do blue spruce and cotton wood make good firewood

[Brmorgan]

I thought you guys had quite a bit of Douglas Fir and various Pine trees in Colorado? If so I'd forget all about the hardwood species you mentioned for firewood. If you guys think Cottonwood / Aspen smell bad, try a piece of Subalpine Fir sometime. Smells like stale cat piss, and a single log will stink up the entire sawmill when it hits the edger.

 

[agstr]

One thought about quick hot burning firewood -- for masonry heaters this may actually be an advantage, as the goal in this type of wood burning is to capture the heat as fast as possible, followed by slow release of captured heat by the thermal mass of the heater. One or two fires a day lasting under two hours is usually sufficient to heat an average home! Ancient, proven technology and I use it:msp_biggrin:

 

[tuco1963]

cotton wood is decent burning wood

cotton wood makes great shoulder season wood but like ll wood it must be seasoned first

 

[turnkey4099]

well see what happens,

if its 48"s ill do it if bigger i dunno. i have just shy of 24"s of bar past the dog on my 359.

thanksfor the egen me on. id realy like to do it .


Evan

I removed two Blue Spruce at my place lasst year. Both would have gone in the 30' range, both about 18" DBH.

Harry K

 

[jrocket]

Why would you cut a 3-5ft dia spruce up for firewood? has much greater value as construction lumber.
I dont mean to get on a soapbox, but I see a lot of folks cutting up some great sawlogs for firewood, which is a pet peave of mine, unless you dont use any lumber in your area for anything. just my .02 worth.

 

[Stihlasaurus]

We mix cottonwood in with the oak, pine and whatever else we find. So long as it is well-seasoned, it makes plenty of head. Not my first choice, but I don't see any point in wasting it either.

 

[StihlyinEly]

Another oldie but goodie thread brought back to life.

I've burned cottonwood and blue spruce. They both do OK. It's in fact better to burn the cottonwood while it's still not quite seasoned. Burns a good bit slower and more evenly that way. Some folks with OWBs up here burn nothing but wet aspen (very close in BTU and weight/moisture characteristics to cottonwood, and in the same genus) and it does very nicely for them. Cheap or free, too, because nobody with standard fireplaces, wood stoves or wood furnaces wants to fool with it.

Box elder, now, that's another thing. I'd as soon let a rattlesnake crawl around inside my pants as burn box elder.