Which wood

[fishinAK]

hello all,
So I recently bought a house that has a wood burning stove. Plus anonther spot for another one, which I will hopefully get soon.
Question is...since I live is southeast alaska I have access to alot of trees but not many different species of trees. I basically have 3 choices Sitka Spruce, Western hemlock or Red alder. Please help me decide which of these would be my best bet for good firewood. My neighbor also has a few old cottonwoods that he will be removing this summer...how do they burn. Thanks for any and all help.

 

[BrotherBart]

From a heat value standpoint and burn characteristics I would put the labor into the Alder first followed by the Hemlock. Spruce burns hot, fast and messy. Sparks and pops a lot.

None are really long burning woods but ya burn what ya got. Alder has been keeping people warm up there for a long time.

 

[begreen]

BroBart has the right advice. I might add that don't expect the alder to last long unless it's stored dry & well-seasoned and kept out of the elements. It decomposes very quickly, which considering it's a legume is a good thing for the forest floor, but not for the woodpile. Sitka spruce can be good too, they are pretty monsterous trees. But beware if the spruce was taken down due to bark beetle infestation. You don't want to store that wood close to valuable landscape trees and probably shouldn't store more than a year's worth. I'm not fond of cottonwood for firewood, but smoke em if ya got em I suppose.

http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/forestry/insects/sprucebarkbettle.htm

PS: You probably don't want to stash quite this much Sitka Spruce:

 

[Harley]

WOW, BeGreen! That's quite a picture! I would imagine that pile would last a day or two :gulp:

 

[BrotherBart]

WOW, BeGreen! That's quite a picture! I would imagine that pile would last a day or two :gulp:

The heck with the wood. I want that saw!

 

[babalu87]

......... or the set of brass ones to run it

Look how far apart the teeth are!
That thing must be NASTY!

 

[wg_bent]

Hey...That's Eric and the pile he's splitting this weekend!

 

[begreen]

What do you guess, about 3 cords per stick?

 

[Eric Johnson]

Hey...That's Eric and the pile he's splitting this weekend!

Lamentably, I only have about a cord to split this weekend. However, I do have to re-stack the 19 or 20 cords left over from this past heating season. That's going to involve moving 10 into the barn, and moving the remaining 9 cords back against the property line, to make room for whatever I can haul this summer. So that's pretty much all I have planned for Memorial Day weekend, not counting a little gardening on the side.

Hey, it snowed here yesterday. I fired the boiler back up because the sound of the gas meter makes me sick.

 

[carpniels]

Hi Warren,

Love the comment! Erik is good, but not THAT good.

I never know there were spruces that big. I have a 30 incher down in the back that I need to cut with an 18 inch blade. Cannot image ever tackling one of those trees.

Carpniels

PS. Notice how smooth the cut is on those. When I cut mine, the cut is not flush through. I have the notch for the direction and the cut on the back. Plus ragged hinges. Wonder how they do it???

 

[Eric Johnson]

That's because those aren't butt logs, Niels. They're either the small ends of butt logs or logs from further up the tree. Once you get a saw that big started on a bucking cut, it will cut through pretty cleanly. Imagine filing that chain every tank

From what I've seen of West Coast logging, the standard log length is 40 feet.

 

[PutnamJct]

More info and "WOW" pics here:
http://www.alaskaspecialtywoods.com/our_wood_process.htm
http://www.alaskaspecialtywoods.com/photo_gallery.htm