What is your BIG 3 in firewood?

[turnkey4099]

Love List
#1 Buckthorn 35 mbtu
#2 Rock Elm 32 mbtu
#3 Apple/Pear/Plum 29 mbtu

Osage at 32.5 mbtu would be #3 but have only ever burnt a small amount of it, like Black locust a tough wood to get burning in anything less than a very hot fire.

Hate list.
#1 Buckthorn (the nasty thorn master with small wood returns).
#2 Box elder (makes me itchy, burns bad, smells bad)
#3 Chinese Elm (irritates skin, lungs and anything the sap gets on)

I've seen that claim that BL is hard to start - not in my experience. Does take a few more sheets of newspaper than some other wood though.

Restarted a cold stove twice this week with nothing but BL. Select 2-3 pieces that have sharp points on them, open all drafts, crumple newspaper in the ash tray, light it and stuff more paper in for about a minute and I have a roaring fire.

Harry K

 

[windthrown]

The best: Madrone, Oregon white oak, & black locust
The worst: Tree of Heaven Hell, Black cottonwood, willow

 

[Locust Cutter]

Best:
1. Hedge (Osage Orange)
2. Honey Locust
3. Red Oak

Worst:
1. Cotton Wood
2. Piss Elm (Siberian?)
3. Red Bud

Cedar smells good and is great starter. If there is trunk sized wood, I'll take some out when helping to clear pastures. I hate the stickers in the foliage though. There are plenty of other varieties that I avoid as I have enough choice to do so, but in a pinch, if it burns and I'm in a jamb, I'll do what I have to do. Burr Oak isn't bad.

 

[haveawoody]

turnkey4099,

When my BL comes direct from my stacks it's almost impossible to start on a cold fire.
If it's been in the house for a few days it's much easier.
Even then though it's more resistant to starting than most hard woods.

I watched my wife trying to start an all BL fire one morning and tried to tell her to select some different wood.
It all came in to the house maybe 1 hr earlier.
After about 15 minutes of trying she said something was wrong with my wood. LOL
All I could do was laugh, then laugh really hard as all I said maybe your don't have enough friction to start either fire

 

[spike60]

Tough to come up with 3 if I break down the species, so I'll just say oak, hickory and maple. Followed by the not as common cherry and ash.

This year's "new discovery" is yellow birch which I've never burned before. Burns really nice and smells great. Wish it was more common around here, but now I'm on the lookout for it.

Woods I don't like are catalpa and poplar.

 

[olyman]

Dang it Kevin, you beat me to it! I believe that's Honey Locust. I have no idea how you'd handle it to split it.

There's an abundance of Oak (Red, White and Pin) and Sugar Maple around here. I don't hate any wood, but have found that Cottonwood, Tulip Poplar and Catalpa are at the very bottom of the list. EAB is hitting any Ash around here hard.

have only cut one catalpa tree..NEVER AGAIN!!!

 

[treesmith]

Aussie Red gum for slow burning long lasting heat, far better than oak.

European Ash for easy splitting, quick drying clean burning hot fast fire. Quick growing for harvesting, also good for tool handles and flexible shock resistant wood.

Silver Birch is my all time favourite and if I had to choose only one tree for the rest of my life it would be Birch. Also such a useful tree for so many reasons, the wood is clean and easy split, it burns hot, the bark is a natural fire lighter even when soaked, the north american Indians used the bark to make one piece canoes, containers etc the sap is full of sugar. It is a pioneer species so it enables other trees to populate poor ground. Grows fast for regular harvesting and is native from Siberia through Europe to north America etc etc

Worst - Euro Elm as it burns like church mold, any conifer as they're just messy horrible things, any wood that isn't seasoned

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Mad Professor]

Ash Sugar Maple and Oak

Black locust and Hickory if I can get those.

Black Cherry and Black Birch

 

[Holtby]

Red oak, black oak, hickory

Got some Osage orange this summer, liked to killed my cheesy saw chains cutting it up, (my factory chains), good to hear it's a good burn, got a bunch too.

