Free wood craigslist find - some questions and a picture

[kingston73]

I scored a free wood find today, and will be able to go back weds or thursday to get at least that amount, if not more. A local landscaping business has a giant pile of mixed trees, most are still 16 to 20 feet long, some are pretty damn large diameter as well. The pile in my truck was all I was able to move myself, it looks like most of it is pine with maybe some oak or maybe maple mixed in. I'm always happy with free wood and don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I managed to load all that by myself while a couple of guys who were there before me only loaded maybe half that because they were being really picky about what they wanted. I have a couple questions about it though:
1) Ideas on about how much this might be in terms of cordage? I'm still new at wood burning (2nd year) but I'm guessing maybe a 1/4 cord? (That's a Tacoma with a 5 foot bed, most of those logs just fit into the bed with the tailgate closed.)

2) I know much of what I have is pine but I think there are a couple oak(?) mixed in. Can anybody ID any of it by the picture I have?

3) From what I've been reading it seems like pine has mixed opinions. Some say it's bad, other places say it's fine. What do all y'all say about pine?

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm guessing that the logs on the top left and bottom center (no bark) is the Pine? I can only see the bark well on the top center log...could be some type of Maple, maybe.
It's all firewood, but some woods won't give as long a burn time as others. This isn't as much an issue if someone is home all the time to feed the stove, but overnight burns can still be hard to achieve. Pine burns up pretty fast, but burns hot. I've got some that I'm going to use as starter wood. Of course if you have a Blaze King, your stove will burn for three days on a rolled-up newspaper... :lol:

 

[ROBERT F]

Just under 1/4 cord. Pine is fine. But if there are denser wood then that is what I would get, assuming you have the time and space for proper drying. If not then go the pine route. Free wood is good wood, but free good wood is even better!

 

[kingston73]

In my area it's rare to find free wood, so I'll take what I can get. It's not my only wood, I already have about 2 cords of 1 year old mixed hardwoods (birch, oak, and maple mostly). Today was a good wood day, after I got that load home and unloaded it I found another guy on craigslist with a year old oak tree for sale for only $30. It's not split, so does that year it's been cut down count or does wood only really get seasoned after it's split. Guesstimate on how much cordage this is?

 

[certified106]

No guesstimate on the cordage but regardless of how much it is it's still free heat and a nice score so that should put a smile on your face.
As to the oak if it wasn't cut and split it probably doesn't count or doesn't count for enough to really matter.

 

[raybonz]

The 2nd pic looks like silver maple to me.. Dries fast and very light when dry.. Easy to split and good for firestarting or shoulder season burning.. Around here pine has no value but I will start fires with it and I only burn what I get from my property.. Where are you located?

Ray

 

[nrford]

The 2nd pic looks like silver maple to me.. Dries fast and very light when dry.. Easy to split and good for firestarting or shoulder season burning.. Around here pine has no value but I will start fires with it and I only burn what I get from my property.. Where are you located?

Ray

+1

 

[kingston73]

I'm in Bellingham, near the RI corner. We have only lived here for 2 years, I have 2 acres of land but most of it is still really young, think trees and a bunch of those nasty thorn locust trees with a few sycamore, birch and some oak mixed in. In ten years or so they'll be big enough to cut. I am going to take down a few of the locust trees in the hopes that something better will be able to take over. I think most of this in the pictures will be next years wood.

 

[raybonz]

I'm in Bellingham, near the RI corner. We have only lived here for 2 years, I have 2 acres of land but most of it is still really young, think trees and a bunch of those nasty thorn locust trees with a few sycamore, birch and some oak mixed in. In ten years or so they'll be big enough to cut. I am going to take down a few of the locust trees in the hopes that something better will be able to take over. I think most of this in the pictures will be next years wood.

Locust is great firewood with high BTU's.. I worked on traffic lights in Bellingham about 4 yrs. ago..

Ray

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Kingston, in your second year of burning wood you should do fine. You'll do even better as the years go by and experience teaches. The pine will burn okay but is best for daytime burning. The second load of soft maple will be better but is still not the best for overnight fires. Still we burn a lot of soft maple here and we like it.

One big caution though. Getting that soft maple now it is doubtful that it will be good for burning this year. It can be ready in 6 months under the right conditions but getting it in mid-August I would really hesitate to burn it this coming winter. You really need to get far enough ahead so you have a minimum of a year's supply of wood on hand so you always have at least a year for drying.

The better plan is to get into a position where you are 2-3 years ahead on your wood supply. With that much wood on hand you will solve almost all of a wood burners problems. There just is not a good substitute for good dry wood and you need Mother Nature's help in drying that wood. Yes, people do it different year after year but you will find things go so much easier and the stove operates much better when you give that wood time to dry.

 

[smokinj]

In my area it's rare to find free wood, so I'll take what I can get. It's not my only wood, I already have about 2 cords of 1 year old mixed hardwoods (birch, oak, and maple mostly). Today was a good wood day, after I got that load home and unloaded it I found another guy on craigslist with a year old oak tree for sale for only $30. It's not split, so does that year it's been cut down count or does wood only really get seasoned after it's split. Guesstimate on how much cordage this is?

