This wood vs. that wood...

Oak, plenty of it around here and if seasoned properly I get long burns.

Hedge

Ironwood (Hophornbeam)

Me personally Hickory and Beech very HOT coals by morning love the smell of hickory!

for me it is mulberry hands down. Grows very fast and dries fast

shagbark hickory and cherry together makes a nice woodstove fire

locust, locust, locust. Black locust.......honey locust.......I have some lilac (yes, the flowering shrub) which REALLY impressed me, I'd say right up there with BL. Beech and sugar maple are up there too. Those are my three personal favorite 'dead-o-the-winter' overnight woods. White oak is right up there, too. But (I've said it before as have others) It pays to have a variety of other softer woods in your stacks too. I have just about every species of eastern hardwood there is in my stacks.

did I mention locust?

Black locust. Three fatty splits in our meduim stove go all night and leave a great bed of coals. It's not the two stoves you suggested, so YMMV.

Blackthorn, lots of heat and flame, lasts a long time and leaves a good bed of glowing coals.
Would love to try some of the locust you guys talk about, none over here .

Billybonfire said:

Blackthorn, lots of heat and flame, lasts a long time and leaves a good bed of glowing coals.
Would love to try some of the locust you guys talk about, none over here .

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If you weren't so far away, I'd send some over!!

Thanks Scotty, could start an international woodswap !
Fedex would make a fortune.

Billybonfire said:

Thanks Scotty, could start an international woodswap !
Fedex would make a fortune.

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yeah, so would Customs....... We'd probably both end up in jail for international wood smuggling!

Scotty Overkill said:

yeah, so would Customs....... We'd probably both end up in jail for international wood smuggling!

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I bet Customs would put it in quarantine, just incase of any bugs.
Hopefully in a sunny windy spot, would be well seasoned .

In my stacks, I have mostly Oak...Cherry a close second, followed by Maple and a little Hickory.....some will say it sounds good, but I think only the Cherry will be ready to roll this season (CSS in January)....I did split and check a piece of Oak CSS December of last year...inside was at 18%, but that piece was at the top of the stack...Hickory (CSS 3/12) was also at 18% as also the Maple (CSS 2/12). If I had a choice, I'll take the Hickory.

Scotty Overkill said:

yeah, so would Customs....... We'd probably both end up in jail for international wood smuggling!

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From what I've heard about the TSA's pat down procedures, that is extremely difficult to get away with now


Gotta pic osage, of course. Fills the house with heat and the freezer with...
well nothing last year.

Black locust for all around best. Drys fairly quick. Splits decent most of the time. When it is dry it burns long, hot, very controllable, and coals great. Only wood I have been able to have enough coals to reload on at 16-18 hours. Since it is considered an "invasive species" I also have no reservations about taking the saw to anyone of them I find. The only negatives is they are hell on saw chains and when they have thorns I just know I am going to end up bleeding before it is all over.

If I had several to choose, it would be black locust, hickory & sugar maple. If I only had to choose one, it would be the locust. Mulberry is right up there as well.

properly seasoned oak, ash is a close second, third place goes to whatever is dry and c/s/s stacked in my yard.

Scotty Overkill said:

did I mention locust?

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Im with Scotty... Locust... Locust and Ash... We have LOTS OF ASH around here. The EAB has left destruction on our landscape.

Here I would say oak. There are others that are as good and maybe some better but oak is the best we have. Although the blue beech (musclewood) seems to do extremely well too. Too bad it is not bigger. Apple is right to the top too and we do have some of that on occasion.

Birch, of the 2 choices I have.

ok I bought some black locust last winter that was split for six months and I wasnt impressed. However Im sure it wasnt seasoned because it looks totally different now than when i bought it, I have about a face cord of it and cant wait to try it out now that im sure its ready. I have red oak , ash, cherry, hickory, black walnut, black locust 80 percent of the stacks are red oak and ash. So far even though it was marginal wood last year red oak is my favorite, burns so hot.