Willow for campfires

[Iowawoodguy]

I live right next to a golf course and they just took down 4 or 5 large willows. I talked to the manager and he said he was going to take down another row of mid sized ones. He asked if I wanted them for firewood. What I'm curious about is the seasoning time and how it burns when dried. How does it compare to pine and cottonwood? That's what I'm currently selling. It's a half mile away and there is a ton of it.

 

[cuinrearview]

If you have people giving you money for pine and poplar, willow shouldn't be a problem. Seasoning time is similar.

 

[homemade]

Usually very wet wood unless cut down in the middle of January. Then it’s only mildly wet. If you split it small it will dry out to be soft and low btu output. I like a small amount because it makes great kindling. If it’s just for out door campfires then get it split small (4x4) or smaller and sell away.


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[Iowawoodguy]

Thanks. The pine I had was cut to 6 to 10 inches by a tree service and for some reason I was in the splitting mood so I split everything into 3 inch wide chunks. It was dry in a week.

 

[svk]

Be warned that some willow doesn’t smell very appetizing when burned. You may want to try out a bit of the wood to see how it smells. If it’s the stinky kind then save that for boiler wood.

 

[Iowawoodguy]

Be warned that some willow doesn’t smell very appetizing when burned. You may want to try out a bit of the wood to see how it smells. If it’s the stinky kind then save that for boiler wood.

Will do. I'll take the golf cart down with a chainsaw and haul some out.

 

[buzz sawyer]

I've found willow to leave a lot of white ash.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

A neigbor had a large willow (double leader) split and block his driveway a couple of years ago. I helped him get his driveway opened up and brought home some of the sub-16" stuff (this was when I had only 1 saw, before I contracted CAD). It split easily, was heavy, wet, and not very dense, so it lost a LOT of weight as it dried. In the stove, it was 'meh' for burn time and heat (much like poplar), but it does burn. It didn't smell bad coming out of the chimney. The camp fire and fire bowl were a different story... man did it stink.

However, if you need fire wood or you can sell it, free is still free.

 

[Iowawoodguy]

I decided to go ahead and take the offer on the row of willows. The hoarder in me couldn't resist. We will be taking them down sometime next week. I'll update the progress in this thread.

This is the view from my parents front window of the trees. Not far at all.

 

[Cowboy254]

I have burned willow, back in the day. Wouldn't be my first choice but it kept us warm. I burned some in large splits and also turned some into kindling, both of which worked well. I'd take it if you don't have a ready source of higher BTU wood. The willow I had split very easily - maybe you could split it down to kindling size - say 3/4 inch and sell as kindling for a higher price per pound? Depends how much time you have/want to split stuff down I suppose.