which wood type to buy

I'd go with ash and cherry. I've burned ash for the past few years (EAB) and love it. Dries quickly, burns hot and low ash. Cherry smells great and is great in the smoker. Good luck.

I'd get them all, and mix 'em up.

Lower BTU's for shoulder season, denser hard woods for when you need the BTU's, or to get less than primo firewood going. .

My Prince of a firewood guy laughed at me when I told him I'd take pine (his son runs a local tree service <my Prince of a tree dude>, and everything he hauls out goes to Dad, who splits and sells... he's happily splitting the pine, and selling it to me, and I'm damned glad to have it.

I won't waste the time on splitting pine. It goes in the fire pit in the back yard. Not worried about hurting my stove or chimney with it, but I'm not going to spend hours splitting and stacking it, either. There is always more good hardwood than hours available to split it.

Joful said:

I won't waste the time on splitting pine. It goes in the fire pit in the back yard. Not worried about hurting my stove or chimney with it, but I'm not going to spend hours splitting and stacking it, either. There is always more good hardwood than hours available to split it.

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When it's delivered to you, already split, mounded in an 8" pick up bed, for a reasonable price (I'm not allowed to say, but it's awesome for me), and all I have to do is stack it, I'll take it, and burn it gladly.

I can get 3-4 hours out of pine ( not fully loaded).

It's awesome for when I'm home can reload the stove at will.!

Mix with cherry, ash, elm, less than perfect oak. It gets the job done.. And I was damned glad I had it this winter.

Joful said:

Crazy question... why would an individual plant a wood lot that will never produce firewood in their lifetime?

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The answer is more fun than the question..a finer bullshit artist you will never find than good ole '47..

I burn 90% pine. I need a lot of heat fast. Pine is fine for that.

I like having a mix.

I use spruce in the shoulders on low to not roast me out of the house, in deep winter I'll burn a box full of spruce off fast to warm the joint up before the wife gets home.

Otherwise I pretty much burn birch and fool with the thermostat thingy on my blaze king.

FWIW birch and spruce is all that grows up here. One variable to think about is coaling. A wood that holds coals for a long time is going to put X amount of BTUs per minute into your envelope in the coaling stage, but some other similar wood that doesn't make long coals is going to burn on out for you so you can reload and get your stove output back up to 3X BTU per minute.

maverick06 said:

So I get my wood cut/split/delivered. The dealer I get it from, and have for the last 6 years or so (proven to be very good, Chips tree service) , has said that for the same price/cord I can specify what wood I want:

Maple - 18 mbtu/cord
Ash - 20 mbtu/cord
Walnut - 20mbtu/cord
Cherry -20 mbtu/cord
Tulip - 15mbtu/cord

So the Tulip is out and the others are nearly the same. Any thoughts on what burns best? I go through about 4 cords a year, and typically have been burning ash, but get whatever is in the mix. I am not sure what the burning properties of the others are, good coals, lots of ash or whatnot.

Any thoughts?

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Hi maverick06, I'm in media too, can you share the information of your dealer? How much they charge for a cord? Are they season?

Thank you.

A very sweeping statement to condemn burning only one variety of wood. If you want to burn only oak, then go to the site where you cut and select the unsatisfactory grade trees. You thin and improve the forest/woodlot in the process, as well as culling the lesser trees and giving the better a greater chance of producing the succeeding trees. The very best trees should be left as seed trees.

I know I have pine beetles declaring war on my pine trees, and I wish somebody could show me what gums (sweet gum and black gum) is good for biologically, so I expect to burn a lot of both pine and gum from where I hunt. My box heater seems to burn anything just fine. Other than that, I like hardwoods when I can get them.

Joful said:

Crazy question... why would an individual plant a wood lot that will never produce firewood in their lifetime?

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In my case ... for future generations. I cannot tell you how many acorns I have planted on my property and where I once cut ... knowing full well that I will never see these trees become lumber or firewood ... I take pleasure though in the thought that some day another person will have a number of oak trees to do with them as they will ... whether it be harvesting them or simply admiring their majestic beauty.

For me ... variety is the spice of life ... I've always said for each species there is a season and a reason ... oak and locust get saved for the dead of winter, pine and poplar are good for now and early fall.

But to answer the op ... ash and maple ...,in that order. If for some reason I had to select a single species to burn it would without question be ash.

firefighterjake said:

In my case ... for future generations. I cannot tell you how many acorns I have planted on my property and where I once cut ... knowing full well that I will never see these trees become lumber or firewood ... I take pleasure though in the thought that some day another person will have a number of oak trees to do with them as they will ... whether it be harvesting them or simply admiring their majestic beauty.

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I do the same on my own property, but that's a far cry from OldMan's claim of buying separate acreage for the pure purpose of planting two dedicated wood lots. I would venture to say this is not a wise investment of time or money, at the private/residential scale.

I have personally been involved in the sale of more than 300 acres of my family's land in and around New Hope, Bucks County. Wooded lots never bring more money than cleared lots.

Joful, I didn't buy the land just to plant trees, but once I owned it I had to decide in each case what use I would have for it. Around here cleared land is very common. I have heard the area called a corn desert because unless the corn is up all you see is bare dirt with some crop stubble on it. Wooded acres are at a premium and the profit from row crops would never be much even with the government program money. I have other sources of income so I was OK with keeping both properties and taking a chance that I might see a profit in dollars but was certain to see a profit in the environmental value of my land for the area where I live. It has turned out that the dollar value of small 5 acre country building lots has exploded for forested land more than for bare land. If I had invested that money in other things like stocks or city building sites I might have done better financially but I am fine with what I did.
I am now building my own home on the larger of my properties.

I have burned hard maple, ash and cherry and they are all good, love the smell of black cherry burning.

Applesister said:

Like if the OP's question was "which species of tree should I go out to my woods and cut down for the highest heat value?" I would answer that he should choose a diversity of species.
But that is just me. And that is why I talk myself into cutting and burning poplar and cottonwood.
What I cut is ethically sound and geared toward land stewardship. With timber management and species preservation the priority.
Firewood is also a byproduct of agricultural endeavors as well. And I don't mean to sound snobby, I'm just proud of my position.

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I agree with your post, with the exception of Sweet Gum. I just plain hate those trees. Wouldn't lose a minute of sleep if we cut them all down. Then again, they all just grow back from the stumps anyways.