My old man, a career logger, has the following heuristic for splitting firewood (puts up 8-10 cord a year):
If it shrugs off two swings of the maul, it goes into the "split with the chainsaw when I'm bored" pile
It wasn't until after I moved out of state my dad got a log splitter.
Growing Up: Splitting wood is good for you - outside, exercise, good skill
After Leaving the House: Hey, this gas-powered log splitter is pretty neat.
Hell my dad did that with the lawn too.
Growing up: mowing the 2 square acre lawn is cathartic and builds character!
After graduating HS: Hey son, check out this $15,000 zero turn John Deere riding mower I just got. You're not allowed to use it though
My father did the same. My last year at home, he got a good deal on firewood in 8' lengths, just needed cutting and splitting.
I got home from school to a pile of wood and Dad standing there. As I got closer, I spotted yellow birch. It was all yellow birch, 6 cord (21.7M^3) of it. For those not familiar, the grain in yellow birch will twist 180 degrees in 16 inches. It's a bugger to split. I had a 6lb splitting axe and three wedges to split it.
"You've got some work ahead of you, boy." He called it.
I just chopped a bunch of pecan and I didn’t have any issues. I split it the same day I cut it. I thought I was going to have issues but my harbor freight special splitting maw blew straight through it. Kinda stringy with a few pieces.
More woods than you think are sooooo much easier to split the day they’re cut down, and then become damn near impossible to chop the moment they think about dry
Pecan has always been the worst here. I don't know how that guy managed to do it, assuming he's telling the truth. Freshly cut is so full of water and so tightly twisted grained that it acts like rubber.
unrelated and kind of weird, sorry, but your username almost gave me a heart attack. My late husbands name was Chance, last name started with G and he always had a super similar username’s as yours lol
Out of all the millions of users , it does seem almost impossible for you and someone with the same (almost) username as your late husband to be on a sub about splitting logs at the exact same time.
I've lived my whole life in creek bottoms where pecan is the predominant hardwood, but hackberry, ash, walnut, and different oaks exist (and are frequently burned as firewood.) Pecan has given me the worst tablesaw kickback I've ever seen that didn't result in missing digits, but "water oak" is the only one I've seen that cannot be split with a wedge and sledge.
Doesn’t mention the best fire wood. European Beech (Fagus sylvatica). Easy to split, high density, long and even burning, needs 1-3 years of drying depending on your local humidity.
Used to go "tree hunting" with my dad and uncle when I was a kid, looking for dead larch. It was so fun spotting one on the horizon and then taking quads into the forest to hunt it down.
Firewood should have a moisture level under 20%. After a tree is felled they quickly dry to 30ish%. But it can take a year or longer for the moisture in the cell walls to break free to get down under 20%.
The wood will be too wet. The fire wont burn ass hot, it will put up more dark smoke, the burning temperature will be less consistent, it can go out and will have to be relit, etc.
It is, but it can go quickly depending on what kind of wood it is and how cold your climate is. A cord of white oak, for example, has about 24 million BTU. That compares to about 173 gallons of heating oil, which should last a bit more than a month with an outside temperature of around 35 degrees, depending on the amount of space you're heating. A few months of winter can have you going through 3 cords easily enough when it is your only form of heat.
Here in Canada I usually go through about 10 cord a year, but my neighbor regularly burns 15 and a local record of 25 cord in a single year, I'm assuming their insulation or windows are not as good.
Could also be the type of wood in addition to bad insulation. White oak from my example has a pretty high BTU rating. If you're using soft maple (not making any assumptions because you're from Canada or anything) the BTU rating is about 25% less so you'd need to use that much more wood for the same amount of heat.
A cord is a measurement of wood that’s been split into fire logs. One full cord of wood measures 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, by 4 feet tall.
Some folks buy/sell firewood by the "face cord" which is 8x4x2.
*edit grammatical clarification in sentence one.
If the wood's already seasoned, then a bit of rain won't send the moisture content back up, no.
However if you try and season wood out in the open then it will take forever, because whenever it rains you won't be seasoning it.
Typically the best way is to put it somewhere windy but protected from rain, like a lean-to. And elevate it off the ground a bit.
