# lesson learned: i will never never burn black walnut again



## mga (Feb 27, 2014)

i don't care how free it is, or even if some one drops it off and stacks it for me, i will not burn it ever. what a waste of wood. pine or poplar is better wood to burn. at least you get some heat from them. i can throw 7 logs in the fire and get the same heat that i would from 3 logs of ash or maple...if i'm lucky.

i had tons of it to burn this year and i'm sorry i ever took the wood. now i know why it was given away.

and ashes? holy ****, that stuff leaves more ashes than any other wood i have ever burned in all my years.

black walnut....only good for furniture or carvings.


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## hanniedog (Feb 27, 2014)

It was free so quit your bitchin.


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## mga (Feb 27, 2014)




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## Raintree (Feb 27, 2014)

Was it mostly sap wood?


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## boxygen (Feb 27, 2014)

Thats funny, I have always heard that black walnut is - highly valuable.


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## UpOnTheHill (Feb 27, 2014)

I love burning black walnut. I've taken down a few and c/s/s and burned and was very happy with the results. It has to be well seasoned. I wonder whats up with the wood you got? Every one I've ever cut is very hard, straight grained and splits like a dream. Weird.


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## coog (Feb 27, 2014)

UpOnTheHill said:


> I love burning black walnut. I've taken down a few and c/s/s and burned and was very happy with the results. It has to be well seasoned. I wonder whats up with the wood you got? Every one I've ever cut is very hard, straight grained and splits like a dream. Weird.


I completely agree. Lovely stuff.


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## philoshop (Feb 27, 2014)

I like it too. But as stated earlier, it needs to be very dry.


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## sunfish (Feb 27, 2014)

It's not the best firewood, but it's not that bad!


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## Chris-PA (Feb 27, 2014)

Yeah, medium wood but burns hot and lights easy. And I love the way it smells when it burns! Last year was the first time I had much of it, but I don't have much this year and I miss it.


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## Goostoff (Feb 27, 2014)

Walnut sucks!!! I tried it once a long time ago. I cut one down in my yard one year that thought I may as well get some heat out of it. I got nothing but smoke and ashes out of it. I swore I would never cut another stick of it again.


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## blades (Feb 28, 2014)

Well I see two posters that forgot the first rule of wood burning- properly dried wood. No excuses period.


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## Streblerm (Feb 28, 2014)

I'm burning some right now that I cut over the summer. It isn't as dry as I would like but it seems to burn just fine. Three 4-6" rounds lit off the secondaries pretty quickly and reached 600 degrees on the top after about 60 minutes. I'm mixing A little in with my last cord of well seasoned wood. I imagine it will burn quite nicely next winter 

The only kind of wood that I have trouble getting heat from is wet wood.


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## mga (Feb 28, 2014)

it's been dried for two years.

like i said..never again.


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## farmer steve (Feb 28, 2014)




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## Whitespider (Feb 28, 2014)

Black Walnut is lousy firewood... it requires a lot more air to keep it from smoldering, makes near as much smoke as old tires, relatively short burn cycle, moderate heat at best, and leaves a mountain of ash behind. Its burn qualities can be improved slightly by stripping off any bark, splitting it relatively small, and making sure it's well seasoned... but as I said, improved only slightly. Seems I have to re-learn that lesson every 5 years or so... or maybe, I just "hope" it will be better "this time"... it never is.

Is it better than burning snowballs??
Yeah, I guess it is... but what does that say?? Burning used toilet paper is better than burning snowball.
*


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## Goostoff (Feb 28, 2014)

The one I cut down in my yard was drug out into the pasture that surrounds my yard so the cattle could eat the leaves off it. It was left there to rot and become cow back scratcher. After a couple years the bark was falling off and I was running a little short on wood that yaer so I decided to cut it up and get some heat out of it. Was it propperly cut split and stacked for seasoning for 10 years? No it wasnt, but I can go out and cut down a live elm tree and get move heat and less smoke and ash out of it, and we all know how much water an elm can hold.


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## BillNole (Feb 28, 2014)

Me thinks a few may have missed the hidden sarcasm font... 

Or maybe I'm mistaken...


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## farmer steve (Feb 28, 2014)

BillNole said:


> Me thinks a few may have missed the hidden sarcasm font...
> 
> Or maybe I'm mistaken...


 no mistake.


