Firewood
- Thread starter Creeker
- Start date
Predominantly oak here and I only burn oak or walnut in the fireplace, mostly oak. Walnut has a higher BTU than oak, gotta be careful how much I put in the fireplace, a fairly small fire with oak keeping the living room at about 74, throw in a couple of pieces of walnut runs the temp up to 87-90 quickly. Have 5-6 cord of oak cut & split and maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cord of walnut. Have quite a bit of cedar here also but too much pitch for my liking & never use it.
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Native trees are coastal live oak, pine and cypress.
Eucalyptus is non-native, brought from Australia to be used for railroad ties. It grows fast, a benefit to the railroads, but it grows in a spiral (right-hand twist in the Northern Hemisphere) and something the railroads apparently overlooked. It burns hot, leaves very little ash, and is very fragrant, but splitting it is more than a chore with a splitter. I've split many a round with a maul and a wedge, but it is the definition of work.
Eucalyptus is non-native, brought from Australia to be used for railroad ties. It grows fast, a benefit to the railroads, but it grows in a spiral (right-hand twist in the Northern Hemisphere) and something the railroads apparently overlooked. It burns hot, leaves very little ash, and is very fragrant, but splitting it is more than a chore with a splitter. I've split many a round with a maul and a wedge, but it is the definition of work.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
No hardwoods here. Mostly fir and tamarack. And lots of apple as they cut down thousands of acres of apple orchards and plant grape vineyards.
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Joshua
Taco Aficionado/Salish Sea Pirate/Part-Time Dragon
The first tree I ever cut down with an axe was that type of Eucalyptus. My dad was clearing land to build a house in the hills above Aromas. I was about nine, the tree was younger than me, maybe 5” thick.
Around where I live now, Douglas fir and Madronna are considered the best wood. Some people refuse to burn Alder, and will only use Cedar for kindling.
Josh
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Rick H
Well-Known Member
Ash is the firewood of kings, perfect for the wood stove. (OK apple is better but I'm not cutting down orchards) I burn a lot of red oak and maple at the cabin. I won't burn any pine, way too much creosote build up. Poplar and Aspen are ok for a quick fire on a cool evening but burn with little heat compared to Ash, oak, or Maple. I would be very happy to burn nothing but ash, but the emerald ash borer will be the end of that. We can't even transport firewood here trying (futile) to stem the spread of the borer.
Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
For years I heated with wood, often exclusively heating with wood. I have mixed emotions about that experience.
On the positive side: It is extremely reliable and the quality of the heat is excellent. The cost is relatively low (assuming you don't look at the cost of a truck, splitter, chain saw and your own time
) I never worried about the electricity failing or extreme cold costing more money to heat the house. I split a lot of wood with wedges, axes and mauls before I could afford a hydraulic splitter. Some people say that the two happiest days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. I think the same standard applies to a hydraulic log splitter !
On the negative side: It is time consuming. And those demands on time go beyond cutting, splitting, hauling, stacking and hauling again. There's tending the fire, cleaning out ash, cleaning the house and the fact that you are tied to that stove during the winter. If you can't get home to tend the stove, you better have someone else that can. I didn't mind the labor but I did mind the time.
Not to brag, but I am very skilled at operating a wood stove (probably because my father was NOT good at it and someone had to to do it). I can run a clean burn with a blue flame over a bed of coals with no smoke coming out of a warm chimney. Or I can bank a stove to run during the longest of winter nights. I have fond memories of heating with wood.
There may come a time when I return to supplementing my heating needs with firewood but I don't think I'll ever return to heating exclusively with firewood.
As for the type of wood used, it was predominantly oak. Occasionally locust & walnut.
Once, when I was a kid, my father purchased a couple of trailer loads of oak boards from a defunct cabinet shop. It was kiln dried, 1" thick oak boards! None of the boards were longer than about 16" and they were all 4" wide. It was a shame to burn such beautiful boards but it was cheap and we were poor. That stuff burned like coal !!
