Birch for firewood

[chainbrake]

Yellow Birch has good heat, like ash and some species of maple.
White birch burns smooth and is easy to split. It has lower heat value - like poplar.
I don't even bother with grey birch as they don't get big where I live. On my woodlots, I cut most of them down when I see them to allow more valuable species of trees to grow; sometimes, I decide to leave a few grey birch as bird and wildlife habitat on freshly cleared land. They are fast and low-growing so sometimes they are good for providing some cover for newer trees that don't like full on sun.

As mentioned by a couple of people before, SCORE THE LOGS - as soon as they are down, if possible. I usually do it when I am finished limbing the tree. I run up one side and down the other with my bar on 10" plus diameter. Less than 10", I may just score once.

All birch holds moisture. White birch is what they use to make birch bark canoes. It is smooth and water tight. Always season birch for one year or more. The smoke from birch bark is harsher than other trees. It makes good fire starter, but best to watch back-drafting into your house - especially for people with breathing issues. Yellow birch burns sweet. Its sap is sometimes used to make syrup. I like birch syrup.

 

[vin]

I mainly used maple to heat my home for the last 15 years. The road near my log home was redone, and they cut down 45 huge birch trees that grew along the highway on my property. I loaded them with the help of my neighbor with a tractor into a massive pile over some felled skinny long birch trees to get them off the ground. How long do you think they'll last before rotting? I can only cut and split a few at a time. The bays are filling fast and I won't be able to stack all of the split wood under the roof. Are they good for firewood? Do they produce a lot of creosote from the bark? They average from 16 inches down to ten in diameter. A few are 20 inches. They were big beautiful trees, great for privacy. My wife called them the ladies in white. Now the ladies are going to keep me warm in the winter or next, hopefully. They don't seem to be drying as quickly as the maple did.

In my experience you should split it asap or it will rot from the inside out . Once split its best to keep it under cover. Once dried it burns really nice and hot but not as long as oaks and maple . Strip some of the bark off. It makes great fire starter/kindling

 

[president]

White and yellow birch are good. We had a lot of gray birch in Maine and it could easily rot before it dried. As said above, it's best to break the bark on any birch. If I couldn't work up a birch log right away, I would use the tip of my saw to score the bark from one end of a log to the other. That was easy to do and seemed to help a lot.

T1 on scoring log , makes splitting a breeze

 

[LondonNeil]

I've had a good amount of silver birch. As above it must be split or will rot but once CSS it dries quickly. I found it very very easy to split and burnt very nicely, good bright flame and plenty hot, although like spider said, not the longest lasting

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I like White Birch, use it for kindling and quarter splits and regular size splits, burns a bit fast but ignites easily and burns hot but a bit quick, but it has a really nice aroma to it. And the bark is just so cool looking, always reminds me of the Holidays and Winter.

 

[Cricket]

People can be funny like that. Had a neighbor down the street that put a sign - For sale $1200 on a VW bus. I walked me dogs by it every day for almost a month. Then one day I walked by it and the sign said $1600. It was sold within the week.

Works that way with horses, too.

 

[revdocjim]

I burned a lot of birch my first year just because it was what I had. Not very good for all-night-long burns but works OK during the day. But now I stick with oak and beech since we have it in abundance. Several of the birch logs I worked on were twisted and made hand-splitting incredibly difficult. Now I tend to give it away when I get any of it.

 

[sgbotsford]

Birch MUST be cut and split. The bark is waterproof. (Think birchbark canoe) and the tree will rot. I split birch to the point no point is more than 2 inches from the surface. Split a 4"-8 in half, 12" in quarters. if you store well ventilated under cover with good air flow in a dry climate you *may* get away with having 12" long rounds. But with the bark on the outside they take years to dry, where split birch is burnable in 2 summers.

 

[Marine5068]

I mainly used maple to heat my home for the last 15 years. The road near my log home was redone, and they cut down 45 huge birch trees that grew along the highway on my property. I loaded them with the help of my neighbor with a tractor into a massive pile over some felled skinny long birch trees to get them off the ground. How long do you think they'll last before rotting? I can only cut and split a few at a time. The bays are filling fast and I won't be able to stack all of the split wood under the roof. Are they good for firewood? Do they produce a lot of creosote from the bark? They average from 16 inches down to ten in diameter. A few are 20 inches. They were big beautiful trees, great for privacy. My wife called them the ladies in white. Now the ladies are going to keep me warm in the winter or next, hopefully. They don't seem to be drying as quickly as the maple did.

