# Cedar for Firewood



## Iron Head (Feb 17, 2011)

How is cedar as firewood?
I've been burning some cottonwood and hated that stuff; takes forever to dry, burns cool and fast.
I have some cedar sections after a clearing for my septic drain field and had plans to sell them to the local mills.
My other option is to just use them for firewood.
You guys think it's worth burning?


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## darkbyrd (Feb 18, 2011)

Good for kindling. That's what I use it for. Lights easy, sparks. Burns fast. Not so good for heating, IMO.

EDIT: I'm referring to Eastern red cedar, maybe your cedar is different.


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## jhoff310 (Feb 18, 2011)

I wouldnt use is at mt primary wood, its decent. Like darkbyrd said its good for kindling and sparks. I pick it up when I see it and make my own fatwood out of it.

Jeff


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## projectsho89 (Feb 18, 2011)

I burn (Eastern Red) cedar in my OWB, but I'd never consider using it in a stove or indoor woodburner.

Not much heat in in it, but it's okay for warmer days or when I want to get the boiler back up to temp quickly.


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## Billy_Bob (Feb 18, 2011)

Cedar burns hot and fast. So great to get the stove heated up quickly on a cold morning. Then switch to something else which burns longer.

Or good for a day when it is cold in the morning, then then quickly warms up outside. You might want a quick hot fire.

Not good for all day burning because it burns up so quickly. You would spend all day stuffing wood into the woodstove. And not good for after going to bed because it will not last long.

Otherwise so far as different wood goes, it all burns and heats. I burn anything and everything.


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## Big_Al (Feb 18, 2011)

Makes good kindling. We used to burn a lot of it cause there was a few cedars that had blown over on our property. It's a gopher wood.


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## myzamboni (Feb 18, 2011)

If you are going to be futzing around in the yard, throw some cedar on the fire. The aroma will be enjoyed by the whole neighborhood (or not if you are rural)


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## Gologit (Feb 18, 2011)

Billy_Bob said:


> Cedar burns hot and fast. So great to get the stove heated up quickly on a cold morning. Then switch to something else which burns longer.
> 
> Or good for a day when it is cold in the morning, then then quickly warms up outside. You might want a quick hot fire.
> 
> ...


 
Well said. If you're cutting green cedar you can noodle some of it and put the noodles in mesh bags or bowls around the house. Keeps the moths away and makes the house smell good.


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## rmount (Feb 18, 2011)

Great wood for a cook stove. Cooks your bacon and eggs while the coffee percs then dies down to next to nothing and doesn't heat you out of the cabin.


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## Labman (Feb 18, 2011)

One of the cleanest burning evergreens. It can be tough to find hardwoods when camping in Michigan and Minnesota. I cooked my dinner over cedar many evenings.


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## Iron Head (Feb 18, 2011)

Yeh, all I got to burn around here are cedar, cottonwood, fir, alder, ash, and maple.
And that is in the order of abundance.
When the weather gets drier, I need to get busy, fall some trees and upgrade my wood shed.


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## rancher2 (Feb 19, 2011)

Cedar is a great fireplace wood. I have sold a lot to fire place people that just want a fire not great for heat valve. We cut small cedars out of fence lines to get the brush piles started burning in the pastures.


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## ihookem (Feb 19, 2011)

Cedar is great for a gassifier. It makes coals real fast.


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## cuttingintime (Feb 20, 2011)

While cedar works very well in the fireplace It sparks allot.


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## oneoldbanjo (Feb 20, 2011)

I save my cedar for burning in the spring. It is the last wood that I burn before shutting the OWB down for the summer. It works great when it is 40 at night and 70 during the daytime as it makes a nice smell as it smolders all day long, leaves very little ash, and keeps me warm at night. It is very light when seasoned and doesn't burn very long - but when the weather is warm it works great.


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## sbhooper (Feb 20, 2011)

I have a Norseman 2500 furnace. I burn any kind of wood that I can salvage. There is an endless supply of cedar in this country and fortunately, other stuff too. I like cedar just fine as it lights easily and burns hot. It takes more of it because it burns faster, it puts out lots of heat and burns down to virtually nothing. It is not good for over-night, though, as it burns out too fast. I would not want to pay for it if I could not cut my own unless it was real cheap, but it beats the heck out of nothing. Make sure it is well-aged, or it will spark like crazy-which only matters if you are using it in a fireplace. 

Oh yeah, it smells great too!


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## Highbeam (Feb 22, 2011)

Iron Head said:


> Yeh, all I got to burn around here are cedar, cottonwood, fir, alder, ash, and maple.
> And that is in the order of abundance.
> When the weather gets drier, I need to get busy, fall some trees and upgrade my wood shed.


 
Western red cedar is way different than eastern cedar which isn't even a cedar and is much less dense. Consider the locations of other posters.

Our western red cedars can be an easy four feet in diameter with denser oilier wood that make it a much better firewood. I've burned many cords of it and would gladly take it about equivalent to a young (low density) doug fir. In a modern stove it burns great with good long burns, easy to split, thin bark, no slivers, good aroma, no extra creosote, etc. 

Much like cottonwood, folks that have never burned this wood in a modern stove don't know what they are missing.


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## deerlakejens (Feb 22, 2011)

Western Red Cedar is fine firewood but like others have posted, it burns quicker than fir, it is more like hemlock. You will notice it is lighter in weight than an equal size piece of fir when seasoned. Splits easy, lights, and leaves very little ash. For western Washington, though, it's hard to beat fir and there is a ton of it around.


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## mercer_me (Feb 22, 2011)

I use it for kindling and that's it. I also burn it in my ice shack some.


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## 23putts (Feb 22, 2011)

makes good fire pit wood....snap, crackle, pop!


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## tomtrees58 (Feb 22, 2011)

pop bang boom i chip that junk


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## Iron Head (Feb 22, 2011)

Highbeam said:


> Western red cedar is way different than eastern cedar which isn't even a cedar and is much less dense. Consider the locations of other posters.
> 
> Our western red cedars can be an easy four feet in diameter with denser oilier wood that make it a much better firewood. I've burned many cords of it and would gladly take it about equivalent to a young (low density) doug fir. In a modern stove it burns great with good long burns, easy to split, thin bark, no slivers, good aroma, no extra creosote, etc.
> 
> Much like cottonwood, folks that have never burned this wood in a modern stove don't know what they are missing.


 


deerlakejens said:


> Western Red Cedar is fine firewood but like others have posted, it burns quicker than fir, it is more like hemlock. You will notice it is lighter in weight than an equal size piece of fir when seasoned. Splits easy, lights, and leaves very little ash. For western Washington, though, it's hard to beat fir and there is a ton of it around.


 
I have no choice but to burn alot of cedar with a little bit of fir, maple, and maybe fall a few ash later on this spring.
I don't know about cottonwood though. I've been burning this stuff this entire year and hated it. It burns way too quick and not easy to dry. Once dried, a few drop of rain will make it all wet again. 
In our state, the strict air regulations call for the most advanced of modern stoves.
So I guess that also helps alot toward burning low btu wood.

Thanks. I love this site!


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## Wood Doctor (Feb 23, 2011)

I usually mix cedar with mulberry whenever we have our neighborhood's 4th of July parties. That campfire pit makes the lady fingers look like peanuts. Snap, crackle, pop!


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## Cascade Failure (Feb 23, 2011)

I use cedar for two things...

1) Great kindling.

2) Aww crap, I'm out of wood and need more. Time to go cut some long, dead cedar.


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