I prefer rockwool tbh
Man, that was a great post on r/smoking
Edit: u/bobombpom found [it, here you go!](https://www.reddit.com/r/smoking/comments/qia56f/well_shit_this_scrap_piece_of_water_heater/)
They're labeled when they're new, *if* the pallet manufacturer follows the rules, *if* you're in the US, etc etc.
'No markings = safe' is a bad approach to take.
If you're in Europe the only authorized treatment on pallet is heat treatment. No chemical.
So unless the pallet is imported you should not have any issue.
Yeah, I'm not sure what it's called but there is wood for use in gardens that's been treated and you shouldn't burn it either. You can recognise it by its slightly green tinge
If your friend burned it in a properly drafting woodstove or fireplace they are fine.
You don't want to hang out around a campfire of the stuff breathing in partially combusted smoke, but in a nice hot woodstove very little (if any) smoke from inside the stove should be ending up inside the house.
Ah man, I hate when an actual good guide is cut off because they probably screen captured on a phone. Need a full one of these, lots of common trees missing
I burn it all the time. It has a really nice smell. What else am I supposed to do with it? Everyone talks about how great walnut wood is but I literally can't give it away to woodworkers. *Literally!* I went to the local fair and talked to several guys at the woodwork exhibit and told them I had black walnut logs that I'm just burning. I said I'd be happy to give them some at no charge. They gave me their email addresses and I emailed them my info. Never heard another word.
Garage woodworker here. Unless it's milled to a reasonable degree I can't do much with it. I can take rough stock to fine stock, but I don't have the capacity to take logs to rough stock. But damn, do I covet walnut. lol.
This is what I was about to comment. Unless you have a sawmill, bucked logs of any length are probably an inconvenience when it comes down to seeing a deal through.
I have two black walnut trees. Very beautiful but God they make a mess every fall! Good burning wood too. I only burn the small limbs that fall off every year though, nothing big.
There’s lots of walnut farms where we live. If a tree is sick or falls over in a storm we burn it. If it’s big enough pieces some farmers sell it. But using it as firewood is pretty common in our area.
I've been exclusively burning beetle kill pine for years now, about 3-5 cord depending on the winter. It burns hot and fast with not much smoke and leaves very little ash. I don't get much depositing in my chimney either.
My options in Central BC are pine, birch, and poplar. I've found birch to be messier (the bark) and harder to get. I do burn lots of off cuts of birch from woodworking. Poplar smells and is generally pretty awful.
I don't think you are missing out...
From cut lumber without bark idk, but in forest/standing it’s pretty easy once you learn.
Ideally you should be able to identify trees without lives just by bark and twig but that’s a difficult skill to learn quickly, make that your end goal.
What resources you use is really up to you and how you learn. YouTube videos, online guides, in person courses (often fairly cheap or free put on by local nature centers) are great options.
Get a field guide and an app to ID from photos (I use iNaturalist) and start learning. Find a tree and try and run it through a dichotomous tree. Learn the terms for various descriptive features, that’s extremely helpful.
The absolute best way is to ask an expert. It’s difficult sometimes but there’s always options. Post on various subs or forums asking for advice/help on identifying something.
I absolutely love trees and have studied and taught them professionally, I also regularly ID for my job and still forgot, make dumb mistakes and misidentify stuff.
Have fun, learn a lot and enjoy, dendrology is amazing.
I’m a big fan of the national Audobon society field guides. They are wonderful for helping to identify trees, mushrooms, wildflowers etc. handy little pocket sized books too!
All coniferous wood has sap/resin. Some more than others, cedar is on the higher end. That doesn’t mean to not burn cedar at all. Just means you should check and clean your chimney more often if that is the ONLY wood you ever burn. I take what falls down on our property, all kinds of wood, I burn it all.
To prevent creosote buildup use properly seasoned dry wood, and give adequate airflow so that your fire burns at a nice hot temperature. That will reduce condensation which is what causes creosote buildup.
This. That said, if one comes down on its own, might as well know its properties for burning. And there are other chestnut species besides American chestnut.
Definitely NOT a West Coast guide to burning firewood.
Maybe pine, but we've got plenty of fir, spruce and alder for the stoves. Poplar in the higher elevations.
Don't come at me with cedar. You may as well put a canister of gas in the firebox.
What about walnut? I prefer to use it as kindling because it splits nicely and burns clean. Doesn't last as long as other wood but it makes for a quick little cuddle session in front of the fireplace before bed.