Are they white, black, or yellow Birch?
You should get them cut, split and under cover fast.
You can put a cover over stacks on pallets too.

 

[panolo]

I'll take all the paper birch I can get. Splits easy and dries fast. Burns like ash or elm. A good mid grade hard wood.

 

[Jere39]

As the large Red Oak on my hill top die off (age, oak wilt, . . . ) and I harvest them, birch and beech seem to spring up to repopulate. I had a pretty large grey birch fall across one of my key cart paths, so I had to move it. Worked it up and offered it to friends for fire pit fires. Ended up with some for my own pit. Yesterday on the first day of firewood harvest for next year I built a fire in my pit for a little warmth and to cook some hotdogs for lunch. My grand daughter came into the woods for an assist on the lunch. She demonstrated some skepticism on the birch so I let her put the MM to it:



In the end, the birch passed the hotdog cooking test.

 

[handyman]

Silver Birch is the No. 1 peoples choice here in Norway. Often it's the only thing you can buy from the commercial boys.
It lights easy and burns well, although a tad faster than my favourite Ash. My only complaint is that it does waft light ash into the room when opening the fire door (when compared to Ash at least).

I'd hung my nose over Birch for years (when cutting Ash) since it's what everyone else was buying, but I'll be looking to cut Ash again this year...

 

[chainbrake]

Silver Birch is the No. 1 peoples choice here in Norway. Often it's the only thing you can buy from the commercial boys.
I'd hung my nose over Birch for years (when cutting Ash) since it's what everyone else was buying, but I'll be looking to cut Ash again this year...

What you call silver birch we call white birch (here in Nova Scotia, Canada).

Many people in my area like burning white/silver birch and poplar at temps in the 5 to -10 range. When colder than -10, the denser hardwoods (like ash, maple, oak and yellow birch) are preferred. Our forests have many species of hardwoods and softwoods. People that gather their own firewood end up burning everything: softwoods for spring and fall; and then, the colder the weather, the denser the wood. I keep my species separated (more or less) to make it easy to choose depending upon the long range weather forecast. I have just started burning some of the maple, yellow birch and ash that I have put away for Jan - Feb. The commercial boys mainly sell the denser hardwoods.

From what I have seen in pictures/videos of the forests in Norway, silver birch is very common. It's my understanding that silver birch is encouraged to grow as the complementary hardwood by people managing softwood lumber operations. ... or have I oversimplified your management practices?

 

[Marcus James]

Silver Birch is the No. 1 peoples choice here in Norway. Often it's the only thing you can buy from the commercial boys.
It lights easy and burns well, although a tad faster than my favourite Ash. My only complaint is that it does waft light ash into the room when opening the fire door (when compared to Ash at least).

I'd hung my nose over Birch for years (when cutting Ash) since it's what everyone else was buying, but I'll be looking to cut Ash again this year...

Thanks Handyman for a taste of Norway. Friends who've visited your country come back with wonderful stories of the people and land. Both my great grandparents came over here to the U.P. from Finland. I would imagine the Upper Peninsula of the United States has similar weather to Norway. We live near Lake Superior half way up the peninsula. My wife and son ski 500 to 800 kilometers each year. The trails are amazing. I prefer silver birch to white birch because it seems more dense. Not sure about that. The trees I have split from the road crew who felled them along my property are all white. They are cut and split but seem to take longer to season than maple, which is what I normally burn. Have a nice winter.

 

[handyman]

From what I have seen in pictures/videos of the forests in Norway, silver birch is very common. It's my understanding that silver birch is encouraged to grow as the complementary hardwood by people managing softwood lumber operations. ... or have I oversimplified your management practices?

I think you are about right. Most of the forests are softwoods for construction, use and I don't remember seeing commercial hardwoods anywhere near me.

I think the demand for Birch stems as much from folk-law as anything else. There are so many sayings centred around the birch tree, it's used as a barometer for gardeners and outdoorsy folks alike. I'm lucky that Ash grows wild like weeds here, and since Birch is everyone's favourite (native Norwegians at least), I can usually get as much Ash as I can carry

 

[pwiseman]

Thanks for all the great replies. I love this forum. Just got a 620 Echo last year with a 27in bar for the birch and love it. I almost got a Stihl, but the Echo warranty couldn't be beat.

