cedar adive

[beermann]

Just got a good score on some cedar - attached photo of some logs - Due to the sappy nature of the wood I was wondering if I should let it dry more before using the chainsaw or just cut it up now? Will the sap ruin my chainsaw?

I know it burns fast and hot and should be used as kindling or campfire wood or just a little in the stove at a time

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Sap will not hurt chainsaw. Splitting any type of wood as soon as feasible is the best thing. I can see the benefit of letting it dry in log form. Cedar would be best used as kindling. You could mix it in with hardwood as well, just avoid loading stove full of all cedar. Burns easy and fast and I would imagine could be difficult to control full load of it

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Above I meat to say I " cannot" see benefit of drying in log form.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

It is way too valuable in the stove as grade A kindling to use as camp wood, imho.

 

[beermann]

It is way too valuable in the stove as grade A kindling to use as camp wood, imho.

Thanks. I'll use it in my stove. It's current dryness will determine how small I split it and how I use it (kindling if wet and needs to dry by summer, half rounds if nearly dry)

 

[CenterTree]

Thanks. I'll use it in my stove. It's current dryness will determine how small I split it and how I use it (kindling if wet and needs to dry by summer, half rounds if nearly dry)

I've been using a lot of American Arborvitae (very similar in properties to what you have there) as kindling. It is light to handle and didn't present any issues with my saw cutting it fresh.
It will burn nice once dry. It will crackle and pop a lot too. (sounds nice).

You will need to keep it covered once dry as it does absorb rain water after it is seasoned and can become hard to re-dry.

 

[heavy hammer]

It's great for kindling and in shoulder season. I burn old cedar pole pieces for both and it's great, you don't even need paper to start a fire just a few small shavings and your good to go.

 

[Destructor]

Growing up we heated with a 50/50 mix of hardwood and old cedar fence posts and rails for years that a fence installer would drop off at the house. I found a stash of no longer green cedar logs around 2 foot long late last summer. Split them and burned them till december then switched to all hardwood. Burns good, sparks alot and smells nice. I have some left, I'll split some down into kindling.

 

[billb3]

I cut, split, stack it, season it and then burn it just like I would any other tree.
Don't get much here any more so I mix it in with the eastern white pine. Which is great shoulder season wood and great for getting the stove back up hot quick in the morning on the few coals that are left.
I've burned it as that's all I've had, too.
It makes heat, just like any other wood.

25% of my wood stash is softwood. I burn it whenever I can to save the hardwood for when it is more convenient to burn hardwood.
Glad to have both because cold sucks.