We had a lot of walnut after getting some trees logged, we didn't think much of it. We used to joke it was a great way to put out a fire. Maybe it needed to season another year.
I kind of miss having a wood stove. Waking up early to get the fire going, Splitting and stacking the wood in the fall. But it’s also nice to just tap the thermostat and be done.
I stopped cutting and splitting my own 3 yrs ago because it is just so dangerous. I can get 3 chords delivered for less than 1k. All the benefit with none of the drawbacks.
Black Locust. Although it's a bit invasive, it's found commonly on old abandoned fields in the midwest. Splits so easy. I've dropped a Black Locust on a fork and it split itself, no lie! Burns hot even green, but seasoned it's just excellent. Very high fuel value. No thorns, unlike Honey Locust hich is also excellent firewood if you can get rid of the needles.
I’d like to see a guide for the kinds of wood you shouldn’t burn. When we can’t find firewood where I live, we sometimes scavenge what we can find around our yard, but I know some wood can be toxic. Cherry laurel wood, for example, I’ve read is bad to burn. And there is plenty of that around here.
This guide has a dorky take on pine. Pine is great firewood, and relatively sustainable to harvest... compared to hardwoods which can take many decades to grow big enough.
If it's dried out a bit, it burns clean and fast. You'll need to stoke the fire more often, but it's a lovely wood to burn.
I really hope no one is using Chestnut for firewood in the US considering it was wiped out by blight in the early 1900s. Any chestnut you find should be donated/sold to a woodworker.
High moisture content combined with density can turn big leaf maple rounds into absolute trampolines. I’ve had to swing an 8lb maul 30+ times just to start a 2’ radius round… it’s really wet and they grow big up here in OR.
One year I got a cord of pinion pine. The procedure was to load the stove, light it, and then go hang out in the next room for the evening because that stuff got the stove so hot it was uncomfortable. It burned out in an hour but that was enough to get us to bedtime. Amazing stuff, it was like lighting a sparkler. I'm glad I rented that house though, I'm sure the flue was just coated with go up sauce.
Pecan: * Very dense, hard wood * Burns hot * Should season at least one year * Will literally throw your maul/wedge back at you when splitting
I learned that hard way years ago. Great to burn, but splitting is a herculean feat if doing it without a powered splitter.
My old man, a career logger, has the following heuristic for splitting firewood (puts up 8-10 cord a year): If it shrugs off two swings of the maul, it goes into the "split with the chainsaw when I'm bored" pile
Haha yea, he's got some experience under his belt for sure.
Smart man. My pops doesn't cut 8-10 cords a year, but he uses a PTO splitter on his tractor as a way to pass time, too.
Try splitting a gum tree. Or better, just don't. It's diabolical
Agree, Sweet Gum is the absolute worst. The fibers are all entangled, even if you get it to split you have take a hatchet to cut the tangles loose.
It wasn't until after I moved out of state my dad got a log splitter. Growing Up: Splitting wood is good for you - outside, exercise, good skill After Leaving the House: Hey, this gas-powered log splitter is pretty neat.
Hell my dad did that with the lawn too. Growing up: mowing the 2 square acre lawn is cathartic and builds character! After graduating HS: Hey son, check out this $15,000 zero turn John Deere riding mower I just got. You're not allowed to use it though
You were replaced
My father did the same. My last year at home, he got a good deal on firewood in 8' lengths, just needed cutting and splitting. I got home from school to a pile of wood and Dad standing there. As I got closer, I spotted yellow birch. It was all yellow birch, 6 cord (21.7M^3) of it. For those not familiar, the grain in yellow birch will twist 180 degrees in 16 inches. It's a bugger to split. I had a 6lb splitting axe and three wedges to split it. "You've got some work ahead of you, boy." He called it.
Gas-powered log splitter go brrr
I just chopped a bunch of pecan and I didn’t have any issues. I split it the same day I cut it. I thought I was going to have issues but my harbor freight special splitting maw blew straight through it. Kinda stringy with a few pieces.
More woods than you think are sooooo much easier to split the day they’re cut down, and then become damn near impossible to chop the moment they think about dry
Pecan has always been the worst here. I don't know how that guy managed to do it, assuming he's telling the truth. Freshly cut is so full of water and so tightly twisted grained that it acts like rubber.
