Anyone burned Atlas Cedar before?

[s0ulP@tch]

I'm getting a load of Atlas Cedar delivered today (getchipdrop.com, local arborist). Will post pics when the load arrives.

Anyone burned it before? Arborist claims it's denser than western red cedar (it's a "true cedar" after all) and that it seasons nicely and burns well. But of course he has a load of logs he wants to dump and has reason to say anything he can to get rid of them 🤣 I tried searching this and other forums, the GoogleWebz, etc and couldn't find BTU info, seasoning times, or other relevant info.

 

[begreen]

Atlas Cedar is a gorgeous, magestic tree. It's a shame they are taking it down. It's valued by woodworkers if you know any. The wood may burn hotter and faster than some other firewood. If so, split it thicker and mix with other wood to slow it down. Save some wood chips for the smoker.

 

[bigealta]

Blue Atlas Cedar, any good for burning?

I carved up a massive maple tree here this week (6 foot DBH) and hauled 3+ cords of it here for the wood. They have a huge atlas cedar that hey are...

firewoodhoardersclub.com

 

[s0ulP@tch]

@bigealta Yep, found that thread. He never got around to talking about how well it split, seasoned, or burned.
@begreen don't hate on me for taking it - I'm just on the receiving end I agree, they're beautiful. I'm trying to get ahead on my wood for next year. This year I was way behind and will probably just supplement my heat pump with burning when it gets really cold.

I will see if my FIL wants some pieces - he's retired and loves working with wood. All I have time for it right now is burning, unfortunately. I figured I'd need to mix it in with other wood.

The arborist dropped one load and has another one coming, along with some pin oak. Some chips were delivered with it, but they'll probably go to the garden after sitting for a season to decompose. I don't smoke meats. I'm excited for the oak - I'm in the burbs so I get whatever arborists bring me. Never had the pleasure of oak before, as I assume they divvy those up amongst their employees for burning at home.

 

[begreen]

Hey, free wood is free wood. I've seen stunning black walnut burnt as firewood. Painful, but not all that uncommon.

 

[bigealta]

Hey, free wood is free wood. I've seen stunning black walnut burnt as firewood. Painful, but not all that uncommon.

Guilty.... Burned probably 10-15 trees worth about 20 years ago. Was not worth the cost to truck to a mill and have milled.

 

[s0ulP@tch]

Well so far it’s stringy and the tiniest knots create issues. I’ll cut it to length and wait for it to dry out a bit more

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

Well so far it’s stringy and the tiniest knots create issues. I’ll cut it to length and wait for it to dry out a bit more

View attachment 330196

If you can try to split in or around freezing temps that helps too.

 

[s0ulP@tch]

I gave a few rounds to the arts department at my daughter’s school and have offered some to a former classmate of hers that turns wood. Glad some of this can be used to make beautiful things.

 

[s0ulP@tch]

Quick update

Since winter was really mild I let most of the Atlas Cedar sit in a pile. It has excellent rot resistance so I figured it’d be fine. Seems like there’s no rot.

I split it over the last few weeks. It’s less aromatic than Doug Fir or Western Red Cedar, but has a nice smell.

I found many of the rounds to have grain that grows in a spiral. The spiral grain means strings of wood will stick to each other, keeping splits from completely separating. This makes manual splitting frustrating. Some rounds didn’t have this problem, and I was able to split straight through the trunk and stubs of branches. A hydraulic splitter probably would have made it less frustrating to split. I haven’t burned it yet, but it feels less dense than Doug Fir. It does appear to dry very quickly once split, so that’s nice.

Overall Atlas Cedar probably isn’t an excellent choice for firewood, but I expect it’ll burn fine once lit. I’ll burn some this fall once temps begin to drop.

Image 1 - stringy splits
Image 2 - spiral grain means stacking can be frustrating
Image 3 - some rounds split easily, even through knots

 

[s0ulP@tch]

Now that I’m burning, I figured I’d go through my shoulder season wood. That means my Atlas Cedar will heat the home thru October.

My thoughts on the Atlas Cedar:

Coaling: poor. Not much left but ash
Leftover ash: high. You’ll need to clean out your fire box far more than you would when burning native PNW conifers
Scent: less aromatic than pine, fir, or red cedar, but it does have a spicy scent to it. I like it.
Sap content: low. Bark has small sap pockets and it does spark some, but nowhere near what I’ve found in PNW native pine, fir, or cedar
Smoke: it’s a bit smoky before it gets really hot.
Drying: after sitting in rounds over a winter, splits dried to 10-12% in the Oregon summer sun for one season. Single rows were south facing. Bark is pretty tight so any rounds that weren’t split kept their moisture, but splits dried quickly.
Splitting: very easy once dried some. Stringy and a pain to hand split when wet. Recommend to throw in a pile until it’s partially dry (6 or more months), then split . freezing temps didn’t help much. Or use a hydraulic splitter when wet.
BTUs: I don’t have a good way to measure this, but I’d guess that it’s less than Douglas Fir but more than Western Red Cedar.
Other thoughts: works well for kindling and does seem to light decently well. Bark is quite fire resistant unless the fire is hot. The bark will start to peel off the wood when splits are dry, so you could remove the bark if you wanted. I burned them together - worked out fine since I have good draft. Works well as a shoulder season wood or when mixed with harder woods that are harder to light.