Best wood to burn?

[Rotax Robert]

Here in the Northwest its Maple, Alder, Douglass Fir and if all else fails we use morning wood

 

[Gypo Logger]

Maple is found in 90% of woodpiles around here, but Red Elm and Ironwood burn the hottest along with Shagbark Hickory.
John

 

[whatsnext]

I've always liked ash first and hard maple second. Ash is great because it makes so little of it and hard maple rules because you can split very large logs with a single swing of an axe. I havn't seen either since I moved to MO. The earlier poster is correct about the heat given off by Hedge. Only problem is that you have to have a closed stove or a totally fireproof house. Never put it in an open fireplace unless you want to sit way back. And it's very tough on chains.
John...

 

[Gypo Logger]

Morningwood???

 

[eric_271]

Your looking pretty good to me in that pic John.

 

[Butch(OH)]

John I like that 20" bar on that big ole Stihl. Got a 20" on our 660 for buck'en fire wood, zings right down through them knotted up parts.

 

[eric_271]

Osage orange around here. It way out burns oak and has excellent coals.

 

[1953greg]

red maple and beech are my favorites because of least ashes. best has to be qualified to justify the answer. oaks & hickories are the hottest but their ashes are the most.

imo

good day 1953greg

 

[joed1694]

Go with the black walnut or cotton wood (just kidding). I have lots of walnut tops on my place after the loggers went threw. I have very good luke with the black walnut.

 

[Gypo Logger]

Sometimes you simply can't have too much saw.
John

 

[TRUSSMAN]

Around these parts I burn lots of white oak, lots of coales and a lot of btu's. We also have a lot of the following red oak, hickory, locust,maple, and poplar; of these the poplar is the worst of coals or btu's, hickory and locust are probably the 2 best. On my place I have plenty of white oak, so I mostly burn white oak.
Jeff

 

[460Ted]

This is some of the oak I burn, it actually split up okay by hand.

 

[Oregon_Rob]

I like a fir/maple mix best. I am not a huge fan of oak, too much ash and hard to split. Black cherry is fairly common and works pretty good. Alder is easy to cut and split, seasons very quickly but pretty weak in the heat output department.

Later

 

[Wood Monger]

Here in South Central PA I sell mostly Chestnut oak, Red Oak and White Oak. I can get some apple some times however it makes a lot of ash and is a bear to split. I sell about 10 to 20 cords per year. I myself prefer to burn oak.
This is my first post. Been reading you guys for a while.
Pete

 

[Locoweed]

460Ted, I'm glad it split by hand. I would not want to lift it up to my splitter

 

[460Ted]

No kiddin'!

Ted

 

[460Ted]

Here in South Central PA I sell mostly Chestnut oak, Red Oak and White Oak. I can get some apple some times however it makes a lot of ash and is a bear to split. I sell about 10 to 20 cords per year. I myself prefer to burn oak.
This is my first post. Been reading you guys for a while.
Pete

Welcome to the board Pete. Looks like you have some nice saws.

Ted

 

[Blowdown1]

SMokechase is on the mark about creosote and pine; you can burn dry pine hot and get little creosote buildup. A Canadian university did a study not too long ago where they determined that moisture content of the wood was the biggest factor in creosote buildup. Dry pine actually produces less than an otherwise ideal hardwood that is wet. Of course pine often takes forever to dry, so in a sense the argument is true. But, the creosote results primarily from the moisture condensing on the flue and precipitating the gunk that ends up becoming creosote, regardless of what you are burning.

The real problem w/ low density woods is poor BTUs. But a piece of nice dry pine works great to get things off to a nice hot, fast start. As for what is best, the heavier the wood (dry seasoned) the better. It is denser and has more BTUs. In fact, all wood has virtually the same BTUs per pound.

 

[Patrick62]

You guys talkin' about the hardwoods are making me sick. Here in Colo I have two choices. Varieties of pine, aspen (if I can find some) or cottonwood.

Cottonwood has low heat, does not last, and makes a HUGE pile of ashes.
Aspen has fair heat, lasts a little longer, but burns clean.
Pine has creosote (not a problem), burns slower, best heat of local wood.

If stove is hot enough then creosote isn't a problem. I used to burn RR ties in a stove with a special flue pipe. Once a week I would stuff paper in there until I ignited the pipe. It looked like a roman candle for about 10 minutes.

 

[pinus]

The most common firewood here is alder. No pitch, easy to split, small diameter, easy to fell and only few small limbs to cut, fast to dry, sufficient BTU.
Another trees are next.
Aspen, takes long time to dry, very heavy and full of water when cutted, but very good cleanly burning wood when dry. Easy to split, grows up to diameters around 30", but prone to trunk roting (hollow trunks).
Birch, heavier-denser wood. Gives lot of heat, bark produces some pitch. Not very easy to split. Needs good seasoning. Was very common and rated firewood earlier times. Now is going mostly into wood industry.
Oak, rare here.
Maple, rare here
Linden, rare here
Willow, low BTU, long to season, poor firewood
Pine, mostly goes to logs. Only dead ones are going to firewood. Not bad firewood. Burns violently. Soaked with turpentine ones are burning like petroleum and can crack your fireplace.
Spruce, mostly goes to logs too. Dead ones are for firewood, but low BTU, lot of limbs, heavy to split.