Best Fire Wood (poll)

[timberwolf]

When all factors are taken in view, what is the best overall fire wood to burn?

Availibility, heat output, burning charicteristics, moisture content, drying and seasoning requirments, ease of cutting and splitting, creosote and ash formation.

Can't seem to edit poll options, but why not include Iron wood, mesquites, locust, osage ect all under the iron woods as superheaters?

 

[CowboyAndy]

For me, Sugar Maple is the best wood, as it is readily avalible to me. I have some shagbark hickory too, but they are hard to find as the good straight ones were logged out a few years ago.

 

[Wet1]

You might have screwed up by including "free wood" in your poll!

 

[timberwolf]

You can select more than one:greenchainsaw:

 

[Lignum]

As one of past press helpers said," If it's free it's for me, if it costs, it's for the boss...", which happened to be me...

 

[eric_271]

No osage orange listed? More dense than oak and the main fire wood in these parts.

 

[Peacock]

I voted oak because it is just as easy to split as hard maple and has better heat output.

You left off the king of firewoods.....osage orange.

 

[logbutcher]

I've got the OAK ENVY O.C.D.

 

[timberwolf]

Can't seem to edit poll options, but why not include Iron wood, mesquites, locust, osage ect all under the iron woods as superheaters?

 

[woodbooga]

Glaring omission - ash.

 

[gixxer1237]

I voted iron wood but what i really mean is locust and O.O. aka hedge.

 

[Beaver State]

What, no madrone? Best wood on this planet....

 

[Booshcat]

Glaring omission - ash.

Good Catch Woodbooga.......

I voted fruit. but I really meant only apple......

 

[Coldfront]

I think you guys really mean Hop-hornbeam, because the true Ironwood tree is found only in the Sonoran Desert. American Hop-hornbeam is commonly mis-called Ironwood.

 

[Rusty99]

I voted Birch, because its probably the best I can get around my area in Alberta, Canada. Unfortunatley birch is even hard to come by. Mosty soft wood in these parts. Poplar is llike a weed, its so common.

You guys are super lucky you have access to so much hard wood like oak, which is unheard of hear in Western Canada.

I made some calls yesterday to get prices on a cord of Birch, most places are charging $350 and you gotta pick it up yourself. What would someone in the U.S charge for a cord of Birch or cord of Oak?

 

[avalancher]

I voted Birch, because its probably the best I can get around my area in Alberta, Canada. Unfortunatley birch is even hard to come by. Mosty soft wood in these parts. Poplar is llike a weed, its so common.

You guys are super lucky you have access to so much hard wood like oak, which is unheard of hear in Western Canada.

I made some calls yesterday to get prices on a cord of Birch, most places are charging $350 and you gotta pick it up yourself. What would someone in the U.S charge for a cord of Birch or cord of Oak?

I dont know about the birch, we dont have a lot of that around here, but oak is going for $180 delivered this year, up from $150 last year.
Some even expect you to stack it for that price:jawdrop:

 

[danrclem]

I voted free wood before I found out that you can pick more than one. This year I have cut mostly locust and oak with a little elm, cherry and hackberry thrown in. I'd be more than happy if I could do this every year. If sycamore is all I can get next year then I'll be happy with it even though I know it's not as good as most of the wood that I got this year.

If I ever get real desperate I'll burn the cedar that I have on my place.

 

[irishcountry]

Call me thick but where does ash fall?? Don't say whatever direction you fell it to. I mean I don't see it on the list. irishcountry

 

[ray benson]

I look at a combination of price(free), easy access and loading, type of wood and how far away is the wood from home.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Glaring omission - ash.

QFT! Ash is awfully hard to beat. Seasons in only a few months, not too hard to split, and burns hot. Ash, elm, and soft maple are about the only ones I can cut and split in the early summer and burn now. When it comes to heat, soft maple doesn't hold a candle to ash.