Nice pear

[dwasifar]

I scrounged wood from the post office, of all places.

Went to the post office for post office things. As I was leaving I noticed a few guys cleaning up after cutting down some trees, with a stack of logs already neatly cut to firewood lengths beside each stump. I asked if the wood was spoken for; they said to ask inside the post office. So I got permission from the assistant postmaster (very important, since the police station is right next door) and came back a couple hours later with my wife's little SUV.

I asked the guy on the cutting crew what kind of trees they had been, and I thought he said pear, but he was kind of hard to understand. But based on the shape of all the fall leaves still lying around, and some internet googlery, I think he did say pear. Specifically I think they're Bradford Pear. The wood's yellowish, wet, and heavy. A lot of it was crotchy, but they had cut down maybe six or seven of them, so we were able to cherry-pick (pear-pick?) the straight pieces without too many crotches. We made two trips and brought home probably half a cord worth once it's split.

Dark out now, but I'll post some pics tomorrow when I start splitting it, if anyone's interested.

 

[farmer steve]

I scrounged wood from the post office, of all places.

Went to the post office for post office things. As I was leaving I noticed a few guys cleaning up after cutting down some trees, with a stack of logs already neatly cut to firewood lengths beside each stump. I asked if the wood was spoken for; they said to ask inside the post office. So I got permission from the assistant postmaster (very important, since the police station is right next door) and came back a couple hours later with my wife's little SUV.

I asked the guy on the cutting crew what kind of trees they had been, and I thought he said pear, but he was kind of hard to understand. But based on the shape of all the fall leaves still lying around, and some internet googlery, I think he did say pear. Specifically I think they're Bradford Pear. The wood's yellowish, wet, and heavy. A lot of it was crotchy, but they had cut down maybe six or seven of them, so we were able to cherry-pick (pear-pick?) the straight pieces without too many crotches. We made two trips and brought home probably half a cord worth once it's split.

Dark out now, but I'll post some pics tomorrow when I start splitting it, if anyone's interested.

you left the best parts if you didn't take the crotches. especially if it's pear wood.everybody knows the crotch is the best part.
good scrounge dwasifar.

 

[svk]

May be good cooking/smoking wood too?

 

[hupte]

nice score!!! with very little work too!!

 

[unclemoustache]

Dunno how Bradford is for BTU's. I'd guess it's not so great. It's a fairly fast growing tree, and falls apart easily. Lots of that junk around here and everyone regrets having one, but maybe it burns better than it grows.

 

[dwasifar]

Dunno how Bradford is for BTU's. I'd guess it's not so great. It's a fairly fast growing tree, and falls apart easily. Lots of that junk around here and everyone regrets having one, but maybe it burns better than it grows.

I've been googling for that, and the consensus seems to be that it's a lot like apple in that regard. People either love it or hate it for the smoker, though.

 

[Del_]

Bradford Pear is great firewood!

 

[babybart]

I smoked a turkey boobie with pear last year, worked quite well, tasty too! Girlfriends' picky teens even liked it! Glazed it with a pear orange marmalade I had made. Finger- lickin I tell ya!

 

[cuinrearview]

In my experience Bradford Pear wood does NOT compare to non-ornamental pear wood for cooking. I usually use pear to smoke delicate meats like fish or shrimp and it left an acrid bite to the smokiness. It was, however, fantastic in the stove. OP, go back and get the ugly pieces you left! The condensed, twisted wood in the crotches means longer burn time.

 

[svk]

I've been googling for that, and the consensus seems to be that it's a lot like apple in that regard. People either love it or hate it for the smoker, though.

Wonder if perhaps some smoked with bark on? Good should be uniformly good.

 

[cuinrearview]

Wonder if perhaps some smoked with bark on? Good should be uniformly good.

Bark was on when I tried it. Bark has never been a consideration before but who knows. It did have a really unique deep peach color in the trunk wood too.

 

[H-Ranch]

"Nice pair" Sorry... I was expecting something different.

Oh, and

 

[kevinlar]

Bradford pear is excellent wood, very dense, great burning high BTU.

 

[dwasifar]

"Nice pair" Sorry... I was expecting something different.

Oh, and

Well, I can't give you the kind of pics you were obviously expecting, but I do have these:

I overestimated how much I had. Typically two loads in my wife's SUV is a half a cord, but I didn't think about the fact that we didn't load it as much because the wood was so darn wet and heavy that it was making the suspension squat. Plus which this bunch generated a lot more for the scrap box than I usually have, because of how it splits.

This stuff splits weird. From what I've read about these trees, they break in the wind and under snow, and watching this wood come apart in the splitter, I can see why. It doesn't split so much as flake away. To me it looks strangely like canned tuna fish:

The trunk pieces especially were hard to deal with. I couldn't split some pieces down as small as I wanted them because when I tried to go that small it would just flake off in chunks rather than splitting end to end. I got better as I went, but, well, look at the ragged ends of some of those splits. Looks like splitting cottonwood, except that this is the opposite of stringy.

But hey - free wood. When spring comes I'll move it around back to get some sun and wind.

If you look sharp in that picture you can see the tips of my size 12 Red Wing steel toes.

 

[Del_]

This stuff splits weird. From what I've read about these trees, they break in the wind and under snow, and watching this wood come apart in the splitter, I can see why. It doesn't split so much as flake away. To me it looks strangely like canned tuna fish:

Bradford Pears usually only fail at the crotch unions. They have a genetic defect which causes a lot of included bark. The crotches may look solid but they usually aren't. When they fail usually a large piece tears off of the main trunk and it is quite damaging. There are cultivars of ornamental pears that don't have this defect are are better for use in the landscape.

 

[buzz sawyer]

Almost looks like it's punky but it does look like Bradford Pear.

 

[dwasifar]

Almost looks like it's punky but it does look like Bradford Pear.

Definitely not punky. These were live trees with buds on them yesterday morning. But I can see what you mean.

 

[TKeller]

Definitely not punky. These were live trees with buds on them yesterday morning. But I can see what you mean.

Dwasifar, as some others have said Bradford pear is what you got and it is great firewood. You did good ^5s

 

[DFK]

I agree with DEL.
Bradford Pear is good firewood.

David

 

[TimberWolf530]

The problem with Bradford Pear trees is that the trunk is usually only 4 to 6 feet high on a fully grown tree. They branch out into several smaller trunks that grow upward, then branch at the top. When they get to a certain height, they start to break off. I just took two of them from my parents house last spring. It's the first pear I've had, but the wood is very dense/heavy. I'm not going to burn it until next season.