Goostoff said:


> The one I cut down in my yard was drug out into the pasture that surrounds my yard so the cattle could eat the leaves off it. It was left there to rot and become cow back scratcher. After a couple years the bark was falling off and I was running a little short on wood that yaer so I decided to cut it up and get some heat out of it. Was it propperly cut split and stacked for seasoning for 10 years? No it wasnt, but I can go out and cut down a live elm tree and get move heat and less smoke and ash out of it, and we all know how much water an elm can hold.


i have some walnut trees in my sheep pasture.any time there is a storm i have to check for donwned limbs.the wilted leaves are poisnious. to sheep. ashes? ya burn wood and ya get ashes.never had a problem burning DRY walnut.


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## autoimage (Feb 28, 2014)

mga said:


> i don't care how free it is, or even if some one drops it off and stacks it for me, i will not burn it ever. what a waste of wood. pine or poplar is better wood to burn. at least you get some heat from them. i can throw 7 logs in the fire and get the same heat that i would from 3 logs of ash or maple...if i'm lucky.
> 
> i had tons of it to burn this year and i'm sorry i ever took the wood. now i know why it was given away.
> 
> ...


i can understand ur hatred for a species, mine happens to be poplar, I cringe when I see that green yellow color. I wont even use it for firepit because I cant even finish a beer berfore it burns up,unless im doing ripcords. walnut is just ok I mix it in or sell it on the roadside.


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## blades (Feb 28, 2014)

That in itself doesn't mean it is dry. Heck I have 3 year old hickory that in the 6" and larger splits is still at 28% in the middle on a fresh split face. same for some Rock maple and Oak all from the same location.


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## greendohn (Feb 28, 2014)

I've burned a lot of walnut over the years and will always throw it my truck. 
I've gotta' grove of 'em standing dead, mostly standing, that is nothing but the chocolate brown wood and it "rings" when ya' bang it together..GOOD STUFF..
Ash?? Ash you say?? sure, right after a big pile of square chunked embers have been throwing the btu's..the ash is a fine powder and with no un-burnt embers going to the ash bucket.
Let it season and try it again.


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## Twisted Priorities (Feb 28, 2014)

Walnut has to be split and dried at least 3 years to burn properly. I always put a mix of Ash, Walnut, Hickory, Oak and hard Maple in the wood stoves, it makes for a better burn.


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## muddstopper (Feb 28, 2014)

I think yall take this stuff to seriously. If its wood, and aint soaking wet, or really doatty, it goes in my stove. Period. I burn what i can get and beggars aint choosey. If i can cut it, split it, stack it, I can darn sure burn it.


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## Dalmatian90 (Feb 28, 2014)

Quit yer bitchin' or someone will come by and swap your Walnut with Box Elder in the middle of the night and give yer a reason to *****.


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## coog (Feb 28, 2014)

I'm cutting up Walnut tops right now. I could be cutting higher btu species, but I want it for a fireplace I plan on building this Summer. I mix it with Hedge on cold days and Elm on cool days. Takes all of a year to dry in hot, sunny and windy Kansas.


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## Marshy (Feb 28, 2014)

Black Walnut is middle of the road so to speak with heat content, 20.0 MBTU/Cord. Not the best but certainly not the worst. I wonder why you have such a bad experience..? Did you measure the moisure content by chance? Maybe it didnt dry as much as you thought...? If its as bad as you claim, then Im going to be quite dissapointed with the free Red Eml that I cut last year @ 19.0 MBUT/Cord... I'll trade ya the Elm for the Walnut.


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## blades (Feb 28, 2014)

That ought to open up a whole direction for this thread ( swap elm for Black Walnut) Now when ya get through traden the Elm for BW, I know ya ain't gona like the scent when it burnin so I will trade ya the elm for Silver maple.


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## Dirtboy (Feb 28, 2014)

I cut down a BW that was dropping branches during windstorms, too close to the house. Chunked it, split it and stacked it for 6 months. Burned terribly-smoldered mostly. Let it dry for another full year and it was fine burning wood. Would definitely take it again-but let it season in stacks for 2 years.


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## Hinerman (Feb 28, 2014)

FWIW, excellent firewood according to this:

http://www.demesne.info/Garden-Help/Trees-Shrubs/Firewood-hard.htm


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## Whitespider (Feb 28, 2014)

Hinerman said:


> *FWIW, excellent firewood according to this:*



Funny thing about those BTU charts... that one lists Red Elm as only "good", and with less BTU value than walnut...
I'm bettin' 49 out'a 50 guys that have burned 'em both will say that's flat ridiculous.
I see that a lot with Red Elm... it makes me wonder if they actually know what Red (Slippery) Elm is.
*


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## coog (Feb 28, 2014)

True that.