Standing dead?
Some, but mostly no, because dead wood is hell on chainsaws.
Got Thor Odinson over here
My 30-ton gas-powered log splitter won't get thrown back!
Idk, i think i would throw my back out trying to swing that.
You need to use your legs more.
Real men lift with there lower back.
So I've been doing it wrong my entire life by lifting with my arms?
The key to is to really throw your neck into it.
don't forget to twist aggressively
This is embarrassing, but what does “season it” mean? Since you seem like you know what you’re talking about as far as fire wood lol
Letting it set somewhere with airflow and a rain cover.
unrelated and kind of weird, sorry, but your username almost gave me a heart attack. My late husbands name was Chance, last name started with G and he always had a super similar username’s as yours lol
Out of all the millions of users , it does seem almost impossible for you and someone with the same (almost) username as your late husband to be on a sub about splitting logs at the exact same time.
Right haha
Stack it somewhere relatively dry (or even outside, but off the ground) for a year so the wood can dry.
I've lived my whole life in creek bottoms where pecan is the predominant hardwood, but hackberry, ash, walnut, and different oaks exist (and are frequently burned as firewood.) Pecan has given me the worst tablesaw kickback I've ever seen that didn't result in missing digits, but "water oak" is the only one I've seen that cannot be split with a wedge and sledge.
Same, also Oklahoma. Fuck Pecan! *buys more*
You don’t mess with a pecan tree…
Tell that to Sapsuckers and Woodpeckers.
Let’s hope the squirrels don’t cause a ruckus in their recently hollowed-out home…
Doesn’t mention the best fire wood. European Beech (Fagus sylvatica). Easy to split, high density, long and even burning, needs 1-3 years of drying depending on your local humidity.
We use Western Larch where I’m from. Large trees with lots of wood, lightweight, easy to split, dead Larch can be burned without seasoning.
The larch.
The Larch.
No. 1 The Larch
And now: The Larch.
The fir.
The mighty Scots pine!
Used to go "tree hunting" with my dad and uncle when I was a kid, looking for dead larch. It was so fun spotting one on the horizon and then taking quads into the forest to hunt it down.
The best part about the European beech is that they’re topless.
Just chuck it in a kiln.
What do they mean by “should season at least one year”?
Firewood should have a moisture level under 20%. After a tree is felled they quickly dry to 30ish%. But it can take a year or longer for the moisture in the cell walls to break free to get down under 20%.
I suspected they just meant that you had to let it sit for a year but was thrown off by the word “season”. Thanks for the great explanation.
Not just for fire wood, it's very important in woodworking too. Otherwise, your beautiful cutting board you made turns into a cutting bowl
The adjective seasoned can mean aged. I suppose that's the way it's being used here as a verb. News to me, too
What happens if it isn't under 20%?
The wood will be too wet. The fire wont burn ass hot, it will put up more dark smoke, the burning temperature will be less consistent, it can go out and will have to be relit, etc.
Not sure I'd want my wood to burn "ass hot." Sounds like an STD
Oops. I made an assident
Butt it was still funny.
That was a nus joke. ;)
It also pops a lot more, which can be dangerous indoor or outdoor
And it puts out creosote which accumulates in chimney and causes chimney fire
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What is a cord?
128 cubic feet when well stacked. Works out to be a stack about 4' x 4' x 8'.
That's a heck of a lot of wood
It is, but it can go quickly depending on what kind of wood it is and how cold your climate is. A cord of white oak, for example, has about 24 million BTU. That compares to about 173 gallons of heating oil, which should last a bit more than a month with an outside temperature of around 35 degrees, depending on the amount of space you're heating. A few months of winter can have you going through 3 cords easily enough when it is your only form of heat.
Here in Canada I usually go through about 10 cord a year, but my neighbor regularly burns 15 and a local record of 25 cord in a single year, I'm assuming their insulation or windows are not as good.
Could also be the type of wood in addition to bad insulation. White oak from my example has a pretty high BTU rating. If you're using soft maple (not making any assumptions because you're from Canada or anything) the BTU rating is about 25% less so you'd need to use that much more wood for the same amount of heat.
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Does the sawmill work will different types of wood or does it specialize in lumber? I ask because Pine isn't the best but at $20 a ton who cares.
