Burning characteristics of Beech?

[Kevin Weis]

Don't have a lot of it around me but 20 miles either way of me it can be all over the place. Going to try to source some of it somewhere but like to know what I'm getting into before I try scrounging any of it up. An info on this welcomed.

 

[Heart Rot]

It's been good firewood in my experience. Similar heat / BTU's as oak species, yet seasons faster.

In my opinion, worth the effort... Whenever I come across dead or dying beech I've taken it.

One tip - if you find Beech that were grown in full sun, they'll sprout a lot of limbs along the length of the trunk. That can make splitting by hand difficult since they get very knotty... But if you've got a hydraulic it won't be such an issue. And straight/clean trunk sections no issues.

Another bonus is the smooth bark doesn't hold dirt and doesn't seem to attract bugs in the pile either.

 

[zmender]

It's good wood.

BTU is right up there with white oak and locust, seasons in about 1.5yrs. The bark is thin and flakes off easily, and doest take a lot of volume unlike locust or oak.

Burns with a clear, warm flame, little spark, and very good coals.

 

[NickW]

Take all you can get! Definitely burnable after 1 summer, a dream after 2 (like ash). Burns hot, coals well.

 

[Eman85]

Great wood, all it's good for is firewood. Makes real fluffy ashes and it's clean wood with slick clean bark.

 

[peakbagger]

Beech is great firewood, especially up north where the oaks do not grow. My experience is it takes 2 years to dry well. Beeches can grow tall and straight in the main stem but many tend to have a lot of kinks and bends in their branches especially in the crowns. Cutting up the crowns takes time as the branches are rarely straight. I only cut beech with the leaves down as dealing with the brush is a major PITA as it does not lay flat and ends up taking a lot of space. It's a bit less hard to handle with the leaves off. One hint is wear eye protection when working with it as there are always random branches sticking up ready to poke an eye. Because of the kinks and bends, there usually are more "uglies", crotches and bent pieces as a percentage of the straight wood so plan to have a way of managing the uglies as they do not stack well and if someone is into a stuffing a woodstove tight, the odd twists can be annoying. I burn the uglies in shoulder season.

The main stem of the tree is usually straight grain and I flat split it with my splitter so I end up with flat "boards". I use them to build up the ends of my wood piles like legos. If I do it right, the ends stay upright with no need for end poles or boards.

There are a couple of non native diseases attacking beeches these days, the beech blight is attacking the bark up north and heading south and there is new disease from down south heading north attacking the leaves. The beeches with blight, have scars and pock marks in the bark. There is some resistance to the blight so some trees remain somewhat healthy but a lot of them will die from it as the scars and pock marks will turn into rot and rot the tree from the inside out. If possible, if you see beeches in a stand that appear resistant to the blight leave them standing.

Those pock marks and holes in the otherwise smooth bark means that when blighted beech is on the ground and to lesser extent in the stacks, it going to hold a bit more water and rot quicker. I cut and buck mine in the winter on top of the snow and then get it split asap in the spring and get it stacked with top cover over the stacks. If it has been sitting on the ground in log length for several months I usually will leave it as the rot will move in quick.

I have about 60 acres with a lot of blighted beech, way too much for firewood, so the small stuff will get dropped in place, with the cut stump painted with Garlon (a herbicide to kill off the roots). The big trees will be girdled, with the saw cuts painted with Garlon and then left to rot standing. That will eventually encourage other species like sugar maples to take over and shade out the beeches. Beech clone themselves from old roots and cut stumps readily so they can move in quick after a logging cut or natural disturbance and take over a stand. If the old root came from a tree with the blight, the new clones will inevitably have the blight and grow up into stunted stands.

 

[KDubU]

Another vote for great firewood although I prefer my beeches standing as love the tree but alas diseases are taking their toll. As already stated above, take diseased trees if you can as there are a lot of those before cutting a healthy one.

 

[Kevin Weis]

Thanks all for the replies! There's a few parks to the east of me (50 miles) that have some old growth Beech 4' DBH and 100' plus tall that were downed from recent storms. These had to be 200+ year old trees. All I could think of is the amount of firewood locked up in those trees that will just go to rot as they would not be allowed to be taken (Baltimore City park property). Was thinking I got to try some somewhere.

 

[ctreitzell]

Great wood, all it's good for is firewood. Makes real fluffy ashes and it's clean wood with slick clean bark.

I have laminated Beech countertop (Ikea) in two properties and wears extremely well. Much better than the birch I have in one property that has just rotted away over the years.

