Firewood

[hill]

What are the best types of wood for burning in a woodstove for residential use, or I guess a better question would be what types of wood should I NOT consider burning?

Question 2: I have 2 very old Homelite chainsaws passed down from my grandfather. One is a smaller Homelite Textron and the other is larger Homelite XL-113 with a 20" bar. I've had some trouble getting a chain that fits correctly....any suggestions? Thanks for any help.

 

[Wood Scrounge]

Q1. Any free wood that is properly seasoned. I will burn most woods however there are many I won't go out of my way to get such as willow.
Just as an example I always believed the tulip polar was bad but now I like to mix a piece in with my oak, helps to ignite the oak more evenly.

 

[VernonFirewood]

As far as a general consensus on firewood, softwood will burn easier but not as long, nor will it put out as much heat as hardwood will. Remember that softwood seasons faster than most hardwood. I prefer well seasoned white and red oak personally.

As far as the saw and chain question go to the chainsaw forum and u can get all the answers u need.

 

[AngelofDarkness]

Anything that is dry will burn, but some woods such as willow and some elms do not dry very well, and I would only burn pine if it is very very dry b/c of the creosote and sap it contains.

You could ask about your saws in the Chainsaw forum, there a lot of Homelite guys here, myself one of them.

 

[HUSKYMAN]

Keep the old Homelites and fix them up, but if you plan on burning 5-10 cords a year save yourself the pain and go buy a dependable saw and use the Homelites for fun and backup use.

For $300 you can get a nice saw that will start immediately and run many years, and for $400 you can get a REAL nice saw.

Cut and split your wood this spring and buy next fall it will be ready to go. Free wood and dry wood burn the best!

 

[aandabooks]

Don't burn treated lumber and be careful burning osage orange (hedge). Depending on the type of woodstove and its location in your house you might want to avoid osage orange. Pretty much everything else is fine.

Matt

 

[Swamp Yankee]

There's a bunch of it;

Ash, cherry, hickory, oak (red, white, chestnut), maple (rock, sugar, red), birch (black and white)

White oak and hickory among the highest in btu/cord count but both can be particularly hard to work with depending on the tree. Ash is good as it seasons quickly and splits great. Red oak is pretty easy to work but hard to season as it soaks up water like a sponge. I love cherry and black birch, they both just smell so nice when you walk outside with the stove going and get a whiff of the smoke. Maple is ok, but I've found it burns quickly as compared to the others. Save some white birch for when the fire is low, the bark is its own kindling.

Just some observations after years of doing this.

Take Care

 

[Ductape]

I'm one of those prima donna wood burners.......... as there is ONLY ONE kind of wood i'll burn in my stove. FREE !!!! Burn it up man..... whatever you can get your hands on !

 

[PA Plumber]

Best types?
Oaks, hickories, hard maples, birches, cherry as mentioned already.

I have a new appreciation for Beech. Takes a couple of years to get a large round seasoned, but it ignites easily and sure burns nicely.

 

[Tesen]

I'm one of those prima donna wood burners.......... as there is ONLY ONE kind of wood i'll burn in my stove. FREE !!!! Burn it up man..... whatever you can get your hands on !

LOL! Man after my own heart! Seriously any wood is good, but give your wood a chance to season, spring is the best time to get next seasons wood. Keep it covered but ventilated and life will be good.

Tes

 

[kellog]

I think PA plumber hit it. My personal favorite is Beech. Cut and split, it seasons much faster than oak, burns better, heat is almost equivalent, and splits nicely. Less little splinters that get in your hands and fingers when loading the stove. I generally burn beech, oak, sugar maple, hickory, ash, and a little birch and cherry. Of these, I perfer Beech all around.

 

[gtstang462002]

old barnwood seems to do well to get alot of heat in the house and make a nice bed of coals. Then it is off to anything else that I scrounge up for free, as long as it is not pressure treated.

My experiences with homelites is that they have always been tempermental. If they are running good they can hang with the best of them but when the tune goes south you will be cussing a storm.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I've had some trouble getting a chain that fits correctly....any suggestions?

Call Bailey's (site sponsor), tell them what you have and they'll fix you up.

