River Birch

[ryanm527]

I cut up a down River Birch on my property early last spring and the rounds have been laying in the yard since then (we had a new baby - not a lot of 'spare' time). I recently decided to get with it and split em up... I found them impossible to split by hand. Granted I'm not a big guy but I generally don't have a lot of trouble splitting. I borrowed a gas powered splitter from a co-worker and even that thing struggled a bit. Found the wood to be very stringy, similar to elm. Wondering if this wood gets harder to split the longer it sits because I think I remember splitting a couple of the rounds immediately after cutting and not having much problem.

Just curious if anyone has had any experience with River Birch. I've never seen much about it in regards to firewood. It's very plentiful on my property but I'm not going to mess with it if it's always such a chore and if it doesn't make stellar firewood. I have too many other good species at my disposal.

 

[Wood Duck]

The wood of River Birch seems aobut like White Birch to me, although I haven't burned a lot of it. In other words, pretty decent, about like cherry or walnut. The River Birch I have split was not difficult to split.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Correct me where I'm wrong . . . River birch, like black birch, is near the top of the BTU charts, aint it?

If it rots like white and yellow, you don't want to leave it on the ground more than a week :wow:

 

[ryanm527]

I left the rounds on the ground thinking they would dry out over the summer but they seemed to absorb moisture (and weight) and decay more than they dried out.

I can't recall ever seeing this particular birch on a btu chart. Made me wonder if it's just not very commonly used for firewood.