The best Fire Wood and the Proper way to season it is????

Oak, hickory, hornbeam and locust... cut, split and stacked in single rows in sun and wind for over two years, then under cover.
Other hardwoods for at least one year.

This is probably for catalyst models branchburner?

I've found nothing yet to beat the heat made by properly seasoned oak (2 or more years).

Noticed you're in NB CA, so what types of trees are available to you? Is it mostly Pine?

If you are planning to burn it next season, it needs to be cut split stacked fairly soon. Good luck.

Best wood to burn is the wood you have in your area . . . that is seasoned. Sounds like you're really asking what species are more desirable if you're getting a load delivered and have a choice in which case it depends on which species of wood is available in your area.

There are charts that show the various species of wood and the BTUs they produce . . . oak, osage orange (never heard of this before I became a member here), sugar maple and black locust are species that are considered good for firewood, although most folks say oak needs a couple years to adequately season.

White ash and black cherry are good woods if you're looking for half decent BTU wood with a relatively quick seasoning time . . . plus white ash is usually very easy to process yourself as it tends to split by hand fairly easily.

Honestly . . . there isn't much wood I would avoid if I had the option of requesting the various species of wood I would have delivered . . . poplar, basswood and softwood would be on the do not deliver list . . . although I have and continue to burn these species myself . . . only in the shoulder season or on days when I'm home.

J-RO said:

Just as the title says what is the best firewood to burn and wat is the best way to season?

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Free wood stacked in single rows off the ground exposed to wind and sun

You'll get mixed answers. I'd leave it uncovered, until the month before you plan to use it. I would put it in an area of full sun and wind.

Post up some pics when you're done!

There are two parts to my answer - the best wood overall, long-term will be a mix of softwood (conifers) and hardwoods. I am not sure what grows near you, but Sugar maple (hard maple), Yellow Birch, and Ash (maybe you have Black Ash?) are probably the hardest, most dense and therefore most long-burning woods you can get once they are seasoned. Seasoning might take more than a year where you are. Other slightly lesser hardwoods like White Birch, Red Maple, and others are also good, just a little less dense and therefore should be a little less expensive perhaps. In the short term I would also consider buying some pine, spruce, or fir and setting that out to season (cut, split and stacked). The softwood will be ready sooner and will burn hot to offset what is likely to be slightly unseasoned hardwods. Softwood light be cheaper - if the price is the same I'd buy all hardwood. aspen/poplar are basically softwood although but one definition they are hardwood because they are deciduous.

I'd split the wood and stack it out in the open to season. wind and sun, especially wind, are the keys. If you can cover the top of the wood to keep rain off without reducing the wind through the stacks go for it.

Oh yeah forgot to add . . . best way to season is whatever works for you to bring the moisture down . . .

If I had to season my wood as quick as possible I would split the wood smaller and do a single row in an area exposed to the sun and wind and I would top cover it. Definitely get the wood off the ground with pallets or some other method.

That said, since my wood is outside for a year and then under cover in the woodshed for another year before being used in Year 3 I tend to double rows with no cover and up on pallets.

j ro,the best wood for you is what you have most of and easy acsess to,as your sig says maple,birch,and i would throw in some spruce from your area,dry it till at least next fall (start now) and you will be good as gold
rod

J-RO said:

When i get the wood cut split and stacked do i cover the wood? dose it need to be stacked in a spot that gets lots of sun/wind? If i had to cover it would a tarp be ok to cover with?

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Anywhere in the NE, you'll lose a lot without top-cover. Emphasis on TOP. Get a DURABLE tarp and fold it until it's a bit wider than the pile, and place it with silver side up. Tie down with bungees. Consider the last summer/fall we had. Uncovered wood was candidate for compost.

NO serious sawmill would stack their sawn lumber for air-drying out in the open. Except in the Mojave, maybe.

basswidow said:

You'll get mixed answers. I'd leave it uncovered, until the month before you plan to use it. I would put it in an area of full sun and wind.

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That's what I used to say, until all the rain this year. So my new opinion is, change "one month" to "2-3 months".

J-RO said:

Just as the title says what is the best firewood to burn and wat is the best way to season? Will be looking at getting my wood for next year soon and im new to the whole wood cutting and seasoning process so i need some advice, will be buying uncut and unsplit and doing it all myself to help save money. Any advice would be great thx.

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Welcome to the forum J-RO.

To the regular posters, I apologize for using some of the same photos over and over but feel they do serve a purpose, so here goes.

First picture is wood that was cut during winter of 2008-2009. It was split and stacked in April 2009. We are burning some of that wood now but there is more than enough yet to burn for the entire winter next year. This wood was left uncovered until early winter of 2009 and then covered with old galvanized roofing (that is the second picture).




This picture shows a wood pile covered during winter. Using the galvanized roofing keeps one from having to struggle with those terrible plastic tarps.


This picture is wood that was cut in 2009-2010 and split in March 2010. There is enough wood there for 2 years burning.



What is the best wood? That all depends upon what types of wood is available in your area. It would do no good to recommend some type of wood as best if that is not available to you.

The best advice I can give you is to get your wood now. Do not wait! Get it split as soon as possible. Then stack it in single rows perhaps 4' high. Stack it so the wind hits the sides of the wood piles. Also, do not stack the wood on the ground. If you look at the pictures you'll notice we just cut some young trees in the woods, lay those down and stack the wood on top. Of course one could use landscape timbers, RR ties, or anything else. Some use pallets but personally I do not like them at all but if you like them, use them.

We believe most of the time wood is best left uncovered during the first summer. This allows for better evaporation of the moisture, which is what drying wood is all about. We cover before the snow flies. I can understand that in some area it is best to cover the wood right after stacking. Yet in other areas and even in some "wet" areas, many folks never cover their wood and get along just fine.

Most of the time when we stack we stack in 3 rows but our wood has plenty of time to dry and we've had no problems. It is said that the middle row won't dry as well. However, we stack our wood 4 1/2' high and by fall all three rows will be down to 4' or less which leads me to believe all the rows have dried about the same.

However you do, please realize that most wood requires a good year to dry enough to burn well. It can be burned sooner, but with some problems; mainly poor fires and creosote in the chimney. Some wood, like oak, requires longer to season. We usually give oak 3 years before we burn it. It appears in some of the drier states the oak will dry sooner. For us, usually longer is better. We hear much about the moisture meters but so far I have no faith in them. If you can stack your wood for 2 years or more you should have no problems burning it and it will burn well.

In addition to drying the wood, we realize that wood cutting, splitting and stacking all takes some hard labor. As we've seen many times on this forum there are times when people have some bad things happen, like an injury or sickness. If you have 2-3 years wood on hand ready to burn, then if something like that befalls you, there is not a problem because you will already have wood to burn and will not have to rely on buying wood or having someone put up your wood. A nice wood pile is much better than money in the bank!

J-RO said:

Just as the title says what is the best firewood to burn and wat is the best way to season? Will be looking at getting my wood for next year soon and im new to the whole wood cutting and seasoning process so i need some advice, will be buying uncut and unsplit and doing it all myself to help save money. Any advice would be great thx.

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The best firewood is free wood. I do not care what type it is. The best way to season is "Stacked in sun and wind, the longer the better." Getting two/three years ahead and you do not need to worry about how long it has been seasoning.