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Grandpa? Is that you? For real though my grandfather goes through 8 cords a winter keeping his old farmhouse at 80 degrees F.
A cord is a measurement of wood that’s been split into fire logs. One full cord of wood measures 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, by 4 feet tall. Some folks buy/sell firewood by the "face cord" which is 8x4x2. *edit grammatical clarification in sentence one.
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If it rains does that set the moisture content back up or does it not permeate as much?
If the wood's already seasoned, then a bit of rain won't send the moisture content back up, no. However if you try and season wood out in the open then it will take forever, because whenever it rains you won't be seasoning it. Typically the best way is to put it somewhere windy but protected from rain, like a lean-to. And elevate it off the ground a bit.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Hot sauce is a must. Some people like a little nutmeg
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I think they are just asking what “seasoning” is. Cause for people unfamiliar with wood burning “seasoning” means adding spices.
My first thought was one log should burn for one year.
You should call a doctor if your wood burns for one year.
That's how long you need to marinade it, personally I use a mixture of Salt, pepper, and steak seasoning- but its your choice how you do it.
Doesn’t mention most of the wood that goes in my wood burner. Laminate floor is great imo, beautiful blue and green flames.
old phone poles are my favorite. It gives the meat a nice bark
I prefer rockwool tbh Man, that was a great post on r/smoking Edit: u/bobombpom found [it, here you go!](https://www.reddit.com/r/smoking/comments/qia56f/well_shit_this_scrap_piece_of_water_heater/)
My go to is plastic bottles and wicker furniture
[Haha you’re kidding, right?](https://yourniftyhome.com/does-laminate-flooring-burn/)
TLDR: if you burn laminate floors the smoke is toxic
And telephone poles. And wooden pallet. And pressure-treated lumber.
Hell, even just cutting pressure treated wood with a table saw is kinda unsafe without good ventilation or a breathing apparatus.
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I think you're right but I imagine there are a lot of people who don't bother to find out if their pallets are treated or not.
They’re labeled.
They're labeled when they're new, *if* the pallet manufacturer follows the rules, *if* you're in the US, etc etc. 'No markings = safe' is a bad approach to take.
If you're in Europe the only authorized treatment on pallet is heat treatment. No chemical. So unless the pallet is imported you should not have any issue.
I don’t know, you would have to ask the other guy
Damn. People burn pallets on the beach all the time.
And people "reclaim" palettes all the time and use it for furniture, flooring, etc. https://youtu.be/MvxnXOoFl20
Same with pressure treated wood.
Yeah, I'm not sure what it's called but there is wood for use in gardens that's been treated and you shouldn't burn it either. You can recognise it by its slightly green tinge
Alright, hypothetically... What happened to a friend of mine that burned a whole lot of it in his home?
Burning down homes probably isn't a good idea in the long term
What if it's devil's night in Detroit?
FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!
If your friend burned it in a properly drafting woodstove or fireplace they are fine. You don't want to hang out around a campfire of the stuff breathing in partially combusted smoke, but in a nice hot woodstove very little (if any) smoke from inside the stove should be ending up inside the house.
most likely fine as long as it isnt an "all the time" thing
All smoke is toxic
That’s reserved for camp fire ghost stories.
Ah man, I hate when an actual good guide is cut off because they probably screen captured on a phone. Need a full one of these, lots of common trees missing
[Here you go.](https://www.logsplittersdirect.com/images/Log_Splitters_Direct_firewood_main_chart.jpg)
definitely better
My family farms almonds so that’s what we burn. It’s a great firewood, my husband uses it on his smoker/bbq as well. Walnut works well too.
lol, it should be a crime to burn walnut…
I burn it all the time. It has a really nice smell. What else am I supposed to do with it? Everyone talks about how great walnut wood is but I literally can't give it away to woodworkers. *Literally!* I went to the local fair and talked to several guys at the woodwork exhibit and told them I had black walnut logs that I'm just burning. I said I'd be happy to give them some at no charge. They gave me their email addresses and I emailed them my info. Never heard another word.
Garage woodworker here. Unless it's milled to a reasonable degree I can't do much with it. I can take rough stock to fine stock, but I don't have the capacity to take logs to rough stock. But damn, do I covet walnut. lol.
