If you could only have one wood

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From reading posts on here and where some of you fellas are located it sounds like you almost already only have one wood to burn-Pine! Wish I could ship some nice hardwoods to you all so you could experience how they burn.
Thanks, but I'm happy with my beetle kill Lodgepole pine, it works for me.
I've burned a few other higher BTU hardwoods before (mainly apple), and it's true they do burn longer, but it doesn't seem to make much difference in the grand scheme of things, in fact burning hardwoods generally makes things a little more complicated for us because of the seasoning time for the hardwoods. With the beetle kill lodgepole I can cut what I need in the fall at start burning it immediately, no waiting 2 or 3 years to burn the wood. And as for burning times, we start a fire in the evening, let it burn through the night, and if it's really cold out we'll load it up with wood (on top of the coals) again in the morning and let it burn through the day, and come home and load it again (on top of the coals) and reload again before going to bed. If it's not that cold out (above freezing) we just let the fire go out in the morning, cause the house is still warm from the fire going all night, and just relight the stove in the evening when the house starts to cool down. Extending the burn any longer rarely helps at all unless we happen to break our routine and are gone away from the house for longer than normal, but even then the hardwood only burns for a few hours longer and eventually the furnace has to kick in and the house ends up cooler when we come back anyway.
Think of it this way, if you had a choice of buying gasoline for your car, which would you prefer, gasoline you could use right away, that gave you a little less gas mileage? Or gasoline that would give you a little better gas mileage, but you had to stockpile for 3 years before you could burn it?
 
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My property is covered in ash, it splits easy ,dries fast, and honestly its hard to tell the difference between the ash and my red oak. I was offered some black locust this week but it was to far away, and covered in alot of poision ivy( not worth it)

Hands down its the ash.
 
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1. Black Birch is my first. Much quicker to season, less bark mess than oak. More BTU than Oak.
2. White Oak is my second.
3 Red Oak places third.
 
Hedge is my favorite. I clean out a lot of fence rows so I get a lot of it. Also get a lot of ash from my neighbors woods. Boring beetle has killed a lot of ash trees so I cut them down.

Matt
 
Thanks, but I'm happy with my beetle kill Lodgepole pine, it works for me.
I've burned a few other higher BTU hardwoods before (mainly apple), and it's true they do burn longer, but it doesn't seem to make much difference in the grand scheme of things, in fact burning hardwoods generally makes things a little more complicated for us because of the seasoning time for the hardwoods. With the beetle kill lodgepole I can cut what I need in the fall at start burning it immediately, no waiting 2 or 3 years to burn the wood. And as for burning times, we start a fire in the evening, let it burn through the night, and if it's really cold out we'll load it up with wood (on top of the coals) again in the morning and let it burn through the day, and come home and load it again (on top of the coals) and reload again before going to bed. If it's not that cold out (above freezing) we just let the fire go out in the morning, cause the house is still warm from the fire going all night, and just relight the stove in the evening when the house starts to cool down. Extending the burn any longer rarely helps at all unless we happen to break our routine and are gone away from the house for longer than normal, but even then the hardwood only burns for a few hours longer and eventually the furnace has to kick in and the house ends up cooler when we come back anyway.
Think of it this way, if you had a choice of buy gasoline for your car, which would you prefer, gasoline you could use right away, that gave you a little less gas mileage? Or gasoline that would give you a little better gas mileage, but you had to stockpile for 3 years before you could burn it?
You make an interesting case for Pine wood, I have several pine on my property, maybe Ill give it a try.
 
Ok I asked the question, read the reviews and in my opinion Ash is the best, fast seasoning, great heat, and I only get four to five hours of good heat out of my insert no matter the wood I use ( havent tapped the big oak splits yet tho). I do love red oak but man looking at the stack for two to three years sucks (in a good way). One day the ash will be gone so I have a heck of an oak stash started.
 
I haven't burned in quantity very many species, mostly red oak, black locust, cherry and maple. Have burned some hedge, hickory, elm, persimmon, white oak, ash, walnut, sweetgum and some others. Most all have some pluses and minuses I guess. But picking only one I will go with a high btu wood black locust although I will have to have some kindling from another tree to get it going. ha! ha!
 
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I don't know if I could restrict myself to just one. ;)

But yeah . . . white ash. Not the best BTU wood, not the best coaling wood, not the best smelling wood . . . but to me it has always been like that one player in baseball, basketball, football, etc. that is not outstanding in any one area, but is just good all the way around.
 
I love black birch...as others have mentioned. It smells wonderful when you're cutting and splitting it and still smells good when it's burning. It seasons relatively quickly and burns very hot with little residue left over. I think I read it has a btu rating right up there with hickory, less than shagbark but higher than mockernut.
If you get a straight tree it also splits easily - but it's not always evident from the bark what the grain will look like. I cut down one black birch that the bark looked straight but it yielded rounds so damn twisty that I could pound wedges right through to the block and they still wouldn't split apart. Another drawback is that, left in rounds, it will rot pretty quickly. But split and it lasts pretty well on the wood pile. But on the plus side for me - it's the predominant species of hardwood on my #1 woodlot
 
At 6pm I threw a fairly big black locust split in the back of the firebox and added two decent ash splits with it, the ash splits are gone but that locust split is still intact and burning good, its almost 9pm now. Need more locust for the pile for sure.
 
I think properly seasoned Oak is the most reliable. I ran into some good luck with a dead standing elm that I was very impressed with. My back not so much.
 
Shagbark Hickory.
Excellent heat, coals great, long burning, doesn't take 4 score and 7 years to season and it works great to cook over.
Lights easy, splits easy and minimal ash.

Try it, you'll like it. I would give away every stick of my white oak if it was replaced with shaggy.
I'm just finishing up a couple cords of shaggy, :( just starting into some white oak that I have been saving for 3 yrs or so, the oak has been disappointing! I'd trade half of it for some ash. Red oak burns nice, but the drying time is a real PITA, and it seems some pieces like to never dry.
I was surprised how hot the last silver maple I had burnt...
 
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Don't get me wrong. I ain't beating up White Oak. It is a very fine stove chow. But the overall performance has to be taken into account if you are looking at ONE species of firewood....and Shaggy has the perfect mix.
 
Shagbark.A little more heat than even White Oak or Honey Locust,normally splits easier than either one & dries much quicker too.
 
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Ash
 
I probably would have gone with Black locust, but I scored some hickory a couple years ago and it's fantastic! It was an old trunk that had been laying on the ground in a buddy's neighborhood for years and nobody had any equipment large enough to tackle it. I took several loads of it until I got closer to the stump and the rounds were too much for me once they got much above 36" (I didn't know about noodling yet). I was concerned that any of the wood was good because it had been laying down so long the outer 3" of every round was soft and rotten. But I split off that outer layer and let it dry, and it made great fire starter, and that inner wood split great and just burns forever! I just stacked the last bit of it by the stove yesterday, I'm sad to be going back to mostly ash.
 
You make an interesting case for Pine wood, I have several pine on my property, maybe Ill give it a try.
Keep in mind, the lodgepole pine trees I'm burning are beetle kill standing dead, and have been dead for many many years, and consequently very dry already. I don't cut them down unless I'm pretty certain they are <20% moisture content. They are in fact the only type of tree I can count on being dry enough to burn right away right after felling them, and since there's so many of them around here it's a no brainer.
 
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