Whats Your Big 3 of Firewood?

[gspren]

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

                                               David l

  I'm glad to hear about the black birch, I've got a bunch and my forester just told me I should get rid of most of it.

[SwampDonkey]

I consider black birch as valuable for heat as yellow birch. According to the numbers it's a little better for heat numbers. So don't throw away your black birch.

[John Mc]

Besides, it smells great when you are cutting it.

[BradMarks]

Pacific Yew when I could get it, burns all night, rekindles easily just knocking the chunks together as long as there is a glimmer of a hot coal. Then Doug-fir, readily available, unseasoned heartwood easy to keep going. Lastly, whatever I bring home from a camping trip!

[Engineer]

If it was only three species, I would have to say hop hornbeam, black locust and black birch.  The first two because they burn so hot and the last because it's still a great firewood but smells great when you cut it.

[Dave Shepard]

Haven't seen you around in a while, good to see you stopping by.

[gspren]

  How long to season the black birch compared to red oak?

[mad murdock]

Pacific madrone, burns long, good heat and low ash, next Douglas fir, a consistent starter and good heat value pound for pound probably as good as oak, IMO, but splits easier. Lastly, big leaf maple. Good firewood, just need to season well prior to use. 

[John Mc]

Douglas fir, a consistent starter and good heat value pound for pound probably as good as oak,

"Pound-for-pound" just about every species in North America has the same heat value (some species with high pitch content are slightly higher).  It's the heat content per unit of volume that varies, due to the density of the wood.

[davidlarson]

Glad to see Engineer back.  I always thought his posts were worth reading.
David Larson, LTC, USAR, MC (Ret)

[DaleK]

Ash
Elm, preferably dead
Hickory

[Billbob]

Rock maple, beech, yellow birch.  But like an old farmer told me years ago "young fella, come the middle of march you'll be thankful for a dry piece of spruce!"

[r.man]

Or a green piece of anything.

[chain]

!. white oak...availability

2. white oak..splitting ease

3. white oak..coaling excellence

always wanted to try Osage orange, they say it burns a blue flame. Folks use to call it their 'yule' wood, burned at Christmas time.

[kevin19343]

I live in SE Pa. where all the best burning woods grow. I've never had any Osage which everybody loves, but I have burned dozens of species and these are my 3 favorites:



1) Black Locust

2) White oak

3) Hickory

4) Ash and hard maple deserves a mention too.

I sell everything else; walnut, cherry, beech, etc. Nothing wrong with them it's just that the others burn hotter and longer.

[John Mc]

Another good site:  www.woodheat.org

[Al_Smith]

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. 

You must have a different species of ash trees than we do here in the big corn field .I've been burning about a face cord of ash a week nearly all winter .I haul out about two coal buckets of ashes a week .

[beenthere]

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.
.......

Agree with you MM. Also more ash to carry out when I switched to burning white ash from mostly red and white oak. But ash wood has some other positives like less seasoning time, and easy to catch on fire.
This last week I've been going through a pallet of split elm, and find I have clinkers to remove instead of the powdery ashes.
Clinkers remind me of my youngster days when folks had a coal burning furnace and using the tong grapple to remove the clinkers and carry them in a metal basket out to spread on the driveway.

[John Mc]

... But ash wood has some other positives like less seasoning time, and easy to catch on fire.

Not to mention it splits if you look at it too hard. Splitting ash by hand is actually enjoyable (as opposed to American Elm, which is at the opposite end of the splitting spectrum).

[Al_Smith]

 
Clinkers remind me of my youngster days when folks had a coal burning furnace and using the tong grapple to remove the clinkers and carry them in a metal basket out to spread on the driveway.

Oh do I remember those days in the 60's 12 tons of coal a year and I shoveled it all and must have carried clinkers every evening all winter long .The coal bin probabley held 7-8 tons and it took several loads per year to heat that big old farm house built in 1919 without any insulation what so ever .

[SwampDonkey]

About the only places local that burnt coal was black smiths and small scale smelters in the area as we had an iron ore deposit that was actively used. But that was all before my time and before WWII. Always been wood here for heat, had all kinds and still have and didn't have to go underground or haul it by train. ;D

[missouriboy]

My dad loves pin oak and I sell to a guy that only wants green pin oak. Just wondering what you guys think of pin oak. I think its smells bad but other then that its not to bad.

[beenthere]

Should be nothing wrong with it for firewood.

[Rooster]

My three are White Oak, Red Oak, and Black Walnut...But sometimes I have to settle for Boxelder, Black Cherry, and Poplar.   I might have a chance at some Black Locust...is it worth it?


Rooster

[MJD]

I like black locust, burns hot and down to nothing. Burned black locust for 2 1/2 months and cleaned 1 1/2 garbage cans of ash out of the boiler, burned bur oak for 3 weeks and cleaned 1 1/2 garbage cans of ash. I find dead locust (standing) is much harder and burns hotter.