Most underrated firewood: my list

[EbS-P]

Long leaf pine— it’s a southern yellow pine. Splits easy until you to the last 8’ ( everyone I’ve split has been through at least 5 hurricanes). Had the btu content of oak. Burns faster with less coaling and little ash. It’s nearly as dense as red oak and with all the sap can have a higher btu content. It dries in a single summer.

It free down here just ask any tree company when you hear a saw near by all have been happy to drop it in my driveway.

 

[Tree scruff]

The bark is easily the most distinctive thing for our sycamores.

View attachment 306979

That looks so like the big London planes. Thumping great things. Interesting thing about the London planes is they were only crossed around 200 years ago. Like many hybrids they are strong and full of vigor. The specimens in London are massive and still getting bigger. No one actually knows how big they are going to get because they've not been around long. Sadly I think there is a disease getting to them now.

 

[awicherr]

Older post but just saw this and enjoyed reading it... My two under rated favorites: juniper, and Alanthis

 

[Qvist]

I like mulberry as well. Related to Osage orange. Sparks like it as well.

 

[Split]

I burn a lot of birch. It burns great. I keep the straps of bark as the fall off when dried. It makes a great fire starter.

 

[Woody Stover]

Older post but just saw this and enjoyed reading it... My two under rated favorites: juniper, and Alanthis

I've heard that Juniper burns fairly well, but Ailanthus? Doesn't sound great, from what I've read. I remember someone calling it Tree of Hell. 😆

Search results for query: Ailanthus

www.hearth.com

 

[j7art2]

My #1 answer is pine, 100%.

I take advantage of the old wives tales and capitalize on it whenever I can. My dad to this day insists I shouldn't burn it, yet lets me harvest all I want from his property. I've shown him my wood stove manual that says I can burn it, that it seasons in a year or less, and have presented my research on places that commonly burn nothing but pine, but he won't touch the stuff and neither will most people in my area.

I heated my 2015-2017 season on almost 100% exclusively pine. The fire curve is MUCH different using pine than hardwood, and it's a bit of a learning curve. If you toss in a whole stove full of pine, you're gonna over fire, at least in my experience. It dumps BTU fast and I actually prefer it over hardwood in shoulder season so I can take the chill out of the air in the house, then by 10am when it warms up, the stove is dying down.

I can get a bundle of unseasoned pine slab from the local amish which contains about a full cord (3 face) for $10. I slap 10-15 slabs on the bucking horse at once and buzz them all down to size. Easy to cut, easy to stack, easy to make kindling with, darn near free, and generates enough heat off the bat to get the hardwood it's mixed with going quickly. I cut it in the spring and it's at 12-14% MC by fall. One of my neighbors honey holes I'm hitting for wood has probably 70% pine there, so I'm expecting to do at least 50% pine next year. One of my favorite homesteading Youtube channels heats on 100% pine and has done so for the last 10 years in their BK princess. They've never once needed to clean the cat during that time. My Ozzy doesn't have a cat, but after 10 minutes rolling in my stove, I'm not getting any visible smoke anyway most of the time regardless of wood species, so myth busted as far as I'm concerned.

I burn everything for the most part and have been pleasantly surprised by Tulip poplar, box elder, and white/paper birch. Birch is considered a "soft wood" here, but I like it a lot. I truly have never found a better kindling anywhere than paper birch bark. I strip every single piece of birchwood I get of its bark because it's just so darn good. Box elder is considered a soft maple, is a pain to cut and a pain to split in my experience; splits a lot like elm, cuts a lot like oak, but burns pretty good. I got about 6 face cord of it a number of years back and would gladly get more provided I have a splitter. I wouldn't try it by hand, far too stringy.

The only wood I really haven't liked is Willow. It burns fast, and quite frankly just doesn't generate much heat. It's also extremely stingy and truly a pain in the arse to split, even WITH a splitter. It's the only wood I turn away when offered to me.

Interesting comments on the American Hornbeam and the sizes of the Hophornbeam, which I've never seen before that I know of. I've got TONS of American Hornbeam here (AKA musclewood) but remember reading, and have actually confirmed at least in my area where they grow, that after about 5-6" in diameter, they typically die off and/or fall over. I don't know if it's the density of the wood that's simply too much for the root system in the swampy areas that they grow or what, but in the acres and acres of it spread throughout the forest I live, I've never seen one larger than that.

 

[webfish]

I agree with everything @j7art2 says. Love pine. Burn it whenever I come upon it. Hornbeam or as we call it Ironwood. Love the small diameter and cranks the BTUs. I have a friend thats place is full of it and when they fall over he calls me up.

Don't touch willow or poplar.

 

[mrc]

Eastern Hophornbeam. The one I cut down was shaped like the bigger one but was much larger with many thick limbs that made a lot of firewood. Will be burning it next year. I’m interested in seeing how it burns.

 

[RustyGunz60]

Any wood that's free. I'm not going to look at it for decades as if I made furniture from it. I'm going to burn it.