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## olyman (Feb 28, 2014)

mga said:


> i don't care how free it is, or even if some one drops it off and stacks it for me, i will not burn it ever. what a waste of wood. pine or poplar is better wood to burn. at least you get some heat from them. i can throw 7 logs in the fire and get the same heat that i would from 3 logs of ash or maple...if i'm lucky.
> 
> i had tons of it to burn this year and i'm sorry i ever took the wood. now i know why it was given away.
> 
> ...


you almost take out more ash volumne,,then you had splits volumne!!!!!!!!!!


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## blades (Feb 28, 2014)

Oh well, it's all btu's. Keeps the LP, NG, CNG, Oil or Electric wallet suckers at bay.


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## Holtby (Feb 28, 2014)

UpOnTheHill said:


> I love burning black walnut. I've taken down a few and c/s/s and burned and was very happy with the results. It has to be well seasoned. I wonder whats up with the wood you got? Every one I've ever cut is very hard, straight grained and splits like a dream. Weird.


I'm with you 100%, I just cut down one that's been dead for several yrs. All the outer sap(white ring) is pretty much gone and it splits like a dream and burns good right there with black cherry, most of the denser(not doddy?) elms, hackberry, etc. I'm grateful for it!!!!!


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## windthrown (Feb 28, 2014)

farmer steve said:


> no mistake.
> 
> i have some walnut trees in my sheep pasture.any time there is a storm i have to check for donwned limbs.the wilted leaves are poisnious. to sheep. ashes? ya burn wood and ya get ashes.never had a problem burning DRY walnut.


 
I had walnuts growing in the sheep pastures at the ex's place, and we heard that the leaves were poisonous to them, but the sheep ate the leaves and never had any problems with them (wet or dry). Nor did the goats. We had Icelandic, Soay and Shetland cross sheep. I have never been able to find a reliable source that said that walnut leaves were poisonous to sheep. They used to eat the cambium off the walnut trees as well, and I had to wrap them in woven fence wire.

I have cut and burned a lot of black and white walnut. Good wood. Never had bad issues. For me sycamore has the most ashes of any wood I have burned, and it is on my no collect list. Walnut is not the hottest of woods, especially for its weight. However, I would fetch, cut and burn it. I will take all y'all have out there. 'Specially if its free.

My no collect list of wood species: Tree of Heaven Hell, Black Cottonwood, Willow (any type), Sycamore, Ginko (bark is poisonous), White Pine, and I may be allergic to Black Locust.


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## woodchuck357 (Feb 28, 2014)

boxygen said:


> Thats funny, I have always heard that black walnut is - highly valuable.


I wouldn't say it is a highly valuable tree, but the last five I cut for logs made the land owner over a thousand per tree. I'm not saying how much I made off the deal but he got less than 50 percent. The tops WILL be cut into firewood!


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## Rburg44 (Feb 28, 2014)

Burned two different walnut trees this year both cut an split within a week of one another had two very differnt results between them one didnt burn for crap didnt give off hardly any heat junk imo now thee other was great almost as good as oak, the one which didnt burn for crap was about 12-14" at base and the good burning one was bout 18-20" at base so that was the biggest difference now as for ashes yup still get a ton of ashes for both guess thats just walnut for ya! So imo its the luck of the draw 50-50 shot at getting a good burning one...!??


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## blades (Mar 1, 2014)

Ginko related to poison ivy and such same oil in it just not as nasty, dang leaves are like rubber in the fall, fruit looks like very small apricots stinks when it starts to rot. Royal pain to clean up off lawn. 
Walnut, not worth anything more than any other tree until it is processed into boards and dried. Market price goes up and down like anything else, Always get a kick out of various adds for removal of those that people think are worth so much. Same work as any other type, Although like the Ginko sawdust is a bit irritating to some but not in the same family oil wise. ( I know the names of the oils just can"t get the spelling right ). I have a friend that does Taxidermy work so I save sections of wood that look promising for his mounts.


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## hedge hog (Mar 1, 2014)

from what I little I know of walnut is that you cut it down towards the end of winter when you think the saps the lowest
and split it as soon as you can let dry all summer and it's good to go come next winter.
cut any other time it's a craps shoot on how long it takes to get the sap out or dried to burn good.
I ran out of oak one year that I been selling to a couple and offered walnut to them .(non popping wood)
ever since then they buy and burn walnut and use oak for back up. they just love the smell !
but I know more people to have bad experiences with it than not.
a friend down the road told me not waste my time with that crap because he still has 4 rick of it that 6 years old split
and stacked and still don't burn for crap.
so I asked him were did you get it, he said you remember that big wind storm we had in July 8 years ago?
I said really,,, do you think the sap was up?
he does burn walnut now but a little gun shy about getting a lot of time into a bunch of it stock piled.


