Finally for the hickory done (nope, still not posting pics) so I started on the birch and boy is that stuff stringy. I'd rather split hickory any day!
fv
fv
Birch is a pain
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bogydave
Minister of Fire
Yea, some can be stringy & tough.
Like any tree, allot depends on it's location. Windy areas, they have to "toughen up".
Good fire wood though.
Like any tree, allot depends on it's location. Windy areas, they have to "toughen up".
Good fire wood though.
My Oslo heats my home
Minister of Fire
hmmmm, yeah this is river birch but it's a pain. Although I am looking forward to burning it in a few years.
fv
fv
My Oslo heats my home
Minister of Fire
The area we live in up here, birch is less likely to be found compared to oak, maple and ash. So when I get some it's nice to have
Jack Straw
Minister of Fire
stejus
Minister of Fire
What's wrong with birch? I havn't split it, but I have burnt it. It's a black birch or sweet birch and it's got a slimey bark that falls off when it's split sometimes. Dries rock hard too!
salmonhunter
Burning Hunk
White birch is the main firewood I have access to. I find It splits pretty easy when its first cut down. But after a few weeks drying out it seems to get alot harder to split I think its because the bark helps hold the splits together. When its green I find the bark just falls off when splitting. I even saved a bunch of the bark for starting outdoor fires is seems to work better then newspaper I may even have to try it in my stove one of these days
bogydave
Minister of Fire
I use Birch bark as my fire starter. Works great.
No river birch here. but the stuff on the edges of a stand of trees is tough to split. Stringy, twisted & lots of knots.
Got any pictures?
Woody Stover
Minister of Fire
Huh.
I stacked some River Birch a few months back, and it was easy to split. But it was split right after I cut it...salmonhunter says above that he has better luck when it's fresh. The stuff I cut was dead but still very wet...As for Black Cherry, the stuff I get is easy to split as well but they are woods trees, maybe not as gnarly as what Oslo had.
onetracker
Minister of Fire
like bogydave said...any species can be tough and stringy.
even the normally straight-grained white ash. i had the trunk of one a few years back that was so full of knots from all the branches that it was impossible to split with a maul so i used a splitter. that stuff has been sitting 3 years top covered and i'm gonna fire it up this winter. yes sir!
even the normally straight-grained white ash. i had the trunk of one a few years back that was so full of knots from all the branches that it was impossible to split with a maul so i used a splitter. that stuff has been sitting 3 years top covered and i'm gonna fire it up this winter. yes sir!
wolfkiller
Burning Hunk
Trick to tough birch is tempature. I wait to split it until it is -30 or colder. At these temps it splits with a ax easily.
BoilerMan
Minister of Fire
I got a "yard bird" yellow birch last. Almost 2 cord in that tree and it was curly and stringy as it gets. No way could I have split that by hand. The splitter had a good time with a few of those too. White (paper) birch splits like a dream though, faster by hand than with the splitter!
TS
TS
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
White Birch Bark is my firestarter of choice. I collect the birch bark off rotting logs and keep it near my stove. Much superior to newspaper.
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