 

[ohlongarmisle]

What firewood doesn't get the love it deserves?

Here is my list:

1. Red elm (a.k.a. slippery elm): Simply great firewood in every way. It doesn't stink like American elm (smells more like cinnamon). Sub-20% mc it burns like red oak. Good flames and good heat, not too fast, and good coals. The grain is very twisty and it's hard to split -- even with a hydro splitter. But that's one of its best qualities! Those shredded looking splits can be lit with a match -- no kindling required.

2. Soft Maple (Red Maple / Silver Maple): Red Maple in particular is a fine firewood. Easy to split. Dries fast. Lights easily and leaves good coals. Silver maple isn't quite as good, but it's better than you'd expect based on firewood BTU charts. Around here, soft maple grows fast and gets huge. Scoring a big tree can give you a ton of very decent firewood that will be ready to burn in a year.

3. High BTU small trees: My favorites in SE Michigan -- hornbeam (ironwood), hop hornbeam (my absolute favorite), serviceberry, and hawthorn. I could also add deer-apple apple trees to the list. (Apples trees that grow near a bait pile in the woods and stay small because of the shade.) These are all small understory trees in my forest, although hawthorn will get bigger if it gets enough sun. I cut these small trees to length and season them for two years. No splitting required and great for balancing out big splits of pine or spruce. They probably don't make up more than 5% of my wood pile, but I never pass on small, high btu species.

Yellow poplar, could burn that stuff indefinitely, in my king it burns a long time with great heat, no coals and very little ash.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Yellow poplar, could burn that stuff indefinitely, in my king it burns a long time with great heat, no coals and very little ash.

Scrap pieces of poplar that Im using to interior panel my cabin. Looks like cherry almost when the sun takes to it. And I got it very cheap at the time.
In the stove, I might throw a couple 1' pieces in first thing in the morning to get it going again with splits on top/around, but mostly I keep the fireplace flaming nicely by constantly feeding scrap poplar into the fireplace.

 

[Tom1]

I also like pine--I have slash and loblolly. I won't go so far as to say it's as good as oak, but when I have it I burn it. Stuff I'm splitting now will be ready in the fall. People in the Southeast also avoid it, so there's no competition for it.

I like small-diameter sweet gum. It splits ok up to about 6", but beyond that it turns into a nightmare.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

So many I could list. We have a lot to choose from in this area. I like
some of the understory trees like Dogwood and Beech. Some shrub
type evergreens will surprise. I cut down a dead Ewe, maybe 15 feet
high and about 60 years old. Surprisingly good wood, burned slow
but hot and lasted well. There is always some Tulip poplar in my
mix, not much of it but a steady supply. Burns faster like dimensional
lumber scraps (Pine). Bradford Pear is often available. Susceptible to
strong downdraft winds, fairly big branches are shearing off all the
time. Free for scroungers. Some Maple finds its way into my mix.
Sometimes a lucky find of Locust. Our local variety is thornless,
thank goodness. Prolific grower in the (suburban) wild, all along
roadways. And of course Locust is a premium, high BTU stove chow.
Occasional Apple- a neighbor had one taken down, tree guy dumped
it in my yard for me. Black gum occasionally. Pine? Yes. I'm not proud
and will take some. Like Poplar, good at livening a fire up when
adding more splits.

The above are some, not necessarily all of what I'm burning that I
consider 'underrated'. In addition, a lot of Red Oak and some White
Oak is in constant use here- plus Cherry. Those three are my 'bread
and butter' go to's.

Clutter

 

[fvhowler]

Bradford Pear for me. Terrible, overplanted, invasive landscape tree around here. They stink when blooming, hard to split and too much limb wood (rounds). With all that said, the best thing you can do with BP is cut it down and burn it. Produces good heat.

 

[Prof]

I always say black birch is my favorite, if I could have just one species of wood to burn it would be that. It usually has nice straight grain, splits easy, seasons quickly and gives a good long burn. Plus the bark has a peppermint smell.

I love cutting black birch as well--it smells great! I agree--excellent heat and relatively easy to split!

 

[Prof]

Hemlock is plentiful on my stretch of land. It resists rot, doesn't have the sap that other conifers have (not worried about creosote, but resin does gum up the gloves and tools). When we had a really wet fall and winter, hemlock was the easiest to get dry and start the fire.

 

[sweedish]

According to the charts, dogwood has really high Btu’s. But it would take quite an effort to gather a cord. They use it for the shafts in wooden golf clubs.

 

[Kwolt]

What firewood doesn't get the love it deserves?

Here is my list:

1. Red elm (a.k.a. slippery elm): Simply great firewood in every way. It doesn't stink like American elm (smells more like cinnamon). Sub-20% mc it burns like red oak. Good flames and good heat, not too fast, and good coals. The grain is very twisty and it's hard to split -- even with a hydro splitter. But that's one of its best qualities! Those shredded looking splits can be lit with a match -- no kindling required.

