hey all so i have 6 cords of wood stacked that i have cut and split by hand over time. its yellow birch, ash, cherry, and soft maple. i believe i have it in order for best wood quality for btus. but i just cant get over the ash its ALL i want to burn. any who its working out good. i split a truckload of logs with my neighbor who is a logger and its the same stuff. with probably a little more soft maple maybe 50% but price is right 250$ was wondering if any of you guys can tell a difference in say ash and cherry vs. soft maple? all i know about the three mentioned is they dry fast any opinions would be nice!
firewood,btus, and such
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I like and have burned all of the wood you mentioned . . . of the species you mentioned my favorite is ash for its speed of seasoning, decent burn times and coaling and ease of splitting (Backwoods Savage just looks at his ash and gives it the hairy eyeball and it splits itself 
) . . . if I could only burn one wood species that would be the one.
That said . . . I don't have to burn one species which is good since I like yellow birch for the smell and since it burns as good if not better than the ash, cherry for the smell and decent burn times and maple just because I like maple.
) . . . if I could only burn one wood species that would be the one.That said . . . I don't have to burn one species which is good since I like yellow birch for the smell and since it burns as good if not better than the ash, cherry for the smell and decent burn times and maple just because I like maple.
The soft maple is the fastest drying of what you have. Cherry and ash are very close but a bit behind the maple. Yellow birch I've burned but my memory banks are undercharged at the moment so I won't comment except to say it is good burning wood.
On the ash, if one had to pick just one type of wood to burn and chose ash, he would not go wrong. It is behind oak but not by a lot and it dries a whole lot faster plus splits super easy. We burn a goodly amount of soft maple here and like it. I also like to make kindling wood with soft maple that is not knotty. It lights easy and burns hot. On the ash, we've been burning that mainly now for many, many years but in not too many years now it will all be gone. Sad to see that tree gone from our and other peoples woods.
ohlongarm
Minister of Fire
According to Ohio DNR all the ash will not succumb to the emerald ash borer,many will become resistant to the borer and not die off. Funny thing not one tree on my place is dead from the borer and Ohio has it heavy.One day when I burn up all my primo stuff I may have to whack a few ash,however Sandy did take a couple down that I'll probably cut up.
ohlongarm
Minister of Fire
Gotta fess up I am burning some ash that's been down believe it or not 22 years the old tree finally fell and I cut it up most of it,clean as can be and burning well,I'll take a pic tomorrow and post surprised the hell outa me that it could still be good,air dried .
I too like and burn all 3. I like to burn the cherry (Black Cherry is what I get around here) on saturdays and sundays when its cold because the coals don't build up fast like they tend to when its single digits. Cherry doesn't coal up as much as ash or oak which I burn a lot of. Ash is probobly my favorite of all three for what reason I am not sure. It splits well, burns well, coals well. Maybe it is just that it has no downside. Its above average in most categories. My uncle says it is even easier on saws but I don't know about that. My wife on the other hand loves cherry, and I always leave it next to the stove when she is going to be tending the stove. It does give off a brighter orangish flame, but she says that it always starts easy for her and she can shut the stove down quicker and more predictable as far as shut down times are concerned. To each their own. 3 great firewoods
yes yes the ash is quite awesome i must admit. cherry burns nicely but quick but doesnt coal so bad. ive read a btu chart and yellow birch is way up there in btus. that being said i think yellow birch should be seasoned maybe 18 months or a little longer. mine is 1 yr seasoned and still quite heavy.but it burns excellent with good heat we save the yellow stuff for night time fires.
The condition of firewood has a lot to do with how well you will like it. If I had to burn dry Red Maple versus less-than-dry oak, I'd like the Red Maple a lot better. If both were nice and dry I'd like the oak better.
Not all wood dries at the same rate, and Ash has a great combination of fast drying and pretty high BTUs, so it is usually among the driest wood in any stack, which makes it among the best woods in the stack to burn. You can't go wrong with Ash.
Not all wood dries at the same rate, and Ash has a great combination of fast drying and pretty high BTUs, so it is usually among the driest wood in any stack, which makes it among the best woods in the stack to burn. You can't go wrong with Ash.
Lets hope they are right. One thing I noticed in MI is that as the bug spread it did not take all at once. That is, we had a couple woodlots not too far from us that wasn't hit at all until about 3 years ago. Now they are all dead. Also driving through the state we'd hit stretches of massive damage then none then more damage, etc. To my knowledge we have none left alive on our place.
ohlongarm
Minister of Fire
One thing I've noticed about cherry,and it's not my imagination,is that it throws a more intense heat than ash,and even more so than oak,at least in my stove has anyone else experienced the same?All I know is that I'll soon have a CHIT load of cherry cut that Sandy took down,and yes the pics will be posted when cut,I already posted the trees that came down.
TimJ
Minister of Fire
You probably have an urge to drink some wine when you burn cherry so hense you are getting flush from the vino more than from the cherry
All of the "medium"/mature ash on my acreage is dead or dying, all of it. My state forester told me that the young ash are usually not affected by the borers as much until they grow older, so you will continue to see younger ash growing for some time still.
i know the ash is sweet. unbelievable coals. hot. my logging neighbor cuts a crapload of yellow birch thats his faviorate farwood. he swears by it. that being said i dont have too too much time burning yellow birch has anyone else burned quite a bit of it before and noticed any difference? trees in my area consist of mainly northern hardwoods. most wood is good and its everywere! and cheap!! happy burning all
Variety is good with a firewood stash. I burn my stuff according to the weather and the time I'll be away from home. Uglies and lightweight stuff in fall and spring and/or weekends, medium stuff during days/nights when it'll not get so gawdawful cold, and if she's stayin cold all night and day I reach for the hard stuff, oak, hickory, etc.
Someone forgot to tell our ash borers about this. We have lots of ash that are 6" or less. They are all dead and all have the D shaped holes.
They are pretty close. Sad that I've never burned them at the same time. When we lived further north we had yellow birch but no ash. Now we have ash but no yellow birch.
Thanks for the info, I was wondering if that was going to work out to be true or not, looks like not! Dead ash is all I burned here for the last 6-7 years. Timbered out 120 mostly oaks; some hickory, maple, and cherry this spring. The tops are not totally dry, but I'm buring the best BTU values this year!
Uh... "22 YEARS"?! Sheesh... why the rush? Are you SURE it's seasoned enough??? Better stack it out in the sun on some stickers for a couple years to be sure.
(look forward to pics!)
Blue2ndaries
Minister of Fire
This is the first year I have had the oppty to burn ash. ~2yrs seasoned and MM @ 19% or less (on fresh split face) depending on size of the split. The ash splits easily, dries fast, and burns incredible IMO. Lights up quickly and burns pretty long. I would gladly swap out half my stash of oak for ash if I had the oppty--all things being equal, e.g. CSS time and qty.
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