Is this Hackberry worth it?

[wahoowad]

I scrounged up a large Hackberry tree and can take as little or much as I want. It has been down a year or more and some of the 12" limbs were already dry. The dry sections reminded me of a cross between a Poplar and Tree of Heaven...a rather light wood that could go punky fast. The main trunks are still green and heavy.

I am fortunate enough to be a selective scrounger...generally getting decent hardwoods and only taking low quantities of poplar and pine for shoulder season and kindling. I can get the truck pretty close but don't want to invest the energy to load/transport/split/stack a bunch if this Hackberry ends up being a lightweight firewood. I was excited when I first saw it as I thought it was in the elm family, but am now thinking it isn't so much???

 

[STIHLY DAN]

You where excited about elm? I want some of what your smoken.

 

[wahoowad]

I have a new splitter arriving this week

 

[aansorge]

It is in the elm family. Decent BTU's but not oak. I'd get it for sure but I even get cottonwood as I am a wood whore.

 

[bigbarf48]

I'd load up. Not a bad wood at all

 

[Soundchasm]

Take a load of the easy bits first to see how stringy it's going to be. Had a big one down in my yard, and I swear every single split had to be separated with a hatchet. But the split limbs season quickly and dry Hackberry is DEFINITELY preferable to wet anything else. Lights easy and burns predictably.

 

[woodsman416]

Except for sweet gum, hardwood is almost always worth it. Mix it in with oak & hickory or burn it on the shoulders.

 

[mstoelton]

I take it when I can get it. It is very stringy. Only take if you have a hydraulic splitter. Nasty splitting by hand.