Free wood all round you starting with the one in the Pic.... ;-) (standing tree looks rough in the trunk)

 

[pants on fire]

As far as amount...always hard to tell in log form. Have a Tacoma myself. I scrounged 5 bedfulls (with no bed extender) this month. Ended up with 1 1/3 cords when spllit.

 

[kingston73]

In my area it's rare to find free wood, so I'll take what I can get. It's not my only wood, I already have about 2 cords of 1 year old mixed hardwoods (birch, oak, and maple mostly). Today was a good wood day, after I got that load home and unloaded it I found another guy on craigslist with a year old oak tree for sale for only $30. It's not split, so does that year it's been cut down count or does wood only really get seasoned after it's split. Guesstimate on how much cordage this is?

Free wood all round you starting with the one in the Pic.... ;-) (standing tree looks rough in the trunk)

That standing tree is the only sizable one on our property, all the rest are maybe 6-8 inches in diameter. That big one needs to stay, it's the only thing that gives our fenced part of the yard shade.

 

[firefighterjake]

General rule of thumb that seems to work out for me is a pick up with a "standard" 6 1/2 foot bed loaded loosely with rounds bucked to stove length and stacked so that it is slightly rounded usually comes up to around 1/3 of a cord . . . often a bit more, sometimes a bit less . . . depending on the length of the wood, size of the wood, split vs. stacked, etc.

 

[Wood Duck]

I'm in Bellingham, near the RI corner. We have only lived here for 2 years, I have 2 acres of land but most of it is still really young, think trees and a bunch of those nasty thorn locust trees with a few sycamore, birch and some oak mixed in. In ten years or so they'll be big enough to cut. I am going to take down a few of the locust trees in the hopes that something better will be able to take over. I think most of this in the pictures will be next years wood.

Those locust trees are probably your best firewood - they sound like Honey Locust, which grow reasonably fast and make great firewood. The other locust is Black locust which grows even faster and makes even better firewood! Can't go wrong with locust.

I can't ID the trees in the first picture, but the second load appears to be be Red or Silver Maple (or maybe Sugar Maple).

I would take as much free wood as you can haul. There is nothing wrong with pine as firewood, except perhaps that you might want to take hardwood first if you already have this year's firewood in storage. You say you have two cords, which is not enough for most of us for a year. I'd try to get pine or softer hardwoods like Red or Silver Maple for use late this winter. Save oak, Sugar Maple, and other harder woods for next year or the years after.

 

[kingston73]

I always thought of locust trees as junk, never knew they are good firewood. That'll be good for me then because that's about 90% of the trees on my property. The guy I got the hardwood from had told me it was oak but looking at it I'm thinking those of you who are saying maple are correct. I never got to see the tree as it had been cut down for a long while and no leaves or smaller branches remaining. Last year we had an old inefficient smoke dragon stove and only used 2 cords of wood, so I was thinking I might only need about the same this year. We don't use it 24/7, it's mainly a supplemental source for evening/night. I'm not even close to stacking it yet, haven't even started splitting any of it, but when I do get to that point do most of you keep the different types of trees separated?

 

[firefighterjake]

I always thought of locust trees as junk, never knew they are good firewood. That'll be good for me then because that's about 90% of the trees on my property. The guy I got the hardwood from had told me it was oak but looking at it I'm thinking those of you who are saying maple are correct. I never got to see the tree as it had been cut down for a long while and no leaves or smaller branches remaining. Last year we had an old inefficient smoke dragon stove and only used 2 cords of wood, so I was thinking I might only need about the same this year. We don't use it 24/7, it's mainly a supplemental source for evening/night. I'm not even close to stacking it yet, haven't even started splitting any of it, but when I do get to that point do most of you keep the different types of trees separated?

I would love to get my hands on some locust . . . next year I'm excited just because I'll be trying out some oak for the first time. Most of my wood is sugar or red maple, elm, ash and a smattering of white and yellow birch. Consider yourself fortunate if you have a whole lot of locust.

For the record I think you have maple in the pic . . . not sure which type though. At first I thought it could be cherry, but I'm leaning more towards the maple -- if it's cherry you'll know as soon as you start to split it up since it will have a sweep smell.

I don't separate the species when I stack . . . but I do pick and choose what wood I bring in sometimes -- depending on the time of day and what I am trying to accomplish. If it's early in the year and I just want a quick, not fire I'll route around for some softwood, poplar, white birch, etc. and often go with my punks, chunks and uglies to build a fire on the smaller side . . . if I'm building an overnight fire I'll look for some of the medium to large sized sugar maple, ash, etc.

 

[Wood Duck]

I stack all my wood together. If I stacked separately I'd have several unfinished stacks instead of just one, plus I like having a mix of wood when I take down a stack. I save the denser wood for long burns and use lighter species during the day.