Willow for firewood

[parrisw]

Anybody here burn Willow for firewood, I know where there is a willow being taken down, and I can have the wood if I want. Is it any good??

Thanks

 

[turnkey4099]

I heat my house with it. Occasionally luck into some good wood but that is rare. Willow is about the only hardwood (by definition) tree in abundance out here and I can get all I want by asking around.

Willow is not bad as firewood but it is light - it ranks down near the bottom in heat value so it is a gofer wood (chunk one in and go fer another). I go through 6+ cord/yr.

Bottom line: Any free wood beats wood you have to pay for.

Harry K

 

[J.Gordon]

It will yield 14.5 million BTU’s per cord where Red Oak puts out 24 million BTU’S.
It will burn but do you have the time to feed the fire?
If you have the time, go for it.
Check this site- http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

 

[parrisw]

Cool, thanks guys, I think I will hold off on it. I have acess to better stuff.

 

[ShoerFast]

I wood carry most any wood uphill over Willow, except maybe Cottonwood.

It's not worth much IMO, but yes, by all means it's better then the wood you don't have. (personally, I would still be looking for wood, I'd Pass)

Burning wood during the off-heating season it's fantastic, cuts the chill, but won't over-heat. (like a summer hail-storm)

 

[windthrown]

Yah, willow sucks, and it can be hard to cut (low density, low heat value, crap in the bark and dulls chains). I have burned it, and still cut and burn it if we have windthrow. But that and cottonwood are at the bottom of the wood gathering list.

My list of species here from best to worst. The last five I will not go out of my way to get; but I will burn if I have them, as they do burn. Like Shoerfast says above, we burn grand fir here in spring and early fall during low heat requirement months. We have a lot of it from thinning this year...

Madrone
Black oak
White oak
Apple/pear
Cherry/plum
Walnut
Bigleaf maple
Doug fir
Red Alder
Ash
Box Elder maple
......
Ponderosa pine
Sycamore
Grand fir
Willow
Cottonwood

 

[ak4195]

Wheres the Ceder,if nothing else it smells good when you go outside to grab some more wood or whatever else chore is down wind.I love the smell of spruce here,even though birch has a better burn value overall.
My mom lives just barely south of the mackenzie in north Springfield,what used to be an old walnut orchard,beautifull trees.I told her,buy the lot behind you,just because.
Beautifull trees,it was perfect instant park,let alone great investment,but I think there was some sort of development time span covenant on the lots as I remember it.Now its just another couple of houses.Oregon aint to bad,you could have everything but tropical jungle within a couple of hours.

ak4195

 

[aandabooks]

If it's already cut and you can pull right up to it and load, then go get it. If there is any real work involved and you've got better sources then take a pass.

 

[A. Stanton]

I just spend the last month buring black willow. I would advise you run from that tree and don't look back. It ain't worth the work to burn that tree. Throws off very little btu's; it's the lowest wood on the hard wood food chain.

 

[sredlin]

If it's already cut and you can pull right up to it and load, then go get it. If there is any real work involved and you've got better sources then take a pass.

good advice don't put much time into it

 

[wdchuck]

I'm burning some right now, it does make nice kindling, easy to hand split the small stuff. If wood is free, and you can season it, it'll keep you warm.

 

[mga]

i had some that i split into kindling. nothing starts faster than thin pieces of dry willow.

 

[J.Gordon]

Like I said if you have the time, go for it, free wood is free heat.
One pound of very dry (zero moisture content) wood of any species has a calorific value of approximately 8,600 Btu (British thermal unit, which equals the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree F). Any moisture in the wood reduces the recoverable heat by carrying heat up the chimney during vaporization. Each pound of water vaporized uses about 1,200 Btu.
I got this from this site; I gain a lot from reading sites like this. http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm

 

[farmer]

I don't burn much willow cause I have better wood at hand but a few things about it; it cuts and splits easy

it seasons quickly when split

don't bother with the limbwood

don't bother with the dead wood -the green stuff when dried out
has a lot more btu