Firewood ?'s

[Mr.Andersson]

What do you burn in your woodstove, besides oak and cherry? It's a good thing, that I came here, because now I plan on not cutting my maples down!

 

[Denim Deb]

Why not? I burn a lot of maple-as long as it's already down. I try not to cut down anything since I can get plenty of downed trees for free.

But, I burn maple, oak, cherry, hickory, dogwood, holly, sycamore and anything else that I can get other than pine or cedar. Some trees are better for just getting the fire going, like sassafras, birch, poplar (aspen), etc.

ETA: A big part of determining what you're going to burn is to know what you have available. For instance, I don't have any beech, but there's plenty out at the farm.

 

[Joel_BC]

But, I burn maple, oak, cherry, hickory, dogwood, holly, sycamore and anything else that I can get other than pine or cedar. Some trees are better for just getting the fire going, like sassafras, birch, poplar (aspen), etc.

ETA: A big part of determining what you're going to burn is to know what you have available.

Yeah, I think you nailed it, Deb.

Where I live is famous for hugely vast conifer (softwood) forests - the kind of wood that construction lumber is milled from... like Douglas fir, larch, grand fir, spruce and those sorts. We don't have much really dense hardwood species, such as those Deb mentions. I also cut old downed fruit trees (apple, pear, cherry), and occasionally some weedy native hardwoods like Douglas maple, or hawthorne. But the usual best common stuff is birch, larch, Doug fir.

We only use cedar (which does grow abundantly here) for kindling. We rarely use pine because it burns too quick. Dense, older spruce trees are only slightly better.

 

[Mr.Andersson]

We have alot of 2' + dia maples, I think I may try making syrup. So, i'll only use downed ones to burn then!
I take it, that any tree that looses leaves, is fine to use.

 

[Denim Deb]

If you're not sure what the trees are and want to know, shoot me a PM. You're close enough to me so that I can come over one day and ID stuff for you.

 

[Mr.Andersson]

Well, i'm pretty sure, the beechs still have thier leaves, not all, but a few, as do the oaks. I may need, an outside viewpoint, on some of my longterm projects though. I never get things started, cause I cant figure out where the best place to put it would be.

 

[the funny farm6]

We use a lot of hickery, locust, and ash. On real cold days we might use a small stick or two of hedge. What kind of stove do you have? Some can handle hotter burning wood, some dont.

 

[Mr.Andersson]

It's a Squire, that I remember nothing about. I'm missing the last ten years of my memory, anyways.

 

[usedteabag]

I second Denim Deb's suggestion of birch for starting fires. It seems you could cut that stuff same day and it would burn up like a match!

Also, my stepdad over the phone told me something about wood they sell at the hardware store near him called "Fat Wood," which is sap wood apparently... it's certainly not local but it burns up no problem, excellent for kindling. He lives in Maine but I think the hardware store he's probably talking about is Home Depot.

 

[Denim Deb]

The beech seems to burn fairly rapidly. That, along w/poplar are great for days when you need a fire in the morning or the evening just to get the chill out, but don't want a big fire. And, the bark from river birch is excellent for starting a fire. It has oil in it that makes it catch fire quickly-even right off the tree.