Firewood from Hell!

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Jags said:
Get a pic of these "thorns". I think I know what your talking about, and they are not true thorns (in the protection of the plant sense), they are more of a pointy growth under the bark, only to be seen when the bark falls off. This true??

If so, you got cotton wood. "Drying to the lightest wood" does not = locust. Sorry for the bad news.
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Yup, not true thorns, more of a pointy growth under the bark. I'm working on getting pictures...
 
Danno77 said:
yeah, Jags, I reread the post and the "thorns" he is saying sound like you are describing and are too small (and aren't external, necessarily) to be Locust. Stringy sounds like elm, very light sounds like cottonwood, smell sounds like elm, too. I dunno.
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Here is a picture of the miserable thorns...
 

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That's sure looks like what has been called slippery elm by me. did you happen to see any of the leaves? cotton wood looks like a heart.
 
I burned cotton wood for about 15 years and had them on my property up in northern Indiana. When you said thorns, I thought not the cotton trees I had.

But after looking at your pics, you most definitely have a cotton wood tree. They do get slimy when your first take off the bark, but not bad after drying. I only had elm and cotton woods and they gave me the heat I needed to keep my house warm enough to have not have a big gas bill.

They dont last long like oak or hickory, but I would say more for shoulder season. I cant remember any stink though?

Shipper
 
Went out the stacks last night , pulled some of that slippery elm out, I am almost 100% sure what you have is slippery elm. Your pictures look just like what I have out there. Mine is not cotton wood.
 
fire_man said:
doubledip said:
The bark looks like cottonwood from here but I could be wrong. The cottonwood has a soft, silky filler under the bark, when half way dry and the bark starts to fall off that filler will just fall apart in your hands… if that’s the case then I would use those rounds as cup holders or something else. I use a couple rounds that I’ve got as stands to buck limbs.
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Yup, that fits the description exactly. silky filler under the bark. It falls apart in my hands. I've got over 2 cord of this junk so too much for cup holders. Here is a picture of both sides of the bark and some splits...
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Yeppers... Cottonwood. In my opinon its not worth the effort splitting.
 
The thing I keep going back to is he says its the lightest wood he has ever seen.

Now Elm should be about 37 pounds for a cubic foot

Cottonwood depending on the species shoule be 24 or 28 pounds

This is assuming 20% moisture


So a good experiement would be to saw out somthing close to a 1cu ft block out of one of those big rounds and weigh it ;)
 
Slippery elm dries lighter than some of the other elms. I have some pieces that seem very light others heavier for different sections of same tree.
 
doubledip said:
fire_man said:
doubledip said:
The bark looks like cottonwood from here but I could be wrong. The cottonwood has a soft, silky filler under the bark, when half way dry and the bark starts to fall off that filler will just fall apart in your hands… if that’s the case then I would use those rounds as cup holders or something else. I use a couple rounds that I’ve got as stands to buck limbs.
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Yup, that fits the description exactly. silky filler under the bark. It falls apart in my hands. I've got over 2 cord of this junk so too much for cup holders. Here is a picture of both sides of the bark and some splits...
Click to expand...

Yeppers... Cottonwood. In my opinon its not worth the effort splitting.
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:-S Too late. All split.
 
Hay, Btu's are Btu's :)
 
fire_man said:
:-S Too late. All split.
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Don't get too down on that pile of BTUs. It has been said that it ain't worth it - dunno. But if you got a stack of it ready, there is one thing that I will Gar-own-tee is that it will make heat. And lets face it - thats what were trying to do, right?
 
Jags said:
fire_man said:
:-S Too late. All split.
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Don't get too down on that pile of BTUs. It has been said that it ain't worth it - dunno. But if you got a stack of it ready, there is one thing that I will Gar-own-tee is that it will make heat. And lets face it - thats what were trying to do, right?
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That's kind of what I was thinking, but its discouraging that I did twice the work for 1/2 the Btu's. I don't normally mind the work, but it took so dang long to peel those splits apart.
 
fire_man said:
Jags said:
fire_man said:
:-S Too late. All split.
Click to expand...

Don't get too down on that pile of BTUs. It has been said that it ain't worth it - dunno. But if you got a stack of it ready, there is one thing that I will Gar-own-tee is that it will make heat. And lets face it - thats what were trying to do, right?
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking, but its discouraging that I did twice the work for 1/2 the Btu's. I don't normally mind the work, but it took so dang long to peel those splits apart.
Click to expand...

He,he,he - Yeah, but you learned something from it. Good or bad - you will walk away from this knowing more than when you started.
 
Jags said:
fire_man said:
Jags said:
fire_man said:
:-S Too late. All split.
Click to expand...

Don't get too down on that pile of BTUs. It has been said that it ain't worth it - dunno. But if you got a stack of it ready, there is one thing that I will Gar-own-tee is that it will make heat. And lets face it - thats what were trying to do, right?
Click to expand...

That's kind of what I was thinking, but its discouraging that I did twice the work for 1/2 the Btu's. I don't normally mind the work, but it took so dang long to peel those splits apart.
Click to expand...

He,he,he - Yeah, but you learned something from it. Good or bad - you will walk away from this knowing more than when you started.
Click to expand...

When it becomes a learning experience (at least in my case) the same mistake most likely will not happen twice.

Naturally cottonwood will produce heat... I look at it this way, the time, space and the effort it will take to keep the stove stoked would yield greater value with a higher quality wood. Just my opinion.
 
I guess what I learned is when you order a grapple load, don't be shy about GRILLING the tree service guy about DETAILS of the wood species (which I had), and even if they shove a contract in your face and it says "no pine in the delivery", insist on ABSOLUTELY NO VERY LOW BTU WOODS like Cottonwood, POPLAR, Boxelder, and obvious logs with fence posts wrapped around them and spikes sticking out! The problem is I had done business with this place before and was happy. I guess it all depends on where they got their last batch of trees.In the end, I will get heat, so it could be worse - at least all the wood was fresh and no rotten stuff.
 
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