lesson learned: i will never never burn black walnut again

[blades]

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.

 

[greendohn]

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.

 

[Twisted Priorities]

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.

 

[muddstopper]

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.

 

[Dalmatian90]

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 bitch.

 

[coog]

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.

 

[Marshy]

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.

 

[blades]

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.

 

[Dirtboy]

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.

 

[Hinerman]

FWIW, excellent firewood according to this:

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

 

[Whitespider]

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.
*

 

[coog]

True that.

 

[olyman]

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.

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

 

[blades]

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

 

[Holtby]

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!!!!!

 

[windthrown]

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.

 

[woodchuck357]

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!

 

[Rburg44]

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...!??

 

[blades]

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.

 

[hedge hog]

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.