River birch and sycamore for firewood

[lone wolf]

If your cutting sycamore be careful with the saw dust. It can be a killer on the lungs and throat. I wear a mask when working with the stuff.

Walnut too!

 

[Okie]

Wow - I'm in the minority here. I detest sycamore. Burns too fast and leaves more ash than there was firewood to begin with. I had to clean out my stove every day burning that junk. I would't burn it now if you gave it to me free, split and stacked, except maybe in my outdoor fire pit.

If that is the majority of wood choice and you have no choice, use it.


Burns too fast and leaves more ash than there was firewood to begin with.

I have a kindling box for use as fire starters and dried sycamore/cottonwood burns like paper.

 

[BeatCJ]

Thank You your experience is invaluable. Um setting up to Burn It my hot tent stove and have 3 huge River Birch trees to use as fuel..lower dead limbs , etc. Doesn't wood need to be cut & stacked to completely ..."DRY"... out?

Yes, to season firewood completely it needs to be cut, split and protected from weather. Notice he used a multi year process. A lot of times, that's what it takes to get wood to the correct moisture. I am not familiar with River Birch, but it sounds as if it is similar to Cottonwood. It's not well thought of for firewood, but if cut and split immediately, it is usable after a full year of curing. Wait too long, and it tends to rot. It makes acceptable shoulder season wood in my experience.

 

[FrugalFirewoodDad]

I found that sycamore smells pretty lousy when burned unless its reeeaaal dry.

 

[tnflatbed]

Free is Free other than your labor.It beats nothing and freezing is no fun especially for a missus

 

[Brushwacker]

River Birch is far better then cotton wood if split and dried properly. Since the bark is air tight splitting is neccesary unless u remove the bark otherwise it rots in the middle before it dries. Pretty sure it puts out more btu's then cherry , but i believe it burns a little faster.