Box elder, take it or leave it?

[DonTee]

I have a job cutting up an already down box elder. I think it’s about 1/2 cord of firewood. I can either take the rounds with me, or pile them up for someone else to take. It’s a family friend I’m doing the job for, and they might know someone else who wants the wood if I don’t.

I have no experience that I know of with box elder. I don’t have it growing on my property. Is it worth it to throw the rounds on my trailer and bring them home with me?

I’m already years ahead on firewood, but have a hard time saying no to free wood.

 

[fbelec]

good for shoulder season. it burns quick. i burnt 5 cord of it. it's not for deep cold unless you like feeding the stove

 

[DonTee]

Ok thanks. I think a lot of this wood might too punky to take unfortunately. It has some punk in the middle, and the red ring I think is a sign of decay

 

[EbS-P]

I’d take some/all of it if I had extra space. I’m not picky. Is it manageable size? I’m not going to break my back trying to get anything free.

 

[DonTee]

I can cut it up whatever size I want. If I’m not taking it though I can leave it bigger. And if it’s all punky I can just push it into the brush pile with the tractor.

Edit: Seems like it’s getting worse the farther I cut into it. Probably why it fell over I guess. Haha.

 

[DonTee]

It fell on this boat trailer. Luckily I was able to rescue the trailer. It just suffered a broken bunk and bent bunk mount.

I only cut up half the tree today. The other half fell off to the side. Maybe some of that wood will be salvageable for firewood.

 

[Jags]

Box elder is a very low BTU wood. The fact that it is already marginalized and Punky I wouldn't waste the time

 

[DonTee]

What do you think is worse, box elder or poplar?

 

[bert670]

It fell on this boat trailer. Luckily I was able to rescue the trailer. It just suffered a broken bunk and bent bunk mount.

I only cut up half the tree today. The other half fell off to the side. Maybe some of that wood will be salvageable for firewood.

View attachment 298634 View attachment 298635

Would that boat trailer happen to be in the parking lot of a old Spanish restaurant (building has since been demo'd)?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Box elder has pink in it. That pink is supposed to be there.

I'd take it. Its great for cold weather too. Ever wanted a little more heat out of the stove, but know if you reload now you'll need to do it again at 3am? That's the time for Box Elder. You can quick burn that load and get your heat, yet still reload at the proper time for a full night's sleep. It's good for burning down coals too.

 

[DonTee]

Would that boat trailer happen to be in the parking lot of a old Spanish restaurant (building has since been demo'd)?

Lol. No it’s in a field next to Lake Ontario.

 

[Jags]

Personally I would take popular over box Elder

 

[DonTee]

Wow. That’s pretty bad for box elder.

 

[Riverbanks]

That tree gets no respect, it's in the maple family, but they won't call it by that, and some call it a invasive weed, it's like the "Charlie in a box"

 

[tlc1976]

I had a bunch of it that was given to me. He thought it was beech but I think it was box elder. Had the red stain in flower shapes on the end grain. I loved it. Lightweight, started super easy, got the house up to temp sometimes in an hour. Only thing was my house got filled with box elder bugs.

 

[j7art2]

Box elder is pretty decent if you're got a splitter. It burns WAY longer than poplar in my experience. It's a soft maple and about on par with Elm... in more ways than one.

It stinks when it burns like poplar would, but splits and burns similarly to elm. It's the only wood my 30 ton splitter would stall on. It's tough to cut, tough to split. If you've got a splitter, I'd grab it in a heartbeat without a second thought. If you're using an axe, you're not gonna be burning box elder unless you're cutting it into blocks. I wouldn't even try splitting it with an axe. It'll likely just bounce off.

 

[brenndatomu]

Box elder is pretty decent if you're got a splitter. It burns WAY longer than poplar in my experience.

Agree...better than poplar...and it seems to depend on the tree and how gnarly it is...gnarly rounds do split poorly...but burn just fine.
I'd say its similar to Silver Maple on BTU content...which I really like mixing SM into loads too.
Box Elder has been the majority of what I have burnt the last several winters...mainly due to getting paid to take it down at work...we have been toasty warm, and only have to load 2-3 times per day. I don't mind BE one bit.

 

[Doublebogey]

I have only split box elder a handful of times but I am 100% certain of what it was and it was the easiest wood I've ever split with an axe. Green wood at that.

 

[Kevin Weis]

Leave it! Worse than Silver Maple. It's a weed tree in my book. Actually in the Maple family though believe it or not. Leaves a s***ten of ash and little btu. There's supposedly a niche market for solid Box Elder that as a lot of the red staining for use as coffee table tops and the like.

 

[brenndatomu]

Worse than Silver Maple. It's a weed tree in my book. Actually in the Maple family though believe it or not. Leaves a s***ten of ash and little btu.

By the BTU charts it actually has .5 MBTU/cord more than SM...and just leave the ashes in the firebox...just the act of raking coals and loading/burning more wood will minimize it...I only have to empty the ash pan about once per week, if its treated that way...about the same as when burning most other species.
It certainly is a weed tree though!

 

[j7art2]

I have only split box elder a handful of times but I am 100% certain of what it was and it was the easiest wood I've ever split with an axe. Green wood at that.

You found a one in a million tree then. That is not typical. Box elder is notoriously one of the hardest woods to split in Michigan, with probably only Elm and Hickory being worse. I'd gladly choose to split oak by hand any day over box elder. Ironically box elder is also the only wood I've ever grenaded a saw on (took out my buddys 562XP doing a 24" box elder, oof) too.

Personally, I've got a very healthy respect for the stuff. It's not quite on par with Ash BTU wise, but pretty close.

The only wood I've come across that I've truly said is not worth it is Willow.

Willow can also extremely difficult to split, when dried, weighs less than air, and truly simply doesn't give off a ton of heat. The neighbor donated me about 5 face cords of it when he took one down, and the only way I'd bother with it again is if it was dropped off to my house. Even then, I'd probably balk at it. Lol.

 

[Jags]

I find the range of experience with Box Elder interesting. I am in the camp of leave it, with my experiences. When dry if you have a humid day it might just float away. I consider it very much on the junk spectrum along with willow and cottonwood.
But will it burn? Yep.

 

[mightytitan9]

You found a one in a million tree then. That is not typical. Box elder is notoriously one of the hardest woods to split in Michigan, with probably only Elm and Hickory being worse. I'd gladly choose to split oak by hand any day over box elder. Ironically box elder is also the only wood I've ever grenaded a saw on (took out my buddys 562XP doing a 24" box elder, oof) too.

Boxelder is one of the easiest to split we have. It just pops apart. I have a huge one I'll be cutting down soon because I'm so tired of the invasive sprouts in the flower beds and all the boxelder bugs that come with it.

 

[Doublebogey]

Yep I agree. I don't see how it could be hard to split for anyone unless it's nothing but crotches. Guys at my shop took a 12 incher down last year and I wasn't going to mess with it but after I cut a few 16 inch logs they flew apart with hardly any effort so I split the whole thing and gave it to my dad.

Then just a couple weeks ago my neighbor cut about an 18 inch boxelder down and I helped him buck it up the same day. He asked if he should wait to split it so I grabbed my x25 and blew through two of the bigger logs in a matter of seconds with very little effort and he laughed and said looks like no time like the present.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

If you need wood, take it. If you have plenty, leave it. We have burned it before, and it's firewood. Firewood is better than no firewood. All I could scrounge one year was willow, cottonwood, and boxelder. It wasn't oak, but it kept us warm, and it dried fast.