2. Soft Maple (Red Maple / Silver Maple): Red Maple in particular is a fine firewood. Easy to split. Dries fast. Lights easily and leaves good coals. Silver maple isn't quite as good, but it's better than you'd expect based on firewood BTU charts. Around here, soft maple grows fast and gets huge. Scoring a big tree can give you a ton of very decent firewood that will be ready to burn in a year.

3. High BTU small trees: My favorites in SE Michigan -- hornbeam (ironwood), hop hornbeam (my absolute favorite), serviceberry, and hawthorn. I could also add deer-apple apple trees to the list. (Apples trees that grow near a bait pile in the woods and stay small because of the shade.) These are all small understory trees in my forest, although hawthorn will get bigger if it gets enough sun. I cut these small trees to length and season them for two years. No splitting required and great for balancing out big splits of pine or spruce. They probably don't make up more than 5% of my wood pile, but I never pass on small, high btu species.

Lilac burns like coal.

 

[Stove Cricket]

Eastern Red Cedar. … it reminds me of something, not sure what it is though.

 

[bunfoolio]

For me white pine. I like for the reasons below

1) tempature regulation due to low btu
2) great to burn when you have a build up of hardwood coals
3) smells great outside
4) in my area very plentiful and people will give it to you
5) easy to process due to long straight grain with branches at the top

 

[trailrated]

When we had some American Elm here it was one of my favorites. The Elm bark Beetle came through here in the early- mid 80's and all is gone now. Most under rated for me would be sycamore. Once we'll seasoned burns better then one wood expect. Atleast for me.

I've always wondered about sycamore. Never tried it and I got some on my lot

 

[Toasty-Yote]

According to the charts, dogwood has really high Btu’s. But it would take quite an effort to gather a cord. They use it for the shafts in wooden golf clubs.

I came into some dogwood this year and I love it. Great, slow burn with good coals and smelled like flowers when I burned it too.

Underrated favorite? Staghorn sumac. Best kindling. I would say it lights easier than pine and then burns nice and hot to either remove a chill or light your hardwoods. When you find it dead it is super easy to cut and super easy to split into kindling. Very straight and coarse grains.

 

[Plink in NM]

What firewood doesn't get the love it deserves?

Here is my list:

1. Red elm (a.k.a. slippery elm): Simply great firewood in every way. It doesn't stink like American elm (smells more like cinnamon). Sub-20% mc it burns like red oak. Good flames and good heat, not too fast, and good coals. The grain is very twisty and it's hard to split -- even with a hydro splitter. But that's one of its best qualities! Those shredded looking splits can be lit with a match -- no kindling required.

2. Soft Maple (Red Maple / Silver Maple): Red Maple in particular is a fine firewood. Easy to split. Dries fast. Lights easily and leaves good coals. Silver maple isn't quite as good, but it's better than you'd expect based on firewood BTU charts. Around here, soft maple grows fast and gets huge. Scoring a big tree can give you a ton of very decent firewood that will be ready to burn in a year.

3. High BTU small trees: My favorites in SE Michigan -- hornbeam (ironwood), hop hornbeam (my absolute favorite), serviceberry, and hawthorn. I could also add deer-apple apple trees to the list. (Apples trees that grow near a bait pile in the woods and stay small because of the shade.) These are all small understory trees in my forest, although hawthorn will get bigger if it gets enough sun. I cut these small trees to length and season them for two years. No splitting required and great for balancing out big splits of pine or spruce. They probably don't make up more than 5% of my wood pile, but I never pass on small, high btu species.

Regarding your #1: Elm of any species gets no respect, it's the Rodney Dangerfield of firewood, and I'm at a loss to understand why. I burn it almost exclusively and when it is absolutely dry it burns almost like oak. I think a lot of the animus comes from the fact that it can be very hard to split, especially when green, and if it is burned before fully dry it kind of smoulders. Here in the southwest (NM) elm can easily dry to 2-3% moisture content, and when it gets to that point it is almost impossible to beat. It has good coaling ability that lasts through the night, but I will admit that it has a higher than average ash content, but I can live with that.

 

[qwee]

I'm with you Plink. We have Siberian Elm out west, here. The 2 elms, Red & Siberian, have almost the same BTU rating - Red 21.9, Siberian 21.7. Siberian Elm splits fine with a hydraulic splitter. It usually has several trunks so most of the rounds aren't too big. Elm is sometimes the only decent hardwood in abundance where I'm at. This next week, I have access to about 1.5 cords of Siberian Elm, and then I'm putting my gear away for the year.

I just went to a recycle center and had my trailer loaded via a guy in a loader. Pickings are getting slim this time of year. But I looked hard and found a couple of small Honey Locust logs , three or four Siberian Elm logs, one big but short Russian Olive log, a Sugar Maple log , and a big hardwood log that I haven't figured out the species to yet .

I accidentally had the loader load a small poplar log (oh well, I thought it was Beech). And I sawed and hand loaded the pickup bed with a 1/2 cord of more Sugar Maple. Sugar Maple is new to me, but I already like it - such a nice wood, like Ash.