Favorite kind of wood...

[PA Plumber]

Our Silver Maple must be quite a bit different. It does dry fast (in about 6 months in the sun and wind), is easy to split, but leaves a lot of ash. Heated over half the winter with it last year. We have a lot better choices for firewood, but I will burn it before letting it rot.

 

[JBinKC]

I wouldn't burn poison Sumac and stuff that is very punky and would easily absorb moisture.

All the rest of it is fair game. The rest of it is down to the amount of time to process especially if you have to do it all manually.

That said if I had a choice I wouldn't go very far out of my way for ailanthus, willow, cottonwood, poplar, basswood and catalpa especially if the wood has undergone deterioration. These woods don't have the best odor when burned (ailanthus especially)and you need twice as much in volume making twice as much work.

If I heated with a smoke dragon I would probably try to avoid the conifers for creosote risk. The secondary burn tubes in an EPA stove minimizes creosote risk from pine. As long as you burn it where the flame does its secondary burn in the tubes pine becomes a non issue.


If I had to split by hand (wedge/maul) I would limit the diameter size to 8" on elm, sycamore, and gum.

In my experience if you are scrounging on the forest floor for fallen limbs in the woods the species that hold up best are hickory, red oak, (white oak deteriorates at much faster than red) hedge, mulberry, black locust, ironwood, black walnut and hophornbeam.

 

[Old Goat]

Our Silver Maple must be quite a bit different. It does dry fast (in about 6 months in the sun and wind), is easy to split, but leaves a lot of ash. Heated over half the winter with it last year. We have a lot better choices for firewood, but I will burn it before letting it rot.

I am always a year or two ahead on firewood. The silver maple that I will burn for the winter of 08 / 09 was cut last year and is stacked in rounds out in the wood lot now. Most of the rounds are 24" or bigger. The bark will peel or fall off when I split it this summer and I am assuming that the bark is a large contributor to the ash. We have low humidity here and the wood seems to keep a bit longer before dry rotting. I am using a Fisher "Momma Bear" stove to heat 1800 Sq feet (only source of heat) and I clean out the ash about once every three weeks. Most of the wood is bark-less silver maple and black locust with a piece of elm every now and then. If I have time to sit and enjoy the fire I will use the juniper.

 

[PA Plumber]

I am always a year or two ahead on firewood. The silver maple that I will burn for the winter of 08 / 09 was cut last year and is stacked in rounds out in the wood lot now. Most of the rounds are 24" or bigger. The bark will peel or fall off when I split it this summer and I am assuming that the bark is a large contributor to the ash. We have low humidity here and the wood seems to keep a bit longer before dry rotting. I am using a Fisher "Momma Bear" stove to heat 1800 Sq feet (only source of heat) and I clean out the ash about once every three weeks. Most of the wood is bark-less silver maple and black locust with a piece of elm every now and then. If I have time to sit and enjoy the fire I will use the juniper.

I'll bet you're right about the bark. After 6 mos our Silver Maple was starting to rot in the middle and I had it off the ground on a treated deck. Almost every piece had the bark on and the larges pieces were only 14" in diameter.

I do remember the ash was extremely fine and very annoying when trying to empty out the stove. Ash floated everywhere during removal.

 

[046]

Pecan and Oak are my favorites!

Pecan has high heat value, starts easy and burns long. Oak also has high heat value, burns long, a bit harder to start.

 

[Mikecutstrees]

has anyone mentioned this ?

my favorite wood is.... Dead limbs from oak trees I have pruned. Especially red oaks. The limbs are usually 2-8" in diameter (No splitting) already seasoned. (Just let em' sit in a dry place for 2 or 3 days. Burn good and hot and noone ever wants them cause they look "Rotten" on the outside. The dusty "rotted" part gets em' going well and they burn great! Got a bunch going right now from pruning 3 big oaks on thursday. Great stuff

 

[SWI Don]

Elm will leave Calcium deposits in your ash (crunchy). Both Red (great) and American (good) Elm do this. I don't know that I have burnt enough Siberian (Chinese) elm to give an answer on that.

I am burning a bunch of Honeylocust currently which I previously thought was black locust. I still burns great, is heavy as heck, and seems to like just a little more air than the burr oak does.

Don

 

[ciscoguy01]

Wood

Beech hands down is my fave. More btu's than oak, doesn't give you splinters and isn't full of bark... I swear by it and take any I can find...

eh?

 

[ropensaddle]

I would like several cords of pine knot if anybody doesn't like it lol!

 

[wally 12]

wood bark

Hey guys
Can you tell me how long the logs have to lay to get the bark to fall off when you split?

 

[pacman]

magnolia

Any body ever burn this stuff ? I was just wondering . I have some stacked up . I didnt want to throw it away . It smell kind of citristy when I split it .

 

[Lignum]

Hey guys
Can you tell me how long the logs have to lay to get the bark to fall off when you split?