Birch is good firewood. Burns a bit fast but clean and the smell is pleasant. Must be some giant birch trees if you are using a 27" bar

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I have been burning some White Birch lately and I noticed that the glass got a lot more than usual black stains on it, did some research and saw that it is actually caused by the bark burning off something inside it. It said it won't be an issue in the pipe as long as the wood is dry and it is, but I found that interesting that the bark could cause more deposits on the glass like that.

 

[revdup]

Birch has little rot resistance. Get the stacks off the ground and covered on top and you'll be O.K.

No, you won't be OK. I grew up cutting and burning mostly birch when I was a kid. It splits relatively easy, it is a wonderful firewood, and the bark produces a wonderful incense when burning that you will recognize the rest of your life. But, the bark is totally waterproof, unsplit birch is unable to dry and will start to rot in a couple years, or less, even if covered and off the ground. It would be worthwhile to rent a spitter and-or get help. Always cover your spit wood if stored outside and still keep it off the ground. Even if cut to length, but unsplit, you will end up with a tight grain wood that can't dry enough from just the cut ends. Never burn wet wood. Wet wood is the source of the creosote that causes chimney fires. On the smaller, skinny pieces you can run the nose of the chainsaw up them while they are still long and on the ground. That will be good enough to help them dry but anything over 3" diameter should be split. The bark will make a very sooty smoke so open the firebox door very slow, so the draft starts moving up the chimney. I live on the pointy end of Lake Superior (Duluth MN). If you live close enough, I'll load up the chainsaws, hitch on the splitter and help you. Pay is up to you. Duane

 

[Modark]

From what I have seen in pictures/videos of the forests in Norway, silver birch is very common. It's my understanding that silver birch is encouraged to grow as the complementary hardwood by people managing softwood lumber operations. ... or have I oversimplified your management practices?

I work in forestry next to Norway and the practises are the same for the most part between Norway, Finland and Estonia. Pine and spruse is grown for lumber and pulpwood. Birch being the dominant deciduous tree around these parts it is grown for plywood. Locally birch plywood is used for construction but it is also exported as cabinetry grade plywood. Birch is also used for pulpwood and firewood.
Birch is usually not grown as a complementary and more as a afterthought when it comes to softwood forest stands. But it is planted more as a standalone forest because of the different growth rates and soil conditions necessary for optimal yield.

 

[chainbrake]

Birch is usually not grown as a complementary and more as a afterthought when it comes to softwood forest stands. But it is planted more as a standalone forest because of the different growth rates and soil conditions necessary for optimal yield.

Thank you for helping me understand, Modark. Your part of the world must have more areas that contain deeper/older soils.

Even as far away as Eastern Canada is from Russia and China, we get a great deal of birch plywood for interior use that is shipped here from those countries: it is so very cheap! In Canada, we have high amounts of softwood that is sought after by the North American construction industry (framing lumber and structural plywood). The Cdn pulp and paper industry has developed around using the "junk" softwood trees: they are a by-product of other logging operations. We also have many aspen (a type of poplar) trees that get used for (oriented strand board) plywood-like structural sheet goods.

Specifically, here in the "Acadian" forests, many of our soils are not very deep above the bedrock, so many of our trees mature at 50-90 years of age, die and decompose.
The simplified version of our forests: The hardwoods are good at finding minerals and other nutrients down in the crevices. They bring those nutrients up to the surface. When they die, through the actions of microbes and fungi, they feed the more acidic softwoods that have shallow roots and in return provide nourishment for the hardwoods... and the cycle continues... Most of our hardwoods are good for little other than feeding the softwoods, providing habitats for wildlife and firewood for humans. That said, there are areas where there are really good stands of birch, ash, oak and maple that make high quality furniture and interior finish materials. I use them in building floors, cabinets and other interior wood surfaces. Construction is my primary source of income, but I dip into logging and firewood production now and then.

The following is from:

Restoring the Acadian Forest:
A Guide to Forest Stewardship for
Woodlot Owners in the Maritimes

"Of particular importance to woodlot management is
that deep-rooted hardwoods act as ‘nutrient pumps’
as they bring nutrients back to the surface (as leaf
fall) that have been transported downward by the
flow of water through the soil. Softwood trees, on
the other hand, tend to have shallower root systems
and more acidic foliage than hardwood trees, which
can eventually lead to reduced soil productivity
and more acidic soil. Hardwoods therefore are an
important component of the nutrient cycle, especially
in stands that are predominately softwood."
https://www.bondrup.com/uploads/6/7/6/5/6765532/1-30.pdf