Experience burning arborvitae/eastern white cedar

[Echo Parking Lot]

Have an arborvitae that has grown way too tall, probably planted as an ornamental many many years ago but competing with several sugar maples and birches. It’s close to the road, fairly scruffy, and blocking a view of the river so thinking of having it taken down this spring (far too close to power lines for me to feel confident in felling it myself).

Wondering if anyone has had any experience burning it. Much rather save it for that, though could chip it for mulch if it’s not worth burning. My amateur’s guess is it has a similar profile to other trees in the cypress family (quick seasoning time, low BTUs, not great coaling, burns hot, smells lovely), but interested to hear what people’s experiences are. I’ve never burned any, though I do use eastern white pine a fair amount. If it’s similar to fir/pine etc. it might be a good option for the small stove in the office (almost comically uninsulated, but that’s a different story) as it would heat up quickly and not coal which wouldn’t be necessary as no one is really in the room after normal-ish working hours.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Cedar makes great kindling. It burns fast and hot... really fast that is. It has one of the lowest BTUs per cord rating on the chart I reference. So, sure burn it. Big splits are probably a good idea. Put a lot of little splits in a stove and you might get it glowing.

 

[patrickk222]

I have some experience burnin the stuff albeit mostly outside to get and keep a brush pile burnin and i tell ya what she made great kindling and the larger blocks that i was burnin threw out some descent heat to it

 

[KDubU]

Only ever used it for kindling and it was great for that. We had a ton of it when we lived in Eastern Ontario.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Cedar makes great kindling. It burns fast and hot... really fast that is. It has one of the lowest BTUs per cord rating on the chart I reference. So, sure burn it. Big splits are probably a good idea. Put a lot of little splits in a stove and you might get it glowing.

not sure i want to see that 😂

the stove only takes 12” splits so they’ll have to be small in some way

but it sounds like either way i’ll have some great kindling for a while to come.

 

[Simonkenton]

I have bought bundles of cedar roofing shingles for kindling. Unbeatable!

 

[RustyGunz60]

Ditto on kindling being it's best use. Actually, best use if in a stove or fireplace. It's real best use for me is duck decoy carving!

 

[johneh]

This is what cedar is used for here

 

[RustyGunz60]

It's used for fencing here too. All the houses in my area used to have cedar shingles and siding before being largely replaced by modern materials. Same for most small boats. It was the go-to wood for anything exposed to the elements.

It was so valuable for shingles in the 1800s that when most of the large stands were cut over, they found logs buried in salt marshes felled by storms many hundreds, if not thousands of years ago, when a cooler climate caused lower sea levels and the cedar swamps extended farther towards the sea than they do now. They cut the logs from the stumps and brought them to the surface, cutting them into bolts and splitting them into shingles. They called it shingle "mining". Independence Hall in Philly was once roofed with shingles mined from the south jersey saltmarshes.