List of desirable hard woods to burn....

If you don't have wood set back by now your gonna hate it. Maybe not hate it but it won't be as good as it can be. Most good hard wood needs a couple years to season(atleast). Although cherry and maple don't and ash in my opinion anyway . So here's a small list: oak, hickory, hackberry , maple, cherry walnut ash elm locust ( both) mulberry osage apple to name a few

You might think this is an odd suggestion but what I did was download all the firewood BTU charts I could find on the internet. The numbers vary but you will get a list of approximately 42 native species and some common exotic species of trees.
They are listed by most heat producing to least heat producing.
What I did was hire private foresters to identify the predominant species of trees on my property and every year I add more species to my arboretum list.
I also got involved in a forest stewardship program.
This has been alot of fun.

webfish said:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/heating_value_wood

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Those numbers look like they would be accurate; Some of the charts online are pretty whack, IMO.

To answer your question, seasoned wood being 20% and under......ok a little higher is ok! but having higher standards when heating with wood is the way to go.....
Being from nj this is my list.....red oak.....black locust....beech.....maple......cherry....I also got a huge batch of sassafras so that needs to be on my list....but good luck.....

I like hop hornbeam, beech , ash , hard maple, cherry in that order. Pretty much whatever you can get your hands on whether you cut and split it yourself or buy. As long as its 20% moisture content or less. 18% mc cottonwood is way better than 30% mc oak.

I like the seasoned rankings at the bottom. No list will satify everyone. I think this is a good one.
http://mb-soft.com/juca/print/firewood.html

Allsixofus said:

New to the wood stove experience here. Interested from the experts on here a list of the most desirable wood to burn in wood stoves. Having a Regency I2400 installed tomorrow and want to start off with as much knowledge of the use of the stove as I can. Thanks in advance!

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First year burner = troubles finding dry wood. So, fast drying is more important than max BTU's, although Ash rates close to the top in both of those aspects, being one of the fastest-drying high-BTU woods.

I wouldn't turn down anything, as a new woodburner, trying to get three years ahead. Set the softwoods in piles to burn this year and next, and the hardwoods in piles to burn farther down the road. The general rule of thumb quoted in some stove manuals is 9 months to dry softwoods and 18 months for most hardwoods. Oak is the exception, usually taking 2 - 3 years, by almost all accounts.

I agree with Joful and BrotherBart. First get all the pine you can get cheap, split it small, stack it up and get the clock ticking. Once you have all the wood you need for winter 2015/16 split and stacked, then get picky about what you start bringing in for the following winter.

well it is best to get all you can of ANY species at this point and as long as you have space try to get more after that. No bad reason to hoard firewood. Once you get 3+ years ahead (roughly 15-20 cord) you can start to be selective with your choices.

Oak is awesome but comes with some caveats - Namely time!! It takes forever to season and best to give it 3yrs so not a great wood to start with when budgeting effort for heat. Once you get ahead start hoarding oak and stack it alone so your not picking through splits to find dry ones. Pretty much all else in your region can be stacked together. Maple, ash, cherry, etc..

Because you are in Ohio I strongly suggest focusing on ASH. It is all dead or soon to be(unfortunately) tops of dead trees will be as close to 20% as anything you can cut and the rest starts with a lower MC than most and seasons in one year. Best is 2yrs but you can squeak by on marginal ash and it is just short of oak as far as BTU's.

Mix some in with those bio bricks and limp through yr one like many have done but never stop preparing for year 2/3/4/5 and so on.

I think other factors such as seasoning time and splitting difficulty should be considered. For pure burning, I prefer sugar maple so far.

Ash is a favorite as is hackberry, mulberry is nice and I love the smell of black walnut, all of the maples are nice wood and dry pretty quickly. Cherry is nice and dries quickly, my personal favorites are Ash and Hackberry with mulberry coming in a very close third. I just made a really nice fire last night with cherry and hackberry cut last spring. Honey locust is nice as well.

Why are there two threads on this?

I love oak and locust, but they take years to season correctly. You're first year burning is the most trying. Try and collect what you can and stack it. Maybe buy some "seasoned" wood I use that term loosely. Next spring you have to start scrounging up for your stash. Once you get that elusive 3 year stash it takes the pressure off you as a good provider

It's all good. Cut it, split it, get it seasoned, and burn it. No discrimination here.

Paulywalnut said:

I love oak and locust, but they take years to season correctly. You're first year burning is the most trying. Try and collect what you can and stack it. Maybe buy some "seasoned" wood I use that term loosely. Next spring you have to start scrounging up for your stash. Once you get that elusive 3 year stash it takes the pressure off you as a good provider

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disagree about the locust. i got a load of fresh cut honey locust last march. Most of it was dry as a bone by october lastyear, some was not ready, the very large 10 12" pieces. black locust is also a mixed bag. some pieces take a year, some are burnable in 5 months. take a hammer or back side of an axe and go through the stack looking for the pieces that ring. the results aleays surprise me.
always seems the stacks going east west get dry the fastest, even though the winds are generally EW

northpa said:

disagree about the locust. i got a load of fresh cut honey locust last march. Most of it was dry as a bone by october lastyear, some was not ready, the very large 10 12" pieces. black locust is also a mixed bag. some pieces take a year, some are burnable in 5 months. take a hammer or back side of an axe and go through the stack looking for the pieces that ring. the results aleays surprise me.
always seems the stacks going east west get dry the fastest, even though the winds are generally EW

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I don't know, man... No experience with honey locust, but my lot is filled with black locust and I burn a ton of it. That said, it takes a very long time to season. I had about a cord and a half that I intended on burning last year (after being split and stacked for a year+) and it wasn't ready. It's just so incredibly dense. I'll be burning it this year.

Maples, birches....all seem to season in 9-12mos easy. Birch faster than maple. I have a bunch of ash split and stacked for next year, first time with ash. It supposedly seasons quick comparatively speaking, we will see.