Tree of Heaven for firewood

[Impalervlad]

That mold you see is pretty characteristic for TOH. Sometimes it turns all sorts of shades of red. I never looked into it but, I imagine there is something in the wood that attracts and nourishes that particular mold. I've never seen it on other types of wood.
That stuff should split fairly straight and easy but, you'll be doing the same amount of work splitting it as you would a better wood like oak or ash but only getting half the value. Still, it is free and splitting easy splitting wood can have its own rewards in watching the splits come off nice and easy. Split it, use it and learn from this experience whether you're happy with it or you would never do it again. Your own experience is worth tons more than someone else's opinion on an internet forum.

 

[Uncle John]

I think it's what we used to call Stink Tree.
But I've not burned it.
How does it smell burning?

 

[steved]

Our stove is airtight, so I don't really know what it smells like burning...I have only really test burnt a couple small pieces we left dry by the wood stove. When green, the wood definitely has a strong green wood odor about it. The odor seems to go away with the drying process.

I have nothing really invested in it...other than a little gas running after it and a little gas splitting it. We are leaving it rather large, so if it burns fast it should last a little longer.

 

[BrokenToys]

alas, we meet again stinkwood thread...

It's an Invasive Species - Stink Wood.:msp_thumbdn: At least burning it it rids this continent of it's miserable existance.

 

[Dale]

"It's an Invasive Species - Stink Wood. At least burning it it rids this continent of it's miserable existance. "

Wholeheartedly agree. That wood isn't worth the bend in the back to pick it up. If ANYBODY in SW PA wants to come to my farm and harvest that crap, have at it. AND I'M SERIOUS. It grows/takes over like a weed.... and I have millions upon millions of board feet of that sh.....

 

[Arbonaut]

JC missed something important in that chart. It is comparing wood btus per pound, not by volume. All wood has pretty much the same Btus per pound. The problem with TOH other than that it stinks when you burn it (and it does) is that it will take 3 times as many pieces to equal that pound as it will with something like ash, hickory, or oak.

I have burned TOH before and I will probably burn it again but there is no way it compares to ash or other hardwoods in BTUs per cord. It is light when green and even lighter when dry. I have never seen one 4' DBH as the wood is weak and usually the tree fails long before they get that big.

I would much rather burn pine. But I would take it if it was free and easy to get.

*DING* with solid fuel burning there is like anything else: theory and practice. We are where the rubber meets the road. If you gonna burn ailanthus, you might as well burn rubber.

 

[avason]

Ever notice how young walnut has white wood in the small to medium branches? And the white wood is worthless to burn? Well, that is ailanthus. If you are out there trying to burn small ailanthus, then you aren't going to get your "money'sworth" out of it. If, on the other hand, you have a big 4 foot diameter monster, that blows down one windy day, you are in luck. The, shall we say, heartwood on these things burns very well, puts out a lot of heat and does NOT stink. The trees themselves (leaves etc.) DO stink, but the mature wood does not. It is heavy, splits easy, dries easy, and does not rot if kept dry.

Species Higher Heating Value
(btu/lb.)
Ailanthus altissima 8,171 - 8,452
White Ash 8,246 - 8,920
Sugar Maple 8,190
Red Oak 8,037 - 8,690
Hickory 8,039 - 8,670
White Oak 8,169 - 8,810
Beech 8,151 - 8,760
Hemlock 8,885

This table is from: www.dof.virginia.gov/.../pub_Ailanthus-Control-and-Utilization.pdf

I would compare it favorably (as firewood) with White Ash. All this anecdotal talk about it being like burning paper must be based on burning the light weight branches, because the large trunk wood is quite useful as firewood.

I'm impressed with the btu value of hemlock. I just had a guy drop off tow huge loads the other day and I thought it was junk. I've been burning it and it seems to burn nicely and leaves a decent amount of coal.

 

[avason]

If that was dropped off at your house, I wouldn't have a problem burning that at all. You just saved loading and unloading all that wood not to mention the time saving cutting it. It looks nice and straight and doesn't seem like it will be a problem splitting. Nice score!

 

[Streblerm]

I'm impressed with the btu value of hemlock. I just had a guy drop off tow huge loads the other day and I thought it was junk. I've been burning it and it seems to burn nicely and leaves a decent amount of coal.

That chart is almost meaningless other than illustrating that all wood has approximately 8K BTUs/lb. It doesn't address density which would be BTUs/cord. Kind of like: which weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?

I agree that hemlock is decent firewood. If I had my choice I would still burn hardwood.

 

[tbow388]

I would

I wouldnt pass it up.

I would burn the fire out of it. Literally!!

