Maple

[Jimfound]

I would rather burn maple than let it rot in the woods. I haven't been messing with the downed Tulip Poplar and Walnut. Haven't tried burning those two, but understand they aren't worth the hassle.

About walnut...I am burning through almost 2 cords I cut last year. I must say that it doesn't burn that hot, but it has a loong, slow burn...and it coals pretty well. It tends to leave heavier ash, but it is such a joy to split! I remember my wife calling me crazy when I was splitting it, because every time I split a piece, I held it up to my nose for that great smell. Dark chocolate brown in the center which would change to biege within even a few minutes of splitting. If you have a woodstove as supplemental heat (as I do) not a thing wrong with walnut. Of course, try to rip boards before you hack it up into firewood.

I also have poplar which I chop into fine pieces for kindling. You could chop that stuff with a butter knife....has a bitter smell when you burn, but great for getting your woodstove blazing in a hurry.

Every wood has it place.

Thats what she said.

 

[PA Plumber]

I appreciate the post Jimfound. Most of the walnut is 10" DBH and smaller. The odd tree may be 12" DBH. We do have one around 22" DBH that needs to come down. It is shading a field. I am planning to take that one to a mill somewhere.

I can go back in a couple of years and pull some of the Black Walnut from the brush pile. It is piled high and dry and should season that way okay.

Do you get much smoke from seasoned Walnut?

 

[bwalker]

Sugar maple(Acer saccharum) is one of the best firewoods. It seasons twice as fast as oak, has more BTU than red oak, and has almost the same BTU as white oak, Hiskory.
The problem is many types of maple( 12 types in the US) get sold as sugar maple that simply are not. IN my log pile right now I have a few logs that are soft maple, but that look identical to the sugar maple logs they are mixed in with. You can tell as soon as you lift one as the weigh about half what good sugar maple log does.

 

[Jimfound]

I appreciate the post Jimfound. Most of the walnut is 10" DBH and smaller. The odd tree may be 12" DBH. We do have one around 22" DBH that needs to come down. It is shading a field. I am planning to take that one to a mill somewhere.

I can go back in a couple of years and pull some of the Black Walnut from the brush pile. It is piled high and dry and should season that way okay.

Do you get much smoke from seasoned Walnut?

PA - in terms of smoke and creosote - the walnut I am burning does likely put off more than a harder 'hardwood', but nothing I notice in the house in terms of smoke. It burns slowly - and probably less clean than a well seaoned oak or locust, hickory, etc.....

I have some elm that was cut down free-standing and barkless, and that stuff puts off not hardly a wisp of smoke and leaves nothing in terms of ash. If that stuff were as easy to split as the walnut, I would never need another wood. Conflicting evidence as far as elm goes though....