Woods that have similar burn charectoristics

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mywaynow

Minister of Fire
Dec 13, 2010
1,369
Northeast
My OCD that is causing me to stack by species has me pondering what woods would be likely to burn in similar fashion? Meaning BTU's and duration of burn. My thoughts were to combine-

Osage, Black Locust, White Oak and Dogwood

Walnut, Black Walnut, and Red Oak

Ash, Maple and Elm

I don't mix woods for burning advantages. I am more in the mindset of knowing how hot and long the load should last before needing reloading.
 
You have it bad enough that you can start calling it CDO (OCD in alphabetical order...) :lol:

I'd move the red oak up and move the Juglans (black walnut (Juglans nigra) and butternut (Juglans cinerea)) down with the maple and elm... But the sugar maple really should go up with the oaks IMO. Ash is dryer from the beginning so maybe it should go in it's own pile?

Some of the birches (paper and gray) are about equal to red maple some like the black and yellow birches are much more dense. Even elm isn't so cut and dry. American elm is a medium BTU wood, but rock elm is way up there...

Both of the iron woods found up here are high BTU woods.

(I'm not helping with the separate ash pile, am I?)


How picky on burning times do you want to get? Silver maple really doesn't give you too much more than some of the pines. Maybe it would be easier to have a dense stack and a medium to low density stack? I don't want to discourage you from your goal, but you could literally drive yourself crazy sorting splits if you aren't careful.

Matt
 
The red oak definitely needs to move up but realize too that it takes a long time for this to season. That is why we stack that one all by itself when we have it. On the maple, that depends on what kind of maple it is. Hard maple? Soft maple? Elm depends on how it splits. All stringy, burns up fast. Ash will hold its own again all the above even if it sometimes is rated a bit below on the charts. Of course one of the best things about ash is it doesn't take so long to season. Another big plus about ash is that it is about the slowest wood there is go go punky. It keeps a long, long time.
 
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