Might have to rethink my disdain for basswood...

[CaseyForrest]

We are getting into a section of the woodpile thats got about 1/2 cord of basswood I got from work.

It actually has a decent length burn. Burns hot enough with the air turned down to keep the stove at 400/ chimney just below 500. Coals nice and leaves very little ash, similar to Ash.

My previous experience with it was in an older, non secondary burn stove. The Heritage seems to like it....

 

[panolo]

I see lots of ads with firewood sellers around here mixing it in. Never had any myself.

 

[cus_deluxe]

I like it best when milled into 8x8s and strapped to a cant stand
That said, its nice to have “shoulder season” wood on hand, sucks to burn good hardwood in september.

 

[michael j]

It sure smells good!

 

[svk]

It is pretty light. My grandpa uses it for carving.

BTU's are BTU's though. I burn a lot of aspen and would have no problem filling up on basswood if needed.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

I turn a lot of it into maple every year. It's nothing to write home about, but it does the job. My favorite thing about it is that no one wants to burn it in their wood stoves, so I get a lot of it for free.

 

[Jakers]

My experience with basswood has made me hate the stuff. But also, like Casey said, my only experience with it was before I bought an efficient, secondary burn capable stove. It splis easy and dried fast but it rots super fast and seemed to leave a ton of ash with no coals. Been contemplating trying it again but haven't yet. I have a whole 10 acres full of it and just give it away when I cut a few down

 

[alleyyooper]

Stuff is a great supplier of honey bee food when it is old enough to flower, also smells up the woods then. squirrels line their nest with the bark insides as it strips from dead trees easy and makes comfy bedding.
I burn the stuff on occation even.

Almost for got the deer love the branches in Febuary when you cut some down fresh.

Al

 

[CaseyForrest]

Were in a cold snap right now, so I was pissing and moaning about hitting the Basswood when we did. Its been working out, though. There is an odd piece of White Oak mixed in on occasion, as well as some ash. We've been burning Black Walnut almost exclusively up until this point. Want to talk about ash production....

 

[svk]

Stuff is a great supplier of honey bee food when it is old enough to flower, also smells up the woods then. squirrels line their nest with the bark insides as it strips from dead trees easy and makes comfy bedding.
I burn the stuff on occation even.

Almost for got the deer love the branches in Febuary when you cut some down fresh.

Al

Bear seems to like the berries as well

 

[Wood Doctor]

Basswood and cottonwood both get a bad rap. Basswood is easier to split when green and I think it dries faster. A cord of each one weighs about the same when dry. 140 lb of each will kick out a mullion BTUs. Thing is, it takes a lot more volume to get that 140 lb than ash, oak, locust, hard maple, mulberry, etc. (about twice as much). And, of course, basswood and cottonwood both burn faster than the so-called premium hardwoods. For getting the fire started quickly, neither can be beaten although willow comes close.

Unfortunately, I can't convince any of my customers that what I just wrote is true, so when I fail to supply cottonwood, basswood, or willow, they always come back for more of everything else.