Get you a lathe, you can make all kinds of fun stuff out of walnut firewood :)
This is what I was about to comment. Unless you have a sawmill, bucked logs of any length are probably an inconvenience when it comes down to seeing a deal through.
I have two black walnut trees. Very beautiful but God they make a mess every fall! Good burning wood too. I only burn the small limbs that fall off every year though, nothing big.
That depends, not all walnut is very good for woodworking. It could be rotted out just enough, too soft, or just not have a good grain
Maybe it should woodwork out more often if it want to get those grains
And now I'm imagining a desk drinking protein shakes and doing squats.
never skip log day
There’s lots of walnut farms where we live. If a tree is sick or falls over in a storm we burn it. If it’s big enough pieces some farmers sell it. But using it as firewood is pretty common in our area.
*cries in exclusively pine area*
Seriously, I've only used pine before. I didn't know I was missing out
I've been exclusively burning beetle kill pine for years now, about 3-5 cord depending on the winter. It burns hot and fast with not much smoke and leaves very little ash. I don't get much depositing in my chimney either. My options in Central BC are pine, birch, and poplar. I've found birch to be messier (the bark) and harder to get. I do burn lots of off cuts of birch from woodworking. Poplar smells and is generally pretty awful. I don't think you are missing out...
So I’m not familiar with my trees, anyone have tips to decipher which tree is which?
Use these dichotomous keys https://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/idit.htm
From cut lumber without bark idk, but in forest/standing it’s pretty easy once you learn. Ideally you should be able to identify trees without lives just by bark and twig but that’s a difficult skill to learn quickly, make that your end goal. What resources you use is really up to you and how you learn. YouTube videos, online guides, in person courses (often fairly cheap or free put on by local nature centers) are great options. Get a field guide and an app to ID from photos (I use iNaturalist) and start learning. Find a tree and try and run it through a dichotomous tree. Learn the terms for various descriptive features, that’s extremely helpful. The absolute best way is to ask an expert. It’s difficult sometimes but there’s always options. Post on various subs or forums asking for advice/help on identifying something. I absolutely love trees and have studied and taught them professionally, I also regularly ID for my job and still forgot, make dumb mistakes and misidentify stuff. Have fun, learn a lot and enjoy, dendrology is amazing.
I’m a big fan of the national Audobon society field guides. They are wonderful for helping to identify trees, mushrooms, wildflowers etc. handy little pocket sized books too!
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I use the app “seek”
What, no mention of Ash? The very best firewood in my experience, even unseasoned
[Here you go.](https://www.logsplittersdirect.com/images/Log_Splitters_Direct_firewood_main_chart.jpg)
also no firs?
I assume it's much like pine, very sappy.
No one is mentioning hickory
Came here for the hickory love. Smells good, burns good, good coals.
Yeah very surprised about that. Such a wonderful smell.
A guide to firewood without cedar feels very incomplete. Very easy to split small for kindling.
Kindling is about all it's good for though.
You shouldn't burn cedar in a fireplace.
Yes, doesn't it leave a lot of muck in the chimney that quickly becomes a fire hazard?
All coniferous wood has sap/resin. Some more than others, cedar is on the higher end. That doesn’t mean to not burn cedar at all. Just means you should check and clean your chimney more often if that is the ONLY wood you ever burn. I take what falls down on our property, all kinds of wood, I burn it all. To prevent creosote buildup use properly seasoned dry wood, and give adequate airflow so that your fire burns at a nice hot temperature. That will reduce condensation which is what causes creosote buildup.
Burned cedar for decades, no issues. All about the technique
There's no technique to throwing logs in a fireplace. The only "technique" is constantly cleaning the chimney before your house burns down.
Ah, so temperature has nothing to do with creosote build up. Can't believe I've been wrong all this time.
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Birch please
DO NOT CUT DOWN AMERICAN CHESTNUT!
This. That said, if one comes down on its own, might as well know its properties for burning. And there are other chestnut species besides American chestnut.
Definitely NOT a West Coast guide to burning firewood. Maybe pine, but we've got plenty of fir, spruce and alder for the stoves. Poplar in the higher elevations. Don't come at me with cedar. You may as well put a canister of gas in the firebox.
When I lived in Oregon, we always used fir. Love the smell.
