Whats your Favorite Firewood?

[Mike.O]

Got about 6 cord log truck of all Ash dropped in my driveway and have been slowly plugging away at splitting it. Straight wood splits like butter, knotty stuff is a little more of a pain. All with a splitter.

Got to thinking today..... If the season time is as the "Rumors" say and is a pretty quick turn around, its got a chance to be one of my top woods.

Obviously Red Oak is great wood... Splits easy, but the season time might detract on some peoples likability. I have about 5 cords of that and it's up there in my top woods.

But a dark-horse favorite of mine is Black Birch. I absolutely love this wood. Its almost as dense as Oak, but seasons in a 12 - 18 months. Splits easy, just have a hatchet for the few PITA strings.

Whats everyone else favorite?? Considering all combined aspects, splitting, seasoning an burning.

 

[johneh]

My favorite for splitting , drying and burning is Sugar Maple

 

[eujamfh]

mine is free wood....

 

[Jan Pijpelink]

mine is free wood....

Mine is free split, free delivered (a lot), I will stack.

 

[Alpine1]

Beech... splits like butter when green, seasons quickly and gives lots of BTU... but costs a lot compared to my usual (free) softwood

 

[Woodsplitter67]

My favorite woods are. Oak.. red, white, pin it dosent matter. The btus are high so it throws off some heat.. i dont care about the drying time. Im sitting on alot of wood(compared to my usage). My other favorite wood is black cherry. Its smells great has a good btu and is pretty to look at. What makes all of my wood my favorite is it all free. Sence iv started burning, i havent paid a dime for any of the wood i have. Free heat.. who would have thought. ..

 

[Medic21]

Locust when I can get it. I have about 15 cords of red and white oak seasoned and seasoning right now for the next 3-4 years. Hickory would be my third and has a ton of BTUs but I use Malathion on it to keep the bugs from removing those BTUs over the two-three years I season it.

I’ll take anything I can get my hands on at this point except cotton wood. I have enough hard wood to mix with it I’ll burn it. Now that I’ve got the boiler I cut 24” and split down to 10”-12”. Much less handling.


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[HisTreeNut]

In general, free is my favorite. But that being said...a blend of cherry, maple, black birch, oak, with a dib-dab of pine.

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[Ashful]

Ash may be my favorite, but I mostly burn Red Oak. Oak is great, too... but it’s heavier, slower to dry, and I get more splinters from it.

 

[Simonkenton]

Locust. Hard to get it any more, the locust trees around here all died 20 years ago and it is just about all gone.

 

[Medic21]

Locust. Hard to get it any more, the locust trees around here all died 20 years ago and it is just about all gone.

Have friends that get them for free for Indiana DNR and plant them every spring. Harvest them in 5 years and no splitting.


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[KJamesJR]

I’m new to burning so don’t have a lot of experience burning a variety of species.

So far Sugar Maple is #1. Splits like a dream, damn near same BTUs as oak, drys in one season or less, smells like French toast and syrup when you burn it.... Name one con about sugar maple, I dare you.

Black Cherry #2. Splits easy, decent BTUs for those slightly warmer days during winter, smells good, drys REALLY fast and I mean it gets down there in moisture. Does make a lot of ash and pops a lot in the stove.

This is the first season getting red oak and watching it season. Not impressed by the shear amount of water it holds/time to season or how much it splinters. I had the opportunity to burn some good seasoned red oak last year and I didn’t notice much of a difference between it and maple aside from the oak producing a superior coal bed.

Will be first time trying Beech this coming season. It drys as fast as the sugar maple so I’m excited to see how it burns.

Ash and Cherry are pretty much tied for 2nd. Went with Cherry as it’s much more abundant on my property and in my location. Cherry smells better than ash, but makes more ash than... ash.

 

[EODMSgt]

Beech... splits like butter when green, seasons quickly and gives lots of BTU... but costs a lot compared to my usual (free) softwood

I agree, after primarily heating with wood for the last ten years, that I have to go with beech. Granted I may be biased because there is so much of it around however it's probably what I burn the most. But I also agree that free wood, or what I can scrounge for $10.00 a cord in the national forest, is the best.

 

[Dolphus Raymond]

Hands down, my favorite wood is Southern Live Oak and its 36.6 million BTU. However, it is very tough on a chain, extremely heavy, and takes 3 solid years to dry. With a solar kiln, 18 months.