 

[old_soul]

"It's an Invasive Species - Stink Wood. At least burning it it rids this continent of it's miserable existance. "

Wholeheartedly agree. That wood isn't worth the bend in the back to pick it up. If ANYBODY in SW PA wants to come to my farm and harvest that crap, have at it. AND I'M SERIOUS. It grows/takes over like a weed.... and I have millions upon millions of board feet of that sh.....

exactly right Dale

i can't believe somebody took the time to cut it all up like in that picture. even all the small pieces.

around here it grows along roads, highway ramps, etc. Always mowing, cutting, spraying it. the bad thing is it grows so fast, so dense that it chokes out all the better, slower growing trees nearby.

 

[Arbonaut]

that is junk we chip it and dump the bigstuf

This was settled in 2011. By the 4th post. This right here is all you need to know.

 

[Toddppm]

The owner originally told me it was Sumac, but it does not match any description for Sumac. It has every characteristic of ToH. I'll get some pictures tomorrow.

He probably meant Chinese Sumac, it's just another common name for it. I've never heard that name for it except on here but it does resemble sumac a little and it's mentioned here as Chinese Sumac. PCA Alien Plant Working Group - Tree-of-Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)
We just call them weed trees here:msp_tongue:

 

[RUSHNBOBO]

View attachment 278120 BTU's Per Cord (millions) it's c r a p

 

[steved]

Well, he just gave me another cord of it, has another cord almost ready. I asked him if he thought it might be TOH, and he said probably; "its just another type of sumac". He told me it burns a lot like poplar, and (get ready for this) if I liked it; the neighbor has at least 100 trees of it, no less than 24 inches in diameter and they are going to start cutting it soon. Some of this load is pushing better than three feet in diameter. Right now, I'm going to say no to any more of it, especially since I can't see how it actually does burn when seasoned.

I'm going to concentrate my efforts on the local pine (free) and hauling from my parents and state forest (hardwoods). I figured out that I will need around four cords per year, and again; while its a primary source of heat when we're burning its not the only source of heat for the house (options are electric, propane, and wood).

 

[autoimage]

i see you are in reading thats fairly close to me. just keep ur eyes open on craigslist and you will find good free wood. i can get 4 cords in a month if im diligent and no pine or poplar, although i just took a cord of sweet gum already split and only 8 miles away

 

[PA. Woodsman]

i see you are in reading thats fairly close to me. just keep ur eyes open on craigslist and you will find good free wood. i can get 4 cords in a month if im diligent and no pine or poplar, although i just took a cord of sweet gum already split and only 8 miles away

Absolutely correct! Our area has so much good hardwood that you don't need that other junk! Keep your eyes open for construction sites, blow downs, anywhere where you see good hardwood trees down and ask whoever owns the property if you can take it for firewood; more times than not the answer will be "yes"! :msp_w00t: :jester:

 

[woodchuck357]

It really would be nice if the stuff comming out of China

was uniformly crap, but the real problem is no matter how many low jabs are indiscriminately delivered, most of the Chinese tools do work as advertised. As an example, a friend brought an almost new Chinese ax for me to put a new handle to. After replacing the handle, I sharpened it and chopped up some limbs. That ax is made of top notch steel and tempered as well as any I have used. Not as hard as my KnotKlipper, but I guess it is to hard anyway. Don't buy stuff from Wal-Mart or Harbor Freight, and check out where stuff that has an American brand name on it is actually made

even chinese trees are cheap and dont work as they should

 

[steved]

Just as an update...I have had some of this ToH that I dragged home and split drying under cover . This was a piece of the larger stuff I retrieved. Keep in mind, some of the trees I brought home were almost 30 inches across...and that's what I tried burning. Its still a little green as evident from the minor amount of moisture whisping out initially, but it wasn't all that wet (considering it was cut down in January?)...probably another month or so and it would probably be good to burn on its own. It burnt hot and burnt complete; no chunks left over, no popping, no snapping, nothing that didn't burn up. The one test chunk I tried took several hours to completely burn to coals, it was probably five to six inches in diameter. It lasted the same amount of time as the piece of two year seasoned oak that was sharing the box...

I would definitely not pass up a large tree if it was convenient to get. It does stink, the butt wood doesn't split nice, but it seems to burn alright...it reminded me a lot of the beech I have been burning (similar burn rate, similar difficulty splitting, etc.). I'll be curious to get a couple of the smaller limb wood into the box...its a lot lighter than the trunk wood, and I fully expect it will burn like poplar.

Compared to the sopping wet pine I have, this stuff didn't burn all that bad. The pine has been down just as long, and the splitter will squeeze ounces of water out of it when splitting.

 

[steved]

After nearly two year and probably four cords later, its not all that bad. It burns like pine...

The only thing I will warn about is that it must have a resin like pine, it burns HOT and will flare on a hot fire like pine.