Poplar for firwood?

[wdchuck]

We heat with wood, poplar is quite welcome for spring/fall to take the chill out, during winter to get the denser woods started.
Sawing or splitting off pieces for boards its a great wood since it takes coatings really well.
Once cured, it is light in weight yet strong, makes great shelving/cabinet wood.

As a sale item for firewood buyers, depends on the customer, those that are more informed may turn their nose at it, others won't care what it is as long as it starts easy, makes flames.
There has only been positive feedback from fireplace customers, they like flames, not coals to look at, as do the campers so it doesn't sit around here long enough to rot and doesn't get turned away when a tree guy is looking to dump some from a removal.

Regardless, it all comes down to personal preference once you've tried some yourself; outside in a pit, inside with a stove or fireplace.

 

[pweber]

I side with streblerm. I always take/get poplar along with all the nicer hardwoods. My system is virtually air tight so I don't smell anything at all when I burn it. For the most part I use it as kindling. Tulip poplar splits like a dream with a hatchet and lights quickly once I've started my fire with newspaper and small twigs. If you split it relatively soon after cutting and pull off as much bark as you can it doesn't get quite as mouldy. I've never had a problem with it rotting, and I also don't mind burning whole logs. I would never pay for it, but I would never turn down free poplar dumped in my driveway.

 

[unclemoustache]

Time to jump in and settle some 'poplar' questions again. Check out this thread for your answers about poplar.

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/199817.htm

 

[Wood Doctor]

Perfect For Campfires

Poplar and Eastern Cottonwood are first cousins and burn about the same way. I sell it bundled or by the truckload for campfires at state parks. It lights easily, burns hot, and disappears rapidly. Most campers love this feature. I can usually mix in a few logs that are not quite dry to slow down the fire somewhat.

I wait for the bark to start falling off before I split it. Then it splits rather easily. Because it is so plentiful in Nebraska, I usually throw in an extra log or two into each bundle for no extra cost. Recently a steady customer threw a huge party and bought a whole truckload. To help celebrate Labor Day, he burned it all in one night using an old livestock ring feeder for a pit. I gave him scraps, cookies, short rounds, crotch--anything I had that would burn and discounted the delivery price in half. Flames were enormous. :rolleyes2:

 

[Johnny Yooper]

in this neck of the woods, it's popple, or aspen by those who are, shall we say, more refined. Going on 10th year with an owb heating the house, domestic water, and workshop; three kids in the house and we go through a ton of hot water so we run the owb year round, and yes, I burn a lot of popple, especially downed trees that I can get to before they're punky and not worth messing with, that makes up a lot of what get's used between May and October; waste not, want not. I save the good hardwood types for the colder weather. I try to only take those that are dead and haven't fallen over yet (gotta be careful with those) and those that otherwise wouldn't make a good log. What's that you say? Popple logs ?!? ubetcha. Built a woodshed a few years back and needed two logs each 30' long and straight with minimal taper and the only thing that fit the bill here are popple trees, I selected the best two I could find and they became the two parallel stringers supporting the rafters. Also used aspen (I feel more refined already) to build benches for the sauna (minimal heat transfer to skin); ask any self respecting person of Finnish descent and they'll tell you that is one of the choice materials for sauna benches, although you might need to go back a couple or more generations to get the explanation. Some years ago we had a number of large basswood trees come down in a storm at our land up north and I eyed them up for the benches, but at that time we had no equipment to get them out of the woods to have milled and I wasn't gonna pay someone to go in and yank them out; too bad as they would have made awesome benches; cedar also ranks high as well, and has the added aroma effect. As someone already mentioned, popple gives a quick hot fire (like basswood) and I like to have a good supply of either on hand during maple syrup season. So there ya have it, more uses for the lowly popple.

 

[svk]

Agree with everything Johnny Yooper said although my sauna benches are white cedar.

I refer to them as aspen due to the following reason. "Popple" is more commonly used around here, but not everyone knows what a popple is while everyone knows aspen. Our aspen are dying off due to old age and or/cankers. 85% of what I've burned in my lifetime is aspen due to this. Not the hottest fire as others have mentioned but keeps the house and sauna warm.

I've been told the broadleaf "sawtooth" aspen is better firewood than the small leaf but no idea if that is true.

 

[jlromine76]

Poplar

I used a bunch of Poplar to feed my OWB last fall before the real cold set in. A guy I work with had a 60-80 ft standing dead come down in a storm and grazed his house. He bucked it up into 18-20" lengths for me and I went and picked it up. The rounds from this tree were probably 20-24" across so it was a pretty big tree but it was completely dry so I figured why not try it out. I must have made 2 cords of splits from that tree and it burned great for me. Since the temps were only in the 40-50s I didn't need a lot of heat but that poplar got my water up to temp fast then I could coast all night on the warm water. I would then shut the furnace down and let it sit all day and repeated this for about 2-3 weeks before I had to switch to full time burning. I wouldn't hesitate to burn it again since it was so dry and easy to split. It made no creosote but did have a lot of ash to deal with when done but nothing to complain about.