Finally found a use for Cottonwood
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paul bunion
Minister of Fire
I like your 'saw' and 'wheelbarrow'. Looks like you have yourself a helper or two.
A 4 and 2 year old - more "help" then I can handle sometimes. Can't wait till they can actually get in there and fling some wood around.
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
Locust Post
Minister of Fire
By golly I think you have something there. That's more benefit than using it for firewood but it does go well with your avatar. "gopher wood" throw it on the fire and gopher more.
You "otter" know that's not a gopher.
I have so much Cottonwood just lying around (I fell around 12 of them to let in more sunlight around the property) I needed to find some use for them. They'll burn but they smell like burnt urine.
Shane N
Feeling the Heat
Hate Cottonwood with a passion!! Its a cancer, not a tree should be its true definition! Its the most useless wood I can think of!! If it grew as fast it gave out btus and was not so evasive I might think otherwise!!
Let us not forget there are many who do burn cottonwood and they get along just fine. The wood will stink when green but loses most of that smell as it dries. We have burned it many times but never at night because it won't hold the long fires like oak or others.
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The flip side to that is here in the west, where Black Cottonwood has more BTUs than its related eastern species, but still stinks when burned even after 2 years of drying time. And the smell is just like my tom cat's pee. Its gawd awful. Its like asparagus pee though, and some people do not smell it (or male cat pee, for that matter).
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
I have three very tall ones I really would like to cut down. I have been tempted to do it, but only if I can burn it. You guys are sure putting a damper on that idea.
How can you smell it if it's burning in a stove?
Nope. Like stated above the Cottonwood out here in the west stinks even when dried for 2-3 years, I know this from experience. Actually doesn't smell that bad splitting it, just when burning.
And it doesn't stink up the inside but it's the air outside - if it's a cold night with some thick air the stench just sits in it and doesn't blow away easily.
You can burn it and get some BTUs but it doesn't put out much and the smell (maybe our heavy air?) just makes me stay away.
I'd take that cottonwood and mill it into boards. Make some rustic benches out of it, sell 'em at the local fall fairs this autumn....
I milled the huge tulip poplars I cut down last summer, I'm going to make up some patterns and teach dear wifey how to build benches. She's got all kinds of idears (thanks to that damm Pinterest site), and I've got tons of "junk" wood to make 'em.....
I milled the huge tulip poplars I cut down last summer, I'm going to make up some patterns and teach dear wifey how to build benches. She's got all kinds of idears (thanks to that damm Pinterest site), and I've got tons of "junk" wood to make 'em.....
Sprinter
Minister of Fire
If I built anything out of them, they would be a bit too rustic... Nice idea though.
Naw...use your imagination. If you are anything like me, I like the rustic-ness of a handmade item. It has real character, not that generic store-bought Chinese junk......just my opinion.
I'll post some pics of the stuff we make, when we get around to making it!
HDRock
Minister of Fire
Na, those benches are cool man, mostly for outside but, done right ,in the right setting ,indoors to
Many a barn beam out there milled or hewn out of cottowood. People like think those old barns are built from solid oak, but that's not usually the case.
Exactly what he said, all over again. This is not your common eastern cottonwood species. Black c-wood (Populus trichocarpa) does not stink when it is cut or in the stacks, or only when it is burned green. If you burn it and open the firebox and throw in some more wood, and get a dose of c-wood stink. Or go outside and smell the wood smoke in the air and it stinks. Your neighbors will not be fond of you.
I would no waste my time milling black c-wood, and no one likes that stuff around here in any form, really. There are too many other much higher value species around here to mill and play with. C-wood is less than a trash tree here, and useless for burning, smoking, milling or even landscaping with. They do use it for paper pulp and for making into strandboard (OSB) though, but it is not on any of the price lists for mill wood here. There is a lot of it, and I have posted about it over and over again here on this forum... but...
Trying to educate you guys about western wood species is like nailing Jello to the wall or herding cats. Its just not gonna happen, is it?
I milled the tulip for several reasons....first off, it was knot-free batch of wood, second off, there was over 2,000 bd.ft. of lumber there. And third, I just hated to waste it. Ended up with a really nice batch of otherwise useless wood.
It'll make nice crafts for sure.
It'll make nice crafts for sure.
As for what to do with the black c-wood trees, I would not cut and leave it as slash, as it will just sprout wherever it hits the ground. I have had many discussions with people around here as to what to do with c-wood. Most cut it up and give the firewood away on CL. Some try to sell it. I have cut, seasoned and burned it here and at my ex's place just to get rid of it. I have seen logging trucks of the stuff posted here for free (delivered even) on CL. There was a guy in Portland a few years ago that had over 100 cords of the stuff listed for free on CL and it took many months for him to get rid of it all. It will burn, and it does heat, but... no one with any knowledge of it wants it around here.
Yah, but tulip poplar (AKA: yellow poplar) actually has value. It is sold at a premium as milled wood at Home Depot, and has value at mills in the Midwest and the South that cut the stuff. And tulip is not a true poplar... its actually a magnolia.
I can see not wanting to waste wood, and there are a lot of trash trees around here that have value, like Oregon white oak (barrels, great firewood), Madrone (flooring, great firewood), and Bigleaf maple (milling, firewood). Black c-wood has short fibers that give it low strength as lumber, but high quality as paper. So it is used mainly for pulp and OSB, but also for really cheap and flimsy crates and pallets, and as a cheap secondary wood in furniture.
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