Whats your Favorite Firewood?

Ashful said:

I won’t even touch wood if it’s been bucked, anymore. When friends call to see if I can haul away a tree, my first question is whether they already bucked it. If they say yes, I usually decline. I’m just tired of getting stupid useless lengths that I need to recut and throw away a bunch of shorts, or pieces with an elbow or crotch right in the middle of the only useable length.

Click to expand...

I used the scrounge wood where I could get it and it was very common for me to cut 26s down to 13s, split some 10s, etc. my stacks were a mess.

Then, I made a friend who owns a tree company. We have gotten to be good buddies. A text and 2-3 days later, 4 cords of 15 foot logs are in the back yard. For free. I’m doing him a favor by getting them out of his yard/him not having to pay the mulch yard to dispose of them.

I too do not take bucked wood anymore. No reason to. Needless to stay, my stacks are much cleaner and more sturdy now.

Favorites at this time... white oak, mulberry, red oak

Im very limited on space so I can only store 2 years worth. So Ash is my favorite, with silver maple being a close second.

I like the rock oak because it's easy splitting. And all the flavors of oak because of how it burns, I'm on top of a mountain, about 90 % oak. We have a few maples and other non descript trees that get tall and spindly before they get starved out by the oaks. This other stuff burns ok, but there not real big. I like to burn monster splits in the stove.

What is rock oak?

Jan Pijpelink said:

http://www.treesofnorthamerica.net/show/tree/Rock-Oak/164

Click to expand...

Ah. Chestnut Oak! Got one right in my front yard. Regional names...

Favorite firewood - I could group it according to yay or nay, and how accessable it is. Favorites would be most hardwoods that I can drive right up to. There's a time to every season, and heavy or lite woods have their seasons. Least favorite would be box elder and punky elm. Seems to be a lot of both here. They somehow always take a low to no priority.

I like a mixture. Makes for purtier, more interesting fires. My favorites are red oak, black cherry, and shagbark hickory. Then sprinkle some beech, red maple, and ash into that stack.

hickoryhoarder said:

I like a mixture. Makes for purtier, more interesting fires. My favorites are red oak, black cherry, and shagbark hickory. Then sprinkle some beech, red maple, and ash into that stack.

Click to expand...

You must be splitting a heck of a lot smaller than me, if you can "sprinkle" your firewood onto the fire.

1. Black Birch: +smells great, +splits easily, +good btu. +Dries quickly. +Grows quickly. +Saws easily. -family is allergic to birch pollen

2. Beech: +good btu, +dries quickly. Splits ok. +Smells a little like honey. -slow to saw -awkwardly shaped for good logs

3. Red Oak: +great btu, -takes yearS to dry. -kinda stinks, can't quite decide if I like or hate the smell. -hates me and is currently waging a slow war by sneaking splinters past my best defences.

Ashful said:

You must be splitting a heck of a lot smaller than me, if you can "sprinkle" your firewood onto the fire.

Click to expand...

I’m just jealous they can hoard hickory. Wish I could!

I agree with you Hickoryhoarder. My piles are well mixed. I have two sections in my garage rack. Hickory/oak (for night time) and everything else. Our Midwest location(s) allows us to pick up some nice firewood. I think we have the best of it all around here.

Free . . . or free and dry.

That said . . . I'm not really sure I play favorites. I mean to say in the Fall and Spring I kinda like to burn softwood, poplar, etc. . . . it's nice as it produces a quick, hot fire to take the chill out of the air without a lot of coaling or excessive heat (plus I enjoy the snaps, crackles and pops.)

When my wife reloads a stove she is partial to white and yellow birch along with elm . . . the birch has built in "fire starting materials" and the elm often is stringy so it catches fire that much easier.

During the deep freeze of the winter I like oak, sugar maple, beech, yellow birch and locust . . . but I've found elm, red maple and a whole host of other wood species do a decent enough job as well.

To every species . . . there is a time and place.

Got over 15 facecords of Hard Maple and Black Locust stacked for this coming winter Oh do I love that Black Locust but I also love smelling that Yellow birch as it's burning!