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## Sawyer Rob (Mar 1, 2014)

blades said:


> Walnut, not worth anything more than any other tree until it is processed into boards and dried. Market price goes up and down like anything else,



I guess you haven't sold many logs before? Of equal quality, walnut tree's/logs bring quite a bit more money every time, compared to many other species..

I'd much rather see my walnut go to lumber,












Than burning it up!

SR


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## Dogsout (Mar 1, 2014)

Whitespider said:


> Black Walnut is lousy firewood.



Hey Spidey I am not that far away from you so feel free to send all that lousy black walnut my way. My OWB just loves it and it seems to throw enough heat on the moderate days to keep my big old house warm. Will concede the ash reference though but not a deal breaker for me IMO.


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## BillNole (Mar 1, 2014)

Sawyer Rob said:


> I guess you haven't sold many logs before? Of equal quality, walnut tree's/logs bring quite a bit more money every time, compared to many other species..
> 
> I'd much rather see my walnut go to lumber,
> 
> ...



Those sure are some beautiful boards Rob!


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## blades (Mar 1, 2014)

I do not have a mill so to me it is just another tree, certanily not something I am going to reach in my pocket for on speculation because so & so told xyz owner it is valuable.


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## pennsywoodburnr (Mar 1, 2014)

windthrown said:


> I had walnuts growing in the sheep pastures at the ex's place, and we heard that the leaves were poisonous to them, but the sheep ate the leaves and never had any problems with them (wet or dry). Nor did the goats. We had Icelandic, Soay and Shetland cross sheep. I have never been able to find a reliable source that said that walnut leaves were poisonous to sheep. They used to eat the cambium off the walnut trees as well, and I had to wrap them in woven fence wire.
> 
> I have cut and burned a lot of black and white walnut. Good wood. Never had bad issues. For me sycamore has the most ashes of any wood I have burned, and it is on my no collect list. Walnut is not the hottest of woods, especially for its weight. However, I would fetch, cut and burn it. I will take all y'all have out there. 'Specially if its free.
> 
> My no collect list of wood species: Tree of Heaven Hell, Black Cottonwood, Willow (any type), Sycamore, Ginko (bark is poisonous),* White Pine, and I may be allergic to Black Locust*.


 
The only problem I ever had with white pine is that it burns fast, but I try offsetting that by making my splits extra chunky so I get a little more burn time out of it. Being that your out of the PNW and all you guys have out there are pretty much evergreens I thought you would be all over that . I'm allergic to black locust too, up until the point I remove all the poison ivy vines growing on the thing . I swear, I don't know what it is with that species of tree, but I've never seen the trunk on one of them not covered in some sort of vine.


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## Sawyer Rob (Mar 1, 2014)

BillNole said:


> Those sure are some beautiful boards Rob!




And it was another one robbed right off the firewood pile!!

SR


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## windthrown (Mar 1, 2014)

pennsywoodburnr said:


> The only problem I ever had with white pine is that it burns fast, but I try offsetting that by making my splits extra chunky so I get a little more burn time out of it. Being that your out of the PNW and all you guys have out there are pretty much evergreens I thought you would be all over that . I'm allergic to black locust too, up until the point I remove all the poison ivy vines growing on the thing . I swear, I don't know what it is with that species of tree, but I've never seen the trunk on one of them not covered in some sort of vine.


 
Yes, the typical 'the PNW is all evergreen' myth. We have plenty of hardwoods here, including white and black oaks, Madrone (which I will put up against any eastern hardwood species), eucs and live oaks to the south, Bay, golden chinkapin, birch, alder, black locust (invasive here), vine and big leaf maples, and lots of fruit and nut trees, as well as eastern tree species in the burbs. I list white pine because both eastern and western white pines have really low BTU value and they burn fast. Its like burning pith. Not worth the effort to collect and process for me. I burn a lot of lodgepole and shore pine, as I have them growing on my property. I much prefer larch and Douglas fir, which have good heat value (better than many hardwoods). If I burn black locust, my sinuses clog up. Its the smoke. Ginko has urushiol in it, the same toxin as poison oak/ivy. Breathing the smoke you can get it in your lungs. No thanks.

I should have added birch to my do not collect list. I have it growing here as well, but unless you split that stuff fast, it just rots. The bark is virtually waterproof. I would also add grand fir to the no collect list as it is full of sap and has fairly low heat value. Grand fir fetches a good price at the sash mills though, no point in burning that stuff. There is a stand of black locust near my house here. No vines growing in it. It is all that is left of a town that was here 100 years ago, but is long gone now. They were typically planted for fence post material by the PNW pioneers.


