keep awake to feed the stove. ;D

I also figure value is in bucks spend versus oil. Wood wins by 4-5 fold where I live.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

petefrom bearswamp

Beenthere,
Oops.
That must be pounds as you suggested.
I used the wrong column.
Your link is good thanks
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

John Mc

There are lots of BTU/species lists out there, but that ChimneySweeponline is one of the better ones.  Some lists are compiled form a bunch of different sources. The problem is, most don't even bother to check the conditions under which the sources were rated (moisture content, for example). ChimneySweep did some extensive checking and adjusting to compensate for different sources using different testing conditions.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

SwampDonkey

That's an awesome chart beenthere. ;D I see my ironwood (O. virginiana) is right up near the top.  8)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Ernie

Amongst the New Zealand natives, Puriri is super hot and very long lasting but hard to find a good supply.  Rata is the same sort of thing, most common good firewood is Manuka or Kanuka.

In the non native category, I like Tasmanian Blackwood and some of the eucalypts
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barbender

1. Dry 2. Wet 3. Punky- My OWB is not at all picky, neither am I as long as it burns all night and still has some coals when I load it up in the morning. I usually just grab firewood every night when I get done with work. Right now I am burning green Red Maple, Paper Birch and a little Green Ash. Dead standing Jack Pine and Black Spruce are a couple I like to burn, they make way less ash than the hardwoods. Tamarack is good too, but it needs to dry a year. This is all for an OWB, things would change for a woodstove or fireplace.
Too many irons in the fire

David-L

Along with anything dry, Black birch has become one of my favorites. burns long in my OWB and burns hot.

                                               David l
In two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday.

ryguy777

beech, hickory and maple. most anything that's a hardwood and already dead on the ground will do for me. I even like a little bit of popple for my cook stove... nice fast hot fire

SwampDonkey

Mom's uncle would burn popple (aspen) in his kitchen stove. Had a woodshed stuffed with it and lots of big popple on the farm to fill it with. My uncle would haul it for him in the spring with the horse and sled. Gave both of them something to do for awhile and exercised the horse. :D :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

David-L

Popple also works well for getting a hot quick fire on the reload after a draw off the the maple evap. Do they use popple veneer for cabinet work?

                                   David l
In two days from now, tomorrow will be yesterday.

Ianab

Most common, Radiata Pine. Not because it's good firewood, just because it's the most common tree.

Better, Monterey cypress. Grows huge, and often pretty ugly. If it's not worth milling a 4 ft dia log has a LOT of firewood in it.

Premium. Eucalyptus or Manuka. Denser hardwoods.  Manuka is a small scrubby sort of tree that a "first coloniser" of neglected pasture. Only grows to ~20ft tall and maybe 6" dia, but it burns HOT. Also makes good smoking wood and the honey from it's flowers gets a premium.

Gold is an old Rata log. This is an interesting tree. It starts as an epiphyte in a larger tree, but eventually sends down it's own roots to the ground. After a few hundred years the original tree dies, and the "vine" is left standing as a tree in it's own right. Again, a very dense hardwood and the "vines" could be a couple of feet across.  The tree isn't really rare, but finding one that you can legally cut down is an issue.

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

pabst79

Oak, soft maple and popple. However I sure wish I could find more cherry, it burns hot and smells nice to boot!
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