Common Buckthorn

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T

Toasty-Yote

Member
Dec 13, 2022
94
New York
So like a newbie, I thought CB was actually chokecherry. The woods near my house are loaded with CB so I’ve been burning it and despite being pretty small, it is great. Seems to put out a ton of heat for its size and the heartwood stays dry and hard despite laying on wet ground better than most. I was confused by firewood charts that showed only moderate BTUs for CC but now it makes sense that I had the species wrong.

Anyone else specifically seek CB? I think it may be my favorite. Coals up nicely, tons of heat, gorgeous wood and on top of it, sparks quite a bit which I find cozy in an insert versus annoying and dangerous in a fireplace…

Has anyone ever seen CB on a BTU chart?
 
I have not, but you can probably get a close to a number by drying and weighing a dimensioned piece of it and a same size piece of some other known btu wood. Compare the weights. It’s going to be close to something!
 
38 pounds per cu ft vs 44 for red oak. Just for comparison my long leaf pine I burn is 41 (plus all the pitch).

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Buckthorn is quite dense, even when fully dried. Of course it never gets much if any bigger than 6" in diameter, but you don't have to split most of it. I clean it out and burn it since it is invasive. Given the density, I would say it is up there near oak for BTU.
 
EbS-P said:
38 pounds per cu ft vs 44 for red oak. Just for comparison my long leaf pine I burn is 41 (plus all the pitch).

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Explore the woods, break out of the ordinary. Identifying and using hundreds of woods worldwide.
www.wood-database.com www.wood-database.com
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I came out with 49.5 lbs per cu ft based on a rectangular piece that I cut. I looked up your citation before and the comments state 'The strength numbers and mechanical data cited above is for Cascara Buckthorn' so that might explain the pretty large difference. Might be my bad math too? My piece measured 1.4375" x 3.625" x 1.875" and weighed 4.48 oz on my kitchen scale. Converted cubic inches to cubic feet by dividing by 1728 and then converted oz to pounds.

My perception is that once you factor in the modest sizes it grows to, it outperforms everything else I have got my hands on so far to include a black locust, apple, sweet birch and certainly maple.
 
Toasty-Yote said:
I came out with 49.5 lbs per cu ft based on a rectangular piece that I cut. I looked up your citation before and the comments state 'The strength numbers and mechanical data cited above is for Cascara Buckthorn' so that might explain the pretty large difference. Might be my bad math too? My piece measured 1.4375" x 3.625" x 1.875" and weighed 4.48 oz on my kitchen scale. Converted cubic inches to cubic feet by dividing by 1728 and then converted oz to pounds.

My perception is that once you factor in the modest sizes it grows to, it outperforms everything else I have got my hands on so far to include a black locust, apple, sweet birch and certainly maple.
Click to expand...
That number from the site was dried weight. So take 15-20% off of what you measured. (Or whatever the MC of it was. ). Seem about right.
 
EbS-P said:
That number from the site was dried weight. So take 15-20% off of what you measured. (Or whatever the MC of it was. ). Seem about right.
Click to expand...
That makes sense. Although the tree was dead when I found it, sitting on my shelf for a few months is probably not the same as kiln dried. Thanks.
 
I hate buckthorn as a weed, but it burns and coals great. It never gets much size to it. The dead stuff seems to take a long time to rot. The wood is strong and springy.

I cut it and daub the top of the stump with glyphosate. That seems to do a pretty good job of killing it forever without spraying herbicide everywhere.
 
Some decent rounds from this morning. The root ball rotted and the tree just dropped on its side but the trunk all the way to the bottom is rock solid and dry on the inside despite lying in the snow.

[Hearth.com] Common Buckthorn
 
kinda like hornbeam btu wise, watch out for the thorns though,they can go right through the bottom of your shoe.
 
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Had more than one flat from those thorns laying on the ground
 
yep same
 
The stuff is a royal pain. However, like many have found out its dense, burns great and is a nice looking wood once you get down to that point. I have a cousin who's a carpenter. He made a hammer handle out of buckthorn, and says its the nicest hammer he's ever had.
 
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[Hearth.com] Common Buckthorn

Harvested this standing dead today in the middle of a blizzard. Hand carried it through 18” of snow and after drying out for 20 minutes in front of the blower, it’s keeping the doggo very warm and happy.
 
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