Birch Wood Load arrived

[Racerboy832]

I helped out a Local land clearer over the winter. Well I guess he was working around the corner today cause my Lower Driveway is full of lengths of Birch. He said it is about 8 cords. No charge for me. How is this stuff for burning? I spent this past winter in my woods looking for wood now I have enough from the 10 trees taken down, the truck load that showed up yesterday and a triaxle load he brought a few weeks ago. I hope this stuff doesn't rot before I can burn it.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

I helped out a Local land clearer over the winter. Well I guess he was working around the corner today cause my Lower Driveway is full of lengths of Birch. He said it is about 8 cords. No charge for me. How is this stuff for burning? I spent this past winter in my woods looking for wood now I have enough from the 10 trees taken down, the truck load that showed up yesterday and a triaxle load he brought a few weeks ago. I hope this stuff doesn't rot before I can burn it.

Great for burning...pretty high BTU.....read my post about birch bark at http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?p=1467746#post1467746

 

[Ductape]

I'd love a truckload of free birch ! Its not as good as oak or hard maple, but I regularly burn birch along with everything else.

 

[Happyjack]

Is it Black or White Birch?

 

[HuskyMike]

I tell you what. Alot of my wood last winter was Birch, White and Black. We love it, it always burned nice and hot for us. Our Birch was younger stuff, no more than 6 or so inches across. Split as soon as you can cuz i just split stuff that I cut and bucked last august and it is still wet inside.

You should like it.

Congrats

 

[Racerboy832]

It is black Birch. The biggest there is , is 16" across. 99% of the time anything under 18" get stuffed into his chipper. He doesn't care, he just wants to get in and out of Jobs fast. It's a sin to us. He would of with this but he was close by. The last stuff he dropped off was 40" across. That was white oak I believe.

 

[husky455rancher]

nice deal, cant beat free delivered wood. to me burn is burn i take what i can get.

 

[outdoorlivin247]

The last stuff he dropped off was 40" across. That was white oak I believe.

Where did that go?...That would have been nice to have...

 

[TJ-Bill]

I had about 2 cord of birch last yeaqr mixed in with my maple and oak,, I had it sectioned off so I was burning a consitant type of wodd most of the time.

Great BTU, no complaints here. Plus if you pick at some of ht e loose bark you'll have no need for fire starters!

I suggest letting it dry for a year then burn it.. keep it off the ground with good air flow, should last awhile.

 

[Mike PA]

Black birch is much better than white. Once its bucked and split, get it off the ground and under cover and it will last quite a while.

 

[Zodiac45]

Yellow birch is the best, followed by black and then white. Very nice score.

 

[skidsteer.ca]

The white birch we have in western Ontario makes great fire wood if you can get it dry. Unfortunately the bark holds the moisture in and it tends to rot if its not split, in a couple years its getting punky.
I try to split and stack it and it will keep good then, even indefitely if you keep it covered.
Ken

 

[Mike PA]

Yellow birch is the best, followed by black and then white. Very nice score.

Not to argue because I'm not sure if it makes enough difference, but, according to this site, yellow birch is lower btu value than black. I have no experience with yellow, so all I know is what the chart says.

http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

 

[woodbooga]

Are all birches created equal?

99% of the birch I've burnt has been white birch.

But this past year, in a pile of tops I cut up, there were a few black birches. Boy, were they hard to split! Not in the elm neighborhood, but plenty stringy.

The stuff with the smoother bark split fine. But the rounds from closer to the ground with the scaly bark have me a work out.

Is all black birch this tough? For future reference.

 

[Mike PA]

I used a hydraulic splitter, so I'm not sure. But, I didn't notice it splitting like elm on the splitter. Has a fairly straight grain, so I wouldn't expect it.

 

[Jon E]

I love to burn birch. It's not a "top shelf" firewood like hickory or locust but it's better than, say, soft maple. I find that black birch stays solid longer than yellow or white, maybe because the bark tends to be thinner? Best thing to do is buck, SPLIT and stack until dry. Small rounds will rot fairly quickly unless kept nice and dry, and even then they will dry rot from the inside out. It tends to split nice and clean, even knotty pieces. My father won't burn white birch because he claims that the bark contains a lot of creosote, also won't burn any softwoods, so I get all the white birch and pine that he doesn't want.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Yellow birch is the best, followed by black and then white. Very nice score.

+1! Yellow birch is getting hard to find and is tough as nails (or should I say hickory).

Makes beautiful furniture also--it has a slight reddish tint to it and the grain almost looks like cherry. Excellent bending strength, some of the best dowels you could buy at one time were made with yellow birch.

 

[Blazin]

Nice score! I burn alot of yellow birch which is similar to black, it does take awhile to dry as it holds water like mad, but burns great.

 

[Zodiac45]

Not to argue because I'm not sure if it makes enough difference, but, according to this site, yellow birch is lower btu value than black. I have no experience with yellow, so all I know is what the chart says.

http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

Yep guess your right Mike. I think it's probably because we don't get much good black birch up here. The only black I ever see is small roadside stuff that I hardly ever bothered with. Could be sick white . Yellow has always been choice versus the white paper birch.