Hey guys, what's your top 5? Just cut some ironwood... holy smokes that stuff is rock solid... looking forward to burning it in a year or two
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Hey guys, what's your top 5? Just cut some ironwood... holy smokes that stuff is rock solid... looking forward to burning it in a year or two
The old man loved ironwood for the sugar shack. Long burning and level heat
Oak(red)
Beech
Maple
Yellow/Silver birch
Ash
Whatever needs to get cut out, for the health of the forest.
Hardwood mostly for furnace and fireplaces. Softwood for syrup boiler.
It all burns.
Been burning dead ash for the last 8 yrs still have loads. Will burn anything that someone drops off as the outdoor burner will burn just about anything thrown in. I don't have to cut living trees right now or for a few yrs to come thanks to the ash bore :( they really made a mess in my area
It all burns but it also takes pretty much as long to process crap wood than good one so if I don't need the soft one I leave it to rot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Oddmott
Ash, birch and pine was all we could get. Pine mostly but the ash trees sure helped soil in the garden and lawn. Soil was very acidity and the ash help with the PH.
With the Ash borer impacting my Ash trees, that's what I burn now. I also will burn some dead standing trees. Elm is one of the best once the bark starts to fall off of a standing dead tree. I also burn Aspen that have broken off due to wind etc.
One of the best woods is Honey Locust. It is really easy to split and is very dense.
Love ash b/c you can burn it almost right after cut... doesn't t seem to need seasoning...
Want to get my hand on some beech. I hear they take 2 solid years to season... also, black cherry.
Love burning maple oak and ash
It's one of the standing tree with the least moisture content.Quote:
Originally Posted by Splaker
What are your thoughts on black walnut?
Based on what is on my property, my rank is:
Tamarack or Birch
Poplar
Spruce
Speckled Alder.
The Sweep's Library comparison chart is useful at times too.
https://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm
Birch-- splits easily, long hot burn, split thin is also good kindling
Ash-- splits easily, hot burn, often hard to harvest due to wet swampy habitat
Maple-- very hot long burn but difficult to split
From The Wood Heat Organization;
[COLOR=#333333]What is the best tree species for firewood? While there is always room for debate, we like to suggest that the best species in your area is the one that is most plentiful, easy to split and doesn't cover your hands and clothes with sticky sap.
[COLOR=#333333]There are lots of resources here to help you to buy, process and store firewood successfully.
Energy content per air dried full cord, in 000s of BTUs. The hardest species are at the top of the list. Rock Elm 32,000 Shagbark Hickory 30,600 White Oak 30,600 Bitternut Hickory 29,200 Sugar Maple 29,000 Beech 27,800 Red Oak 27,300 Yellow Birch 26,200 Red Elm 25,400 White Ash 25,000 White Elm 24,500 Red Maple 24,000 Tamarack 24,000 Black Cherry 23,500 White Birch 23,400 Black Ash 22,600 Green Ash 22,100 Silver Maple 21,700 Manitoba Maple 19,300 Large Tooth Aspen 18,200 Hemlock 17,900 Trembling Aspen 17,700 Butternut 17,400 Balsam Poplar 17,260 White Pine 17,100 Basswood 17,000 White Cedar 16,300 White Spruce 16,200 Balsam Fir 15,500
No vote for apple or black cherry? Got our eyes on one of each...
looked at a few lists and BTU varies quite a lot... the one posted here is quite different from the other one that was linked above
white oak varied by 7000 BTU]
On my property it's mostly maple, ash and black cherry that I cut for firewood for the stove but for campfires pretty much anything dead and dry around the camp is fair game.
We have been cutting a ton of dead standing ash trees the last few years. We normally cut what needs cutting. Oak us not great to burn in a stove or furnace. Same with willow. All the test is okay.we do cut a lot of iron wood.
Spruce
poplar
maple
all dead fall so whatever is down.
Why is oak not great?Quote:
Originally Posted by dutchhunter
Anyone that I know that had a chance to burn dry oak, loved it. Lots of heat, clean, big red coals in the morning and always been easy to split by hand (straight grain). The only issue, it takes an extra year to dry...
I cut 3 blue spruce over the past year... just sitting in a couple of piles un-split. Not sure if I should bother using it in my stove.
Should I mix some in with the rest?
And I agree with above post... oak is one of the tops.. never heard someone complain about it
I find oak hard on the chainsaw because of the grit carried up though the pores but it is a very good firewood.
I also don't overlook balsam fir for its quick heat when pine gets hard to find.
my number one is ironwood ( hop hornbeam) and standing dead elm second with a nice dry maple a close third
I've been having better luck cutting with a semi-chisel chain. Seems to tolerate the dirty/gritty wood a bit longer before I need to stop and sharpen.Quote:
Originally Posted by sawbill
It's a different sharpening angle than full chisel too - which I keep forgetting and then wonder why it takes forever to re-profile the point:moose:
You dont have to wait that long to burn Ironwood, it contains little sap and can be burnt sooner than other wood.Quote:
Originally Posted by Splaker
This year I have mostly red oak, some maple, and some ash. I usually burn a couple face cords of manitoba maple early in the fall, and late in the spring just to take the chill out of the house. I love red oak, I would take as many cords of it as I can get. Takes an extra season to dry right, but once dry, its great stuff!
Quote:
Originally Posted by 3Wheelerdude
Thats good too know... few months ok?
Any wood will burn but you often get 20% or more heat if it is dried first. Last week we cut two truck loads of poplar and basswood logs for the mill as we are burning mostly beech and maple. Burn about 10 bush cords/ year to heat two houses. Switching to outdoor wood furnace in my old age....
Wow that's a lot of work!Quote:
Originally Posted by patvetzal
Not sure if it's true but I heard outside wood furnace are a lot of work, feeling up big pieces of wood in the snow, but burn anything dry or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by patvetzal
Ya, might not reach old age at that pace! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by oldbuck
A good quality OWB will burn big pieces of anything, but will also burn smaller pieces of dry wood and get good mileage from it. Ours is an old style Portage and Main. We already had our winters wood cut and dried for our indoor stoves so we burnt that. No smoke and lots of heat.
Friends have other makes and burn fresh cut crap. Lots of smoke and the woodpile goes down quickly.
With a system and a tractor it takes two of us a couple of days to fill a log truck with basswood/poplar. This could be burnt in the OWB but it is not great wood, even dry.
Oak, Sugar Maple, Iron Wood ,Apple and white cedar fir kindling. When I use to burn to heat my other home. Did that for almost 20 years. Never again !
just took down some more ash and ironwood today... split and piled.. will probably burn some of that ash this year!
Hard oak and maple
Standing dead elm is one of my favourites, for a couple of reasons , I can cut it in the winter and it's ready to burn and it burns hot with good coals. Sugar maple , oak , birch and iron wood ( I don't have a big supply of iron wood around so it's more of a -25 treat )
We stored our wood in woodsheds up at the barn and brought it down to the house a face cord at a time (tractor bucket) to get stored on the front porch. This would last about a week or more.Quote:
Originally Posted by seabast
Unless you keep your wood in the basement, at some point you have to go outside. We now have tenants who like a very warm (75F) house, so they stoke the fire...which should heat both houses.
Outside wood stoves WILL burn big wet wood, but they burn less wood when it is dry(20%). We cut and split much of our wood small enough so my 5'2" wife can put it into the fireplace insert. This wood burns fine in the OWB and gives as many BTUs as big heavy pieces...just takes a bit longer at this time of year to split and pile..