Ian

 

[N.L.Bisbee]

I am 80 years old....have burned wood all my life......Have burned everything growing West of and including Colo.
Those of you that have burned Black Locust or are burning it ….SHUT UP!!!! Compared to others there is not that much of it, and if they find out about it, there will be a (Black Locust) Gold rush again. I've read all about how hard it is to work. Well ...let me tell you something about Black Locust. I was given a Black Locust .it was about 36 inches on the stump. My two sons blocked it up and I split the entire tree before the sun went down by simply using a splitting maul.
Splitting it as soon as it hits the ground in the solution. if you wait 24 hours you will work twice as hard. If you wait 36 hours and it will not fit your stove , haul it to the landfill. Don't let anyone tell you have to let it cure. One winter decades ago, things were very tough on my family. I would drop a Black Locust in the morning and be burning it that night. Not as well as cured , but will get you through the night better than most other "cured" kinds of wood.( it WILL leave a lot of ashe when burned green) A word of advice ...DO NOT BURN BLACK LOCUST IN A CHEAP STOVE. If a stove is not lined with fire brick and a piece of this wood is left against the side of s stove, . it may have a hole burned through it b the following y morning .

 

[Haywire Haywood]

BL in my experience was straight grained and easy to split. It burned nice and hot but you've no chance of damaging your stove unless you have a really leaky stove and can't control the combustion air, have the wood crispy dry and enough draft to turn your stove into a blast furnace. Seal your stove so you can control the burn and no problem. Osage Orange is denser and burns hotter from what I've read but I never had access to enough of it to have an opinion. Compared to Aussie hardwood, all our best stuff is pine anyway.

 

[N.L.Bisbee]

Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. I have never personally had any trouble burning black locust. however, If you go back to the 40s and 50s, you will notice many homes with inferior stoves. In those days, it was not unusual to walk into a home and notice the walls of their wood stove glowing red if the outside temp was nearing "0" . The men of those homes were not uneducated, but many were simply mill worker burning "mill ends' from their work sites
Of course most homes had safe wood stoves, however the good ones were very expensive, and many of those were simply out of reach of low income families., hence, the "barrel stoves" etc.etc.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Yup, I can see that. Back before homes were well insulated, they were running their leaky stoves with single wall pipe red hot to try to keep warm. I remember my grandfather's house had plank flooring and you could see the ground through the floor. The ol potbelly coal stove ran hot trying to heat the place.

 

[sb47]

It all depends on how cold you are and how bad you want to worm up. On a side note, a good hot stove with a solid bed of hot coals makes a great incinerator for anything you want to get rid of. When the stove is hot, you can get rid of a lot of trash that would normally go in the trash. Just make sure you feed it slowly. Paper makes a lot of ash, so don't put a lot of paper in at one time.

 

[Firewood Daddy]

I second the anything free post. That’s all that goes into my stove as well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jere39]

I see your Location as Virginia, and the fact you are considering your two old Homelites suggests you intend to do some of your own cutting. If you have access to even a modest woodlot as I do. I'd do a couple things:

1. put those two sentimental Homelites on a nice shelf where you can look at them and remember your Grandpa. Consider that Dolmar 5100s in your signature as your go to firewood saw.
2. If you are dead set on buying new, then go to a nice modern saw from a reputable local dealer. People will argue over brands, I have a trusty favorite, but I know other brands are very good too. Depending on the size of the trees you intend to harvest/cut I'd chose an easy handling 42cc 16" bar or a 60cc 20" bar equipped sawto complement that Dolmar 5100S. Modern saws have much better ignition, carburation, priming, chain availability. Will use 50:1 mix, start easily, cut for hours, and repeat. Your older saws probably need new fuel lines, possible carburator rebuilds, or replacement, new chains, oiler clean out, 20:1 or 32:1 mix, and after all that will still be harder to start, and harder to find chain loops for. (This is all opinion, I don't know the shape of your fine examples of Homelite saws. But, I know plenty of people who attempt to resurrect an older saw to service after years of sitting and have given up on the whole process of cutting their own wood)
3. Hike your chosen wood lot often, identify the sound dead already down, the standing dead (easiest to do mid summer), and the predominate trees in you lot. In Northern VA, you should have plenty of Oaks. If you are splitting by hand, Red Oak is an awesome firewood, and the straight grained stuff splits easily with a proper splitting ax or maul. Hickory is great wood, but I for one don't find them dying nearly as frequently as my 100 year old oaks, and I find they more or less tear apart rather than split. I don't look for it, nor go out of my way to retrieve it. Same with Black Locust, I have some, it is a hardy tree, that is not dying near me, and it is not a pleasant hand split option.
4. Inspect your chimney, your fire brick, your draft adjusts, and your stove in general.
5. Spend $15 on a moisture meter and check your wood. Burning wood with a moisture content under 20% is an absolute pleasure of warmth, and contentment. Wood with a MC over 25% is hard to start, consumes too many BTU just drying itself in your stove, spits, and generally will not be the pleasure you are likely to enjoy.

To repeat, these are opinions, many folks have opinions, they are useful, but will not always reflect your own situation. Good luck, cut, split, and burn safely, enjoy the time out doors in the preparation of your source of heat, and enjoy the warmth it creates in your home.