On the positive side: It is extremely reliable and the quality of the heat is excellent. The cost is relatively low (assuming you don't look at the cost of a truck, splitter, chain saw and your own time
) I never worried about the electricity failing or extreme cold costing more money to heat the house. I split a lot of wood with wedges, axes and mauls before I could afford a hydraulic splitter. Some people say that the two happiest days of owning a boat are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. I think the same standard applies to a hydraulic log splitter ! On the negative side: It is time consuming. And those demands on time go beyond cutting, splitting, hauling, stacking and hauling again. There's tending the fire, cleaning out ash, cleaning the house and the fact that you are tied to that stove during the winter. If you can't get home to tend the stove, you better have someone else that can. I didn't mind the labor but I did mind the time.
Not to brag, but I am very skilled at operating a wood stove (probably because my father was NOT good at it and someone had to to do it). I can run a clean burn with a blue flame over a bed of coals with no smoke coming out of a warm chimney. Or I can bank a stove to run during the longest of winter nights. I have fond memories of heating with wood.
There may come a time when I return to supplementing my heating needs with firewood but I don't think I'll ever return to heating exclusively with firewood.
As for the type of wood used, it was predominantly oak. Occasionally locust & walnut.
Once, when I was a kid, my father purchased a couple of trailer loads of oak boards from a defunct cabinet shop. It was kiln dried, 1" thick oak boards! None of the boards were longer than about 16" and they were all 4" wide. It was a shame to burn such beautiful boards but it was cheap and we were poor. That stuff burned like coal !!
JonB
Halcyon member
Minnesota offers a lot of varieties for cutting/burning firewood.
I prefer Ash...we have NOT been bit too hard by the Emerald Ash borer ...yet.
Right now, the wood most prevalent in my "ready to burn stack" is Kentucky Coffee Tree wood. I cut up a huge one in 2017, that was taken down from my neighbors boulevard for street construction. It's a very hard and brittle wood. When the tree removal company took it down, many branches "Busted/Shattered" when the trunk hit the street. But, it has beautiful reddish grain. It's burns slow, like White Oak, so I have it mixed with Elm and Hackberry in the stack ...and I always have some Ash mixed in.
The last log (10 footer) that I cut and split this fall, was a Ash log that someone left at the City's compost site, it was quite large in Diameter (probably 36"?) and was everything my 20" chain saw bar could handle. There was a major crotch, that I had to quarter with the Saw, just so I could lift the pieces into the truck. Also, because of the crotch and also many branch knots in that log, there are many strangely shaped split pieces that don't stack well, but I've found that those strange shapes burn longer ...maybe because it has tighter/stronger grain maybe?
Also, one time I got a large strange log at the compost site, I think it was Black Locust? It had a strange criss-cross grain that would split like plywood...very difficult splitting...luckily my V-block on the splitter is quite sharp, because that log would seemingly be "cut" in the wood splitter, instead of split...unless I was able to split it directly with the grain, then it split easily, just like plywood would do.
I prefer Ash...we have NOT been bit too hard by the Emerald Ash borer ...yet.
Right now, the wood most prevalent in my "ready to burn stack" is Kentucky Coffee Tree wood. I cut up a huge one in 2017, that was taken down from my neighbors boulevard for street construction. It's a very hard and brittle wood. When the tree removal company took it down, many branches "Busted/Shattered" when the trunk hit the street. But, it has beautiful reddish grain. It's burns slow, like White Oak, so I have it mixed with Elm and Hackberry in the stack ...and I always have some Ash mixed in.
The last log (10 footer) that I cut and split this fall, was a Ash log that someone left at the City's compost site, it was quite large in Diameter (probably 36"?) and was everything my 20" chain saw bar could handle. There was a major crotch, that I had to quarter with the Saw, just so I could lift the pieces into the truck. Also, because of the crotch and also many branch knots in that log, there are many strangely shaped split pieces that don't stack well, but I've found that those strange shapes burn longer ...maybe because it has tighter/stronger grain maybe?
Also, one time I got a large strange log at the compost site, I think it was Black Locust? It had a strange criss-cross grain that would split like plywood...very difficult splitting...luckily my V-block on the splitter is quite sharp, because that log would seemingly be "cut" in the wood splitter, instead of split...unless I was able to split it directly with the grain, then it split easily, just like plywood would do.
I too used wood exclusively for heat while living in Oregon. And yes, lot's of work and time involved. At that same time I was also cutting & selling firewood and cut more cords than I could imagine and all of it with a maul and/or wedge. A hydraulic log splitter was pipe