Firewood Types and Burn Times

[Henz]

I know we have discussed this but there are some newbies here. boy wht difference the actual specia of wood makes. I typically burn hard maple, beech and oak. This year I culled a bucn of trees off of my property which are predominatly soft maples. Boy, they burn alot quicker than the hard maples and oaks. Luckily I have some beech mixed in. I think that this is one of the primary things that newbies just dont understand when they are figuring out their stoves. I mean hardwood really isnt just hardwood. It all depends on what it is made up of

 

[Backwoods Savage]

You are so right! There can be a huge difference in wood. btw, are you aware that stuff like poplar is actually a hardwood? To us it is not, but I am told that anything that loses its leaves in the fall is a hardwood tree, even though we call it a softwood.

Also, on that soft maple, make some kindling pieces from that. It dries fast when made into kindling and lights easy.

We are burning primarily soft maple during the daytime but any time I put wood in the stove, the first piece in front is always a soft maple. This gets the load burning quickly. It works! It is also good for using small splits or even kindling put on a big bed of hot coals to help get those coals burned down quicker.

 

[CowboyAndy]

I know we have discussed this but there are some newbies here. boy wht difference the actual specia of wood makes. I typically burn hard maple, beech and oak. This year I culled a bucn of trees off of my property which are predominatly soft maples. Boy, they burn alot quicker than the hard maples and oaks. Luckily I have some beech mixed in. I think that this is one of the primary things that newbies just dont understand when they are figuring out their stoves. I mean hardwood really isnt just hardwood. It all depends on what it is made up of

You are so correct. My wife doesnt get that either. I have a small stash of aspen that i use in the mornings, but she likes to use it and doesnt understand why she has to load the furnace so often...

 

[Henz]

YUPPERS, you are correct. I ahve my wood stacked with the soft maple beech in the front so that is what I ahve been burning for the fall/early winter. behind that I have 2 cord of locust, hardmaple, oak and beech for the dead of winter.

 

[smokinj]

I know we have discussed this but there are some newbies here. boy wht difference the actual specia of wood makes. I typically burn hard maple, beech and oak. This year I culled a bucn of trees off of my property which are predominatly soft maples. Boy, they burn alot quicker than the hard maples and oaks. Luckily I have some beech mixed in. I think that this is one of the primary things that newbies just dont understand when they are figuring out their stoves. I mean hardwood really isnt just hardwood. It all depends on what it is made up of

I burn alot of that soft maple when you get to the hart wood it is as good as hard wood (but hard to split when its twisted) burn times!

 

[chad3]

Just got some ash with the worst heart wood I've gotten in this stuff. Twisted to say the least and very heavy. Weighed a small limb cut to 20" and it weighed 68lbs. We should start talking about heavy wood not hard wood.
Chad

 

[day52]

Similar to what was stated above, we sort the wood. I am burning a bit of walnut, some small fruitwoods, a bit of ash, soft maple, and some elm now. Pretty soon it will be ash, hickory, red and white oak, hard maple, and locust. We had an 80 acre woods logged this year so we have a lot of choices. We have learned a lot over the years, and this seems to work really well for us.

 

[sadworld]

i cut wood from my own woods as well and it's mostly maple, popple and elm (im pretty sure it's elm) what is a hard maple and a soft maple and how do you tell the difference.... if it helps mine come from a low lying area with standing water much of the spring and early summer and are clumped at the base but branch out into 6 7 or 8 full trees. all stem from the same base? what type of maple do i have here?

 

[madrone]

Cottonwood is a hardwood. Tamarack is a softwood.

 

[Rick]

It has been my experience that I can get my house 30 to 40 degrees above the outside temp with the softer hardwoods, and 40 to 50 degrees above with the harder ones. I can pretty much always tell what kind of wood I'm burning in my stove just by the temp in my house. My wife dislikes this fact because she prefers to burn the good stuff when we are awake (she just doesn't get my logic on that one), and I can always call her out.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

i cut wood from my own woods as well and it's mostly maple, popple and elm (im pretty sure it's elm) what is a hard maple and a soft maple and how do you tell the difference.... if it helps mine come from a low lying area with standing water much of the spring and early summer and are clumped at the base but branch out into 6 7 or 8 full trees. all stem from the same base? what type of maple do i have here?

No doubt you have soft maple. If the trees are still fairly small (less than 18") the bark will be really smooth gray. Also, knowing the area, there isn't a lot of hard maple around you.

With elm, there is rarely any doubt Just split some....or try to.

sadworld, you are in the tri-city area and we're not that far from you. We're in the Marion Springs area or straight west of Chesaning; still in Saginaw County.

 

[fallsfire36]

I agree...definitely soft maple, which likely refers to silver and/or red maple. These trees are very common and thrive in moist, rich soil and swamps. American elm is also very common and also thrives in the same type of areas. Elm grows with a twist so it is very stringy and tough to split.