Birch firewood

[ChoppyChoppy]

You can be correct, I'm not going to argue. But you still won't sell birch around here because it burns almost as fast as you can load it.

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Where is "around here"? You mention you have japanese maple and green maple (which I think is green japanese maple?). Neither of them are native to the US.

 

[bigblue12v]

Southern Indiana. I'm not very educated on trees so I'm rattling off what I've always heard everyone else say. But I can identify silver maple and what they call Japanese maple which has dark red leaves and drips black spots of sap in summer. We had one of those next to the driveway's parking area at house I grew up in, not a good place to park. That tree got cut down eventually when my parents actually got nicer vehicles. Never bothered dad when he drove a beater to work lol

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[ChoppyChoppy]

I'm not sure what would make birch in Indianna like paper. I've never been in that area of the US.

I grew up in Maine and I had always been told that birch was junk for firewood. Seems like that the info is spread elsewhere, as it's the topic of this thread. I'm not sure why.
The BTU values make it a pretty darn good firewood. The heat values are roughly the same as maple and oak.

 

[bigblue12v]

When I get birch it goes in my boiler pile because as I said you can't sell it here. I haven't burned much of it and always put it in with poplar or something so it's hard to say exactly how well it burns by itself. Paper was an exaggeration but if you ask any of my customers they'd tell you it's garbage. This coming from people that occasionally burn poplar if that's all they can get. Myself I won't sell the wood they don't want even if they can't tell the difference. If I don't know it's for sure good wood someone would buy, it goes in my boiler pile. I don't split and sell a lot of extra wood but my few customers are often people I know and have complained that others have sold them crap wood and expressed they don't want that. I'm not out to take advantage of anyone or earn a bad reputation. I'd rather have 5 good customers that keep coming back than 10 new ones every year never to return. I will probably sell 10 cords this season. Just my extra wood and to help offset my equipment costs.

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[GVS]

You can be correct, I'm not going to argue. But you still won't sell birch around here because it burns almost as fast as you can load it.

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Where are you located?What kind of birch are you burning that burns that fast?I'm in NNY and there are a couple kinds of birch here.White and yellow.White is fairly good and yellow is darn good.Not the best but if all I had was yellow I'd be a happy camper!

 

[Wood Doctor]

Yellow birch is also fabulous hardwood for making furniture. I almost hate to burn it because I know that. It's bending strength and hardness rivals white oak and hickory. It's grain is tight, closed, and gorgeous, about the same as cherry, but yellow birch is stronger and harder than cherry.

 

[bigblue12v]

Around here we just call it river birch. I'll try to find a pic or take one. It splinters fairly easily lengthwise in other words as you are felling it, it can split on you. Pretty light wood. White bark that peels. Type river birch into Google images it'll pull up all you want.

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[GVS]

Birch bark DO burn with a lot of soot (creosote??)

peel a piece and let it burn and you will see.....

dad could have a point about that creosote....:jawdrop:

ps. I'm talking about white birch now.....

It does burn sooty but a hot fire gets rid of it in no time.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

It does burn sooty but a hot fire gets rid of it in no time.

That's a great point. High combustion temperature is the key to low soot emissions.

 

[Patvetzal]

From what I see, river birch has looser bark than white birch. We have both, but mostly white birch. Dad always said we could cut it today and burn it in the fireplace tomorrow.
I prefer to split it and let it dry a bit, then its almost as good as maple, oak,etc

 

[AKKAMAAN]

From what I see, river birch has looser bark than white birch. We have both, but mostly white birch. Dad always said we could cut it today and burn it in the fireplace tomorrow.
I prefer to split it and let it dry a bit, then its almost as good as maple, oak,etc

Yepp, birch really have to be seasoned to be efficient firewood, and then it is pretty good too

 

[Jon E]

Lot of confusing information in this thread. White birch, which I have also heard called paper birch, Betula papyrifera, is a pretty solid fast-growing hardwood species here in the Northeast USA. It tends to be a pioneer species and dies when it becomes heavily shaded. In my experience, when the trees die, they fall within a year and rot to pulp within another year. The bark is waterproof and holds in moisture. I have pulled white birch out of a stack of dry and solid mixed hardwoods that were sitting for about six years, and the birch logs, unsplit, could literally be broken in half or crushed with one's hands. No structural integrity left. However, if properly split and dried, white birch will remain viable for several years and makes an excellent firewood, BTU content roughly that of red maple or black walnut, and slightly better than cherry. I like using white birch as firewood and harvest the trees as soon as I see a fair number of dead branches - it is a good sign they are not long for life. Anything larger than 4" gets split at least in half, the smaller stuff tends to season acceptably while unsplit.

Yellow birch and black birch behave much differently and are better species for firewood. They both have a distinct smell of wintergreen when freshly cut, black more than yellow, and are harder and heavier than white. Yellow birch has a distinct appearance, somewhat of a gold-colored shaggy bark that peels slightly. Black birch, especially when young, can be mistaken for cherry, but is obvious when cut.

I would be perfectly satisfied if I had nothing else to burn for firewood but the various species of birch.

 

[svk]

Lot of confusing information in this thread. White birch, which I have also heard called paper birch, Betula papyrifera, is a pretty solid fast-growing hardwood species here in the Northeast USA. It tends to be a pioneer species and dies when it becomes heavily shaded. In my experience, when the trees die, they fall within a year and rot to pulp within another year. The bark is waterproof and holds in moisture. I have pulled white birch out of a stack of dry and solid mixed hardwoods that were sitting for about six years, and the birch logs, unsplit, could literally be broken in half or crushed with one's hands. No structural integrity left. However, if properly split and dried, white birch will remain viable for several years and makes an excellent firewood, BTU content roughly that of red maple or black walnut, and slightly better than cherry. I like using white birch as firewood and harvest the trees as soon as I see a fair number of dead branches - it is a good sign they are not long for life. Anything larger than 4" gets split at least in half, the smaller stuff tends to season acceptably while unsplit.

Yellow birch and black birch behave much differently and are better species for firewood. They both have a distinct smell of wintergreen when freshly cut, black more than yellow, and are harder and heavier than white. Yellow birch has a distinct appearance, somewhat of a gold-colored shaggy bark that peels slightly. Black birch, especially when young, can be mistaken for cherry, but is obvious when cut.

I would be perfectly satisfied if I had nothing else to burn for firewood but the various species of birch.

Well put.

Yellow birches grow much larger and usually are only scrounged when they have been uprooted in a strong wind storm. White birch succumb to leaf miner, bronze borer, and over shading as well as a relatively short life of 40-50 years.

If you find a white birch with the top half dead the wood is usually punky once you get above the highest live branch. Only exception is borer killed trees and you still need to get them css by the end of the second year after they die.

Yellow birch output is equal to red oak and only a tad more work to split. White splits great when solid, the semi punky pieces are actually harder to split as the punk can act as a shock absorber to your axe.