It aint so bad to cut green, but is tough on a chain or buzzsaw blade when it cures out hard as a rock????

 

[ReggieT]

Anybody ever burn or heard of anyone burning "devils walking stick/Hercules club?"

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Anybody ever burn or heard of anyone burning "devils walking stick/Hercules club?"

Isn't that what some call Ironwood? I've seen it but never worked any of it up. Looked like a tree that took steroids!

 

[ReggieT]

Isn't that what some call Ironwood? I've seen it but never worked any of it up. Looked like a tree that took steroids!

Kevin...it is a lot scrawnier and more menacing, here is a pic:

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Kevin...it is a lot scrawnier and more menacing, here is a pic:
View attachment 330847 View attachment 330848

Well named!! Thanks for the pics

 

[rarefish383]

White Oak, Black Locust, and Cherry. Thought more folks would have listed Cherry, burns good and smells great.

 

[rarefish383]

Bitternut Hickory, Beech and ash would be my pick for best.

Worst would be Cottonwood, Catalpa and.........this locust

Kevin, we used to have lots of Honey Locust around the fence lines on farms. Not so many farms left and fewer Honey Locust. Have you ever tasted the "honey" in one of the seed pods? Peel open the pod and there is a thick stringy yellow goo along the fat side. Taste it, sweet as honey. We used to have a climber that worked for us. He grew up in the hills of NC and was a wealth of country knowledge. He was the one that first showed me the honey. He said they used to brew a "honey beer" with the pods when he was a kid. I don't think they used the pods, just the goo. I forget if they were ready to eat as soon as they fell, or if you had to let them sit for a while. They would dry up if you let them sit too long. Unfortunately before he showed me how to brew a batch, he shot himself. Lost a friend and source of wood lore that can't be replaced, Joe.

 

[ReggieT]

Kevin, we used to have lots of Honey Locust around the fence lines on farms. Not so many farms left and fewer Honey Locust. Have you ever tasted the "honey" in one of the seed pods? Peel open the pod and there is a thick stringy yellow goo along the fat side. Taste it, sweet as honey. We used to have a climber that worked for us. He grew up in the hills of NC and was a wealth of country knowledge. He was the one that first showed me the honey. He said they used to brew a "honey beer" with the pods when he was a kid. I don't think they used the pods, just the goo. I forget if they were ready to eat as soon as they fell, or if you had to let them sit for a while. They would dry up if you let them sit too long. Unfortunately before he showed me how to brew a batch, he shot himself. Lost a friend and source of wood lore that can't be replaced, Joe.

Wow...I really enjoyed that bit of info Rarefish! That's a guy I would have loved to have hung out with myself. A good friend of mine once said that the graveyard probably holds the greatest inventions, experience, and creativity UN-KNOWN to mankind...because so many "Never Passed It On, Before They're Gone!"

 

[brenndatomu]

White Oak, Black Locust, and Cherry. Thought more folks would have listed Cherry, burns good and smells great.

I see everybody talking about this wood or that wood is nice or not cause of the smell when you burn it. Are you talking about burning it in an open fireplace/firepit or do you mean when you get a wiff of the chimney occasionally? Hard to tell what it smells like in the stove, 'less ya have some serious backpuffing issues!

 

[Cheesecutter]

I figure smell is a whiff of the chimney. Cherry and cedar smell good while catalpa and piss elm just plain reek... just ask my neighbors.

 

[Johnny Yooper]

my three favorite types of firewood: free, easy access, and not punky.

 

[longbowch]

I would have to say my favorites are oak, hickory and locust. But I cut and burn whatever is dead, dry and available. A few years back the timber I do most of my cutting in was logged for black walnut and there was an abundance of tops left over. After they dried , I spent a couple years burning mostly walnut. I also burn cherry ,ash, mulberry, and elm. The best seems to be a combination of wood.