 

[tadmaz]

I don't have a lot of hickory, but it may be my favorite. White oak close second, and again I don't end up with a lot. I've got some rock elm I will be burning next winter 20-21, I have high hopes for that!

 

[BIGChrisNH]

If I could only pick one, black birch. Seasons fast, smells good too.

 

[ZZ Tom]

I'm going with locust as my favorite. Usually straight grained so easy enough to split and stack, although I've gotten a few twisty yard trees. It will dry to under 15% in two years here in this high desert climate, and there seems to be an adequate supply. It burns HOT and I can easily get 8 hour burns in my tube stove.

Probably my next favorite would be elm. Sure is a bugger to split even with hydraulics but it dries quickly and burns long enough that I still have good coals after an overnight burn. Oh yeah, there is a plentiful supply.

I really like pine too. Dries super fast and I enjoy watching the inferno as the resin burns.

Mostly I like free firewood. My favorite is a downed a limbed tree waiting for me to buck to my desired length. I get so tired of people bucking to 11" because it's too heavy at 16" and then bucking to 21" on the smaller stuff to avoid extra cuts. But it's free so I deal with it. I haven't purchased firewood in over 10 years and only did twice at that. $100 a truckload and we'll load you, and it's green. Probably a 1/4 cord the way they piled it in.

 

[Ashful]

My favorite is a downed a limbed tree waiting for me to buck to my desired length. I get so tired of people bucking to 11" because it's too heavy at 16" and then bucking to 21" on the smaller stuff to avoid extra cuts. But it's free so I deal with it.

I won’t even touch wood if it’s been bucked, anymore. When friends call to see if I can haul away a tree, my first question is whether they already bucked it. If they say yes, I usually decline. I’m just tired of getting stupid useless lengths that I need to recut and throw away a bunch of shorts, or pieces with an elbow or crotch right in the middle of the only useable length.

 

[tadmaz]

I won’t even touch wood if it’s been bucked, anymore. When friends call to see if I can haul away a tree, my first question is whether they already bucked it. If they say yes, I usually decline. I’m just tired of getting stupid useless lengths that I need to recut and throw away a bunch of shorts, or pieces with an elbow or crotch right in the middle of the only useable length.

I am totally in the same boat. If I can't cut to my length, it's just a pain to stack and deal with.

 

[HisTreeNut]

I have found that most people cut wood in 18" splits. I have also found there is a 6" variance in everyone's 18".
That being said, I generally still take whatever. The too small stuff goes to the fire pit stack.

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[Ashful]

I have found that most people cut wood in 18" splits. I have also found there is a 6" variance in everyone's 18".
That being said, I generally still take whatever. The too small stuff goes to the fire pit stack.

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You gotta remember, I have a perpetual pile of at least a half dozen cords, waiting for me to have time to split it. In fact, today I have more than a dozen cords in logs, waiting to be split. I generally only take full log lengths, anymore:

 

[HisTreeNut]

I wish I had that problem.
[emoji6][emoji16][emoji16][emoji6]

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[ZZ Tom]

I won’t even touch wood if it’s been bucked, anymore. When friends call to see if I can haul away a tree, my first question is whether they already bucked it. If they say yes, I usually decline. I’m just tired of getting stupid useless lengths that I need to recut and throw away a bunch of shorts, or pieces with an elbow or crotch right in the middle of the only useable length.

I completely agree. My situation just doesn't allow me to be that picky. I'm sitting on a 6000 sq ft lot in suburbia, the house, garage, driveway, garden and fruit trees doesn't leave much room for wood. I have room for about 4 cords CSS in my current arrangement. Also no room to store a trailer and my truck wouldn't handle a trailer capable of full length logs anyway.

 

[Ashful]

I completely agree. My situation just doesn't allow me to be that picky. I'm sitting on a 6000 sq ft lot in suburbia, the house, garage, driveway, garden and fruit trees doesn't leave much room for wood. I have room for about 4 cords CSS in my current arrangement. Also no room to store a trailer and my truck wouldn't handle a trailer capable of full length logs anyway.

I envy the simplicity a property that size could offer, it would afford me a lot more time for the other things I’d enjoy doing with my time, but it certainly doesn’t favor wood burning. The little corner of my property where I store my firewood is larger than your entire lot!

 

[Kevin Weis]

I think my "right" answer would what burns best in my stove. But that aside I would have to say good old Red Oak. Good heat, little ash.