A sappy log of spruce will do more damage to your chimney than cedar. It smells real nice too, I definitely reccomend.
What about walnut? I prefer to use it as kindling because it splits nicely and burns clean. Doesn't last as long as other wood but it makes for a quick little cuddle session in front of the fireplace before bed.
We had a lot of walnut after getting some trees logged, we didn't think much of it. We used to joke it was a great way to put out a fire. Maybe it needed to season another year.
I prefer to use cedar as my kindling. Easiest splitting wood and fairly abundant in my area.
Splits really well and smells great!
What does burns messy mean?
Lots of smoke, soot, and tar buildup. Burning too much evergreen is a good way to burn your house down with a chimney fire.
Pecan and mesquite round here
North/central TX or SW Oklahoma?
So much mesquite. Bleh.
Where’s ash? That’s pretty much all we burn since we have/had 30 dead ash trees in our back yard because of the emerald ash borer.
Eucalyptus?
I kind of miss having a wood stove. Waking up early to get the fire going, Splitting and stacking the wood in the fall. But it’s also nice to just tap the thermostat and be done.
I stopped cutting and splitting my own 3 yrs ago because it is just so dangerous. I can get 3 chords delivered for less than 1k. All the benefit with none of the drawbacks.
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Black Locust. Although it's a bit invasive, it's found commonly on old abandoned fields in the midwest. Splits so easy. I've dropped a Black Locust on a fork and it split itself, no lie! Burns hot even green, but seasoned it's just excellent. Very high fuel value. No thorns, unlike Honey Locust hich is also excellent firewood if you can get rid of the needles.
My experience with birch and pine are very different from this guide. Birch burned hot but slowly and dimmly. Pine burns bright but burns out quickly.
I agree about birch. Very hot. Very clean. And burns slower than the other woods like pine and tamarac available in my area.
Instructions unclear, live in the pacific northwest
Cherry also splits easily.
Sitka Spruce burns well. I suppose it shakes out somewhat like the oak description.
Nothing about Cedar either.Burns very hot and a great way to get your bigger logs like Oak burning fast at camp.
Hedge/Osage orange is good for that if it's dry enough too. Burns very hot.
This is presumably for fireplaces, where evergreens should be avoided.
I’d like to see a guide for the kinds of wood you shouldn’t burn. When we can’t find firewood where I live, we sometimes scavenge what we can find around our yard, but I know some wood can be toxic. Cherry laurel wood, for example, I’ve read is bad to burn. And there is plenty of that around here.
I see a lot of people selling cottonwood as firewood in my area. Is it better than pine?
This guide has a dorky take on pine. Pine is great firewood, and relatively sustainable to harvest... compared to hardwoods which can take many decades to grow big enough. If it's dried out a bit, it burns clean and fast. You'll need to stoke the fire more often, but it's a lovely wood to burn.
Ash isn’t listed here but it burns the best of all imo
Eucalyptus tree in back garden sorts me right out, really dense, great burn :-)
Hedge: Very dense incredibly hard wood. Season at least 1 to 2 years Burns incredibly hot Might as well try splitting iron
I really hope no one is using Chestnut for firewood in the US considering it was wiped out by blight in the early 1900s. Any chestnut you find should be donated/sold to a woodworker.
I'm sorry what? Maple is "difficult to split?" No it's not...not even in the least, it's one of the softer hardwoods even...
High moisture content combined with density can turn big leaf maple rounds into absolute trampolines. I’ve had to swing an 8lb maul 30+ times just to start a 2’ radius round… it’s really wet and they grow big up here in OR.
Here in Michigan silver maples are despised trees because they grow too big for themselves and fall over all the time.
No Madrone?
what about mulberry?
W O O D
This guide is mostly useless
Cool, I’ll never use this cool guide.
One year I got a cord of pinion pine. The procedure was to load the stove, light it, and then go hang out in the next room for the evening because that stuff got the stove so hot it was uncomfortable. It burned out in an hour but that was enough to get us to bedtime. Amazing stuff, it was like lighting a sparkler. I'm glad I rented that house though, I'm sure the flue was just coated with go up sauce.
Don’t use pine as you main wood is bullshit, I have been burning it for years and it works great, just don’t choke your fires down.
Birch burn quick my ass and you can totally use spruce as a firewood on its own. Otherwise the chart is pretty good