I also have a couple beech cutting boards.

I avoid beech tool handles at all costs, only ash for my preference

 

[NickW]

Thanks all for the replies! There's a few parks to the east of me (50 miles) that have some old growth Beech 4' DBH and 100' plus tall that were downed from recent storms. These had to be 200+ year old trees. All I could think of is the amount of firewood locked up in those trees that will just go to rot as they would not be allowed to be taken (Baltimore City park property). Was thinking I got to try some somewhere.

What a waste... Maybe they'll have a logger come in for timber or veneer?

 

[ctreitzell]

I didn't know much about Beech before buying some in last year. I'm in europe and maybe characteristics are different than usa.

The vendor I've purchased from the last 2 years sells mainly beech and (white) oak. This year he brought me a lot of ash. He always brings a lot of too wet oak. Put some beech with the oak and it will burn.

A mix of oak+ash+beech is fantastic.

IME Beech burns completely no matter what. The smell to me is almost like coal, as if there was an oil-based accelerant naturally occurring in the wood. Flames are light yellow and purple. If I want to endure a full burn of the load and ensure that the load catches well, I put Beech or Elm.

Beech coals are quite small. Typically the oak might need some help to burn well and the beech brings it to the party. The coals of oak and ash are much more coarse. Also, beech doesn't pop and explode like oak, and ash and chestnut can be violent poppers and potentially dangerous.

I'm not crazy about the beech odor when it burns. I sanded hardwood floors for much of my career and do not care for the smell of white oak, either.

Bark on beech is thin kind of like birch, but not smooth or layered.

I've never previously had much experience with ash, either. This year I have a lot. It's great firewood, but lots of popping.

 

[peakbagger]

The rational for not allowing wood cut on public land to be sold (or given away) is not that uncommon. The theory is that if there was an economic incentive for cutting trees that some public employee would be managing the trees for economic reasons versus looking out for the best interest of the woods long term health. I also think in general it is probably a PITA for some government entity to actually sell the wood and follow government guidelines. As for giving it away, image all the poorly equipped poorly trained folks showing up to get their share of the wood.

 

[NickW]

The rational for not allowing wood cut on public land to be sold (or given away) is not that uncommon. The theory is that if there was an economic incentive for cutting trees that some public employee would be managing the trees for economic reasons versus looking out for the best interest of the woods long term health. I also think in general it is probably a PITA for some government entity to actually sell the wood and follow government guidelines. As for giving it away, image all the poorly equipped poorly trained folks showing up to get their share of the wood.

I know, I get it. It just seems so wasteful.

The State hired a logger to come clear out a bunch of dead ash not far from me, and at least 1 local city auctions off ash logs to the highest bidder with 1 day for all wood to be removed on 2 weeks after the auction with no cutting allowed on site.

 

[Caw]

I'm very glad to go the tree guy delivery route. It's worth every penny of the tip I give to have the logs placed in my driveway. I wouldn't mind some beech, I haven't come across any yet.

 

[thewoodlands]

Don't have a lot of it around me but 20 miles either way of me it can be all over the place. Going to try to source some of it somewhere but like to know what I'm getting into before I try scrounging any of it up. An info on this welcomed.

If you can get some, don't pass it up, it's great firewood. When I first started cutting, we had two years worth of cherry c/s/s from a bad wind event that hit this area. I ended up getting a load of beech logs so we would have higher btu wood for the colder months, it was well worth the money back then.

Once the hills open up in the spring, the first areas I check are where the beech stands are, mother nature usually puts some down.

 

[all night moe]

i haven't burned beech in 10yrs. Wish I had some.
If you get some, mail me a cord. I'll send a check. LOL

 

[Doublebogey]

Beech is great firewood, especially up north where the oaks do not grow. My experience is it takes 2 years to dry well. Beeches can grow tall and straight in the main stem but many tend to have a lot of kinks and bends in their branches especially in the crowns. Cutting up the crowns takes time as the branches are rarely straight. I only cut beech with the leaves down as dealing with the brush is a major PITA as it does not lay flat and ends up taking a lot of space. It's a bit less hard to handle with the leaves off. One hint is wear eye protection when working with it as there are always random branches sticking up ready to poke an eye. Because of the kinks and bends, there usually are more "uglies", crotches and bent pieces as a percentage of the straight wood so plan to have a way of managing the uglies as they do not stack well and if someone is into a stuffing a woodstove tight, the odd twists can be annoying. I burn the uglies in shoulder season.