Depends on the wood species, and how and where the wood is stacked. For me, the Elm, and Cottonwood, fall off the fastest, followed by the Oaks. Black Locust seems to stay on for quite a while. I think that the shrinkage of the wood by evaporation has the most effect.

 

[wally 12]

stacking logs

Depends on the wood species, and how and where the wood is stacked. For me, the Elm, and Cottonwood, fall off the fastest, followed by the Oaks. Black Locust seems to stay on for quite a while. I think that the shrinkage of the wood by evaporation has the most effect.

what is it best to stack the logs? I have a concrete are I can stack several up off the ground.
Todd

 

[gtstang462002]

Any body ever burn this stuff ? I was just wondering . I have some stacked up . I didnt want to throw it away . It smell kind of citristy when I split it .

Throw a chunk or two on the fire. You will either like it or hate it. Either way it is free heat.

 

[Lignum]

I personally use 4 way pallets, and stack up a oddball holzhausen. I can do this because I am 2 years ahead and can afford a little more time to the stacking. I have experience that this stacking will dry out the wood faster, ever Elm. I stack the perimeter, and the middle vertical. Towards the top, I start to stagger the pieces to make a 'roof'. It is very easy this way and it the stack in the 2 pics will hold 3 cords of wood.

 

[Old Goat]

Hey guys
Can you tell me how long the logs have to lay to get the bark to fall off when you split?

The Silver Maple takes about a year. I drop the trees, cut them up in 18" rounds, and let them sit for 6 months to a year where they fell. These are on a private ranch so I don't worry much about them walking off. When I come back to load them up most of the bark will peel or fall off without much effort. The remaining bark comes off when the rounds are split (within 1 to 1 1/2 years). The growth rings will tend to separate on silver maple if it sits for too long. It still burns just fine, just a little harder to split by hand. Not a big deal with a log splitter.

Chinese Elm will sit in my wood lot for two or more years in 18" rounds before I even think about burning it. By then the bark will fall off just by moving the round to the splitter. I let everything sit on the ground when it is drying. I'll stack it up in the round to free up space or if I have hauled it in and have to unload by hand. The split wood get stacked under cover on cement.

I don't worry much about the bark on black locust. I haven't noticed much ash with it. It gets burned as soon as it dries and will keep forever (it gets burned within two years, though) .

The bark on Cedar Juniper (western) does not leave much, if any ash, and it would be a major chore to remove it by hand. Some of my fence posts are 20 years old and still have the bark intact. It also starts burning fast and you can almost start a fire holding a match to the bark without any paper or kindling. If I want it off I can throw it in with the meat goats and it will be stripped down to the wood in a few days if not hours. It is a beautiful wood, to bad it doesn't come in a larger size. It will store for many years. I have some that is 8 years old that is as good as the day I cut it.

 

[Wood Doctor]

My Top Ten Firewood Species

What kind of wood do you find the best? Some like cherry due to its fast seasoning and easy splitting, standing dead elm for its hardness and long burn....(as long as your not splitting it!)....And of course the well seasoned oak........

Here's my top ten list:
1) Red and Burr Oak - burns very slowly, easy to split.
2) Ash - burns very slowly, tougher than oak to split.
3) Locust - burns very slowly, tough to split, denser than red oak.
4) Mulberry - burns slowly, tough to split, less dense than oak when dry.
5) Red Elm - burns slowly, really tough to split
6) Hackberry - burns slowly, really tough to split
7) Pearwood, Cherry - burns slowly, tough to split
8) Crabapple, Plum - burns slowly, tough to split
9) Maple, Sycamore - burns fast, easy to split
10) Linden - burns fast, easy to split

Rejected:
1) Cottonwood - burns very fast, stringy and tough to split
2) Box Elder - burns fast, stringy and tough to split, smelly to store
3) Pine - burns very fast, tough to split, champion creosote builder

White oak and hickory are rare in these parts. Otherwise, both make it to the top three.

 

[steelhead kid]

The Best

By far the best ever is Madrone, super hot, comes pretty much barkless, clean, find a tree and its like gold. A close second is Myrtle. Burns for like four days but can clogg you chimney with soot because of the oil it contains.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Stacking Firewood

what is it best to stack the logs? I have a concrete are I can stack several up off the ground.
Todd

Take a look at this schematic I drew up for you:

Using this method, you can stack logs with vertical ends and no stakes are required to support the ends. The crisscross also helps the air drying. I just be sure that the log in the inside center of a given crisscross level is just slightly smaller than the logs on the outside. That eliminates rocking.

 

[wally 12]

stacking wood

Two years ago my first experience with burning wood I stacked everything on pallets very simmilar to the diagram you drew. Then the next year I just piled it up on the concrete no pallets because It was a lot less work.
Everything is under a roof and open on the south side "plenty of air flow"
My question is does it make a difference for drying time for either of these ways?
Thank's Todd