"Best Firewood in the World"

[konakid]

I live in Hawaii - so you would wonder why I need firewood for my wood stove. The reason is I live at elevation. And while it doesn't get cold by most of your standards here, 50 degrees in an uninsulated house is not comfortable.

I have new access to some Ironwood (Casuarina equisetifolia). It is probably unfamiliar to most or you since it is not frost tolerant.

Googling it - I came up with many sites claiming it is the "Best Firewood in the World" - for various reasons. One site even commented that it can be burned "green off the stump, like Ash." And it leaves a clean white ash. India apparently plants large stands of it, just for use as firewood.

You can Google it if interested. But I'm asking here if anyone can add any info? Especially the part about being able to burn it green???

 

[Kevin*]

I would guess that if anyone would have any more info on it they would be from Australia.
Lots of "hard" woods get the name iron wood because they are hard on chains and saws. When I lived in Arizona we had iron wood and while it was very good burning it was almost not worth the wear and time to harvest it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[CenterTree]

Yeah, what one person calls "Ironwood" may be different than someone else's Ironwood.
But if it is "The best firewood in the world" than I say burn it.

Also, I am not aware that you can (or should) burn Ash while green?

 

[StihlKicking]

I am unfamiliar with the species of wood you have on your hands there. However I will say that the only way it will burn good "off the stump" is if it checks less than 25% MC off the stump.

 

[Jags]

As kicking stated....you can burn this or that, blah, blah...it comes down to mc percent. Epa stoves really need a diet of wood at 25% or less, doesn't matter what flavor of wood.

 

[Auzzie Gumtree]

I think the best wood you can get is whats readily available in your location. Having said that the best BTU are from the denser hardwoods ie if you fill the stove up with a more dense hardwood it will give you more heat than a softwood. But you might have twice the weight in the stove so it all makes sense.

Some of the more dense hardwoods in Australia are the most dense in the world. But it seems the hotter the climate the denser the wood which means less need for the wood ironic.

 

[OscarsMom]

I think I had a little ironwood (palo fierro or Olyneya tesota) here in Baja on my last load. It didd burn very hot, but the guy I hired to split some larger logs for me couldn't make a dent in it (literally).

Right now, I'm burning a lot of olive (real, not Russian), thanks to the thriving olive and olive oil industry in my neck of the woods. Gotta get the stove really hot to burn it, but once you have good coals in a hot stove, it burns long and very hot, with beautiful violet flames.

I know what you mean about 50 degrees in an uninsulated house... bone chilling. And it will be going down to the 30s here soon at night for a month or two.

Happy holidays

 

[bboulier]

There are lots of trees called "ironwood", so it is hard to tell what you have. No idea how it burns. When we were in the Philippines,the tops of ironwood trees there were substitutes for pine trees at Christmas.