The main stem of the tree is usually straight grain and I flat split it with my splitter so I end up with flat "boards". I use them to build up the ends of my wood piles like legos. If I do it right, the ends stay upright with no need for end poles or boards.

There are a couple of non native diseases attacking beeches these days, the beech blight is attacking the bark up north and heading south and there is new disease from down south heading north attacking the leaves. The beeches with blight, have scars and pock marks in the bark. There is some resistance to the blight so some trees remain somewhat healthy but a lot of them will die from it as the scars and pock marks will turn into rot and rot the tree from the inside out. If possible, if you see beeches in a stand that appear resistant to the blight leave them standing.

Those pock marks and holes in the otherwise smooth bark means that when blighted beech is on the ground and to lesser extent in the stacks, it going to hold a bit more water and rot quicker. I cut and buck mine in the winter on top of the snow and then get it split asap in the spring and get it stacked with top cover over the stacks. If it has been sitting on the ground in log length for several months I usually will leave it as the rot will move in quick.

I have about 60 acres with a lot of blighted beech, way too much for firewood, so the small stuff will get dropped in place, with the cut stump painted with Garlon (a herbicide to kill off the roots). The big trees will be girdled, with the saw cuts painted with Garlon and then left to rot standing. That will eventually encourage other species like sugar maples to take over and shade out the beeches. Beech clone themselves from old roots and cut stumps readily so they can move in quick after a logging cut or natural disturbance and take over a stand. If the old root came from a tree with the blight, the new clones will inevitably have the blight and grow up into stunted stands.

You seem to know a lot about beech. When you talk about blight do you mean beech blight aphids? The reason I ask is because I have a copper beech yard tree (planted in a stupid location 38 years ago) that was VERY slow to leaf out this past spring. After it finally leafed out it had what looked like a cottony substance all over the leaves. I did some research and it turned out they were beech blight aphids. Upon close inspection I could see them in picture close ups. This fall the tree dropped the leaves much earlier than normal. It usually slowly releases them all winter, but this year they were all gone by late November or early December. It was also COVERED in ladybug larvae at one point. I've been wondering if I'll be dropping it in the near future.

 

[peakbagger]

Beech Scale Disease is a different issue https://www.dontmovefirewood.org/pest_pathogen/beech-bark-disease-html/ Beech normally has nice smooth bark but the scale gets in it through any disturbance in the bark and once its in the bark its eats rots its way in. Bears inadvertently spread it as the scale get under their claws when they climb an infected tree. Beech bark scars quite easily and when a bear climbs a tree to get at nuts their claw marks leave a track and in many cases, those tracks will be the first things attacked by the disease.

Lots of info out there on Beech Aphids, which I have never seen( their knick name is rather interesting "boogie woogie aphids" ) Plenty of info on the web. https://ag.umass.edu/landscape/fact-sheets/beech-blight-aphid. Sounds like it may or may not be an issue but not that hard to control if its an ornamental tree. My guess is there is some other issue the tree like heat stress or drought int he background and the aphids are just making things worse. Pyrethroid insecticide is pretty innocuous stuff, I use diluted to spray my clothes to prevent ticks from getting on me. One big warning is if you have cats around the house, it can be toxic to them when its first applied wet. Once it dries, its safe so the cats would have to be kept inside during the application. It also raise havoc with lot of beneficial insects like spiders and ladybugs to name a few so these folks spraying their yards with it to keep away ticks and mosquitos, are not doing themselves any favors. It dries in a couple of hours.

I love the looks of copper beeches but I do not think they are hardy up in Northern NH. I see some really big ones planted as ornamentals in old town commons in Mass and CT. As the scale was introduced from European Beech and the Copper Beech is a European import I do not know if the scale bark disease gets to them.

 

[Kevin Weis]

I don't have think we have the Beech disease problems here that are apparently prevalent further north. Where it grow here its about 50% or better of the basal area. They show no signs of any disease.

 

[Doublebogey]

We will see what happens to mine. Copper beech is beautiful, especially in the spring. It's bark always looks great. My wife says it looks like a giant elephant leg. Like I said, it was planted in a horrible location. It's 6 feet from my house and 2 feet from a retaining wall. I was kind of hoping that it was on its way out. It's final resting place is currently heating my house nicely. I am sure that's where it will eventually end up.

I appreciate the info. A little more research is probably in order.

 

[ctreitzell]

My wife says it looks like a giant elephant leg.

an excellent descriptor for beech bark...I was thinking the same when trying to describe beech bark