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## windthrown (Mar 1, 2014)

Sawyer Rob said:


> I'd much rather see my walnut go to lumber,


 
Those are pretty boards. Nice mill job there.


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## pennsywoodburnr (Mar 1, 2014)

windthrown said:


> *Yes, the typical 'the PNW is all evergreen' myth*. We have plenty of hardwoods here, including white and black oaks, Madrone (which I will put up against any eastern hardwood species), eucs and live oaks to the south, Bay, golden chinkapin, birch, alder, black locust (invasive here), vine and big leaf maples, and lots of fruit and nut trees, as well as eastern tree species in the burbs. I list white pine because both eastern and western white pines have really low BTU value and they burn fast. Its like burning pith. Not worth the effort to collect and process for me. I burn a lot of lodgepole and shore pine, as I have them growing on my property. I much prefer larch and Douglas fir, which have good heat value (better than many hardwoods). If I burn black locust, my sinuses clog up. Its the smoke. Ginko has urushiol in it, the same toxin as poison oak/ivy. Breathing the smoke you can get it in your lungs. No thanks.
> 
> I should have added birch to my do not collect list. I have it growing here as well, but unless you split that stuff fast, it just rots. The bark is virtually waterproof. I would also add grand fir to the no collect list as it is full of sap and has fairly low heat value. Grand fir fetches a good price at the sash mills though, no point in burning that stuff. There is a stand of black locust near my house here. No vines growing in it. It is all that is left of a town that was here 100 years ago, but is long gone now. They were typically planted for fence post material by the PNW pioneers.


 
Relax my man, I was busting your chops. Did you miss my sarcasm wink?  I know you guys got a ton of different species out there. The main hardwoods out by me are the oaks (white, chestnut, red and some scarlet here and there) got a ton of hickory that I've seen driving plus a lot of black locust with a smattering of honey around too. We still have a decent amount of white ash out here too considering we got EAB. Maples are all over the place too. Plus we got a ton of your dreaded white birch. My wife used to call them rubber band trees before she knew what they were. We used to have one on our property that was about 35 feet tall that could literally touch the ground from freezing rain weighing it down. That one had to go. Ill use it for firewood, but only if I get to it on time. Not splitting it is asking for trouble. One time me and a buddy cut down a big white birch that was standing dead next to his friends house. Once we dropped it and started piecing it up, every round we cut through was punky. The stuff that I do manage to catch in time flares up like crazy one the bark catches fire. It's like there was oil embedded in it or something.


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## windthrown (Mar 1, 2014)

Not getting excited, its just noobs read these threads and think its true that we only grow soft conifers. Hard and soft conifers are the money trees here, for sure. The rest are pretty much considered trash trees (even madrone).

Yah, my white/paper birches typically break a lot of branches under any snow loading. We had an ice storm here about a week ago and there were birch branches all over the property to clean up. I felled a few of them 2 years ago that the previous owner planted next to the house (only a foot away!) and I left some smaller unsplit rounds. Mistake, as they just grew fungus and turned to pith. They make better mushroom media.


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## pennsywoodburnr (Mar 1, 2014)

windthrown said:


> Not getting excited, its just noobs read these threads and think its true that we only grow soft conifers. Hard and soft conifers are the money trees here, for sure. The rest are pretty much considered trash trees (even madrone).
> 
> Yah, my white/paper birches typically break a lot of branches under any snow loading. We had an ice storm here about a week ago and there were birch branches all over the property to clean up. I felled a few of them 2 years ago that the previous owner planted next to the house (only a foot away!) and I left some smaller unsplit rounds. Mistake, as they just grew fungus and turned to pith. They make better mushroom media.


 
I'm glad I don't have anymore on my property. I know they're a pioneering tree and all, but they're just a pain in the ass to deal with. Everything I've got now is either oak, maple, white pine, white ash, and one lone American beech sitting there with no others around it. I got no idea where it came from. Maybe seeds were washed down as I'm on the side of a mountain?


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## woodchuck357 (Mar 8, 2014)

I burned just walnut, cut and split last spring, all this week. At first sight, when the stove door is opened, there appears to be a lot of ash. But, when touched with the poker, it collapses into almost nothing. Actually there is less ash both by weight and volume from the walnut than most woods. There have been times when I reloaded the stove and had no coals but some of the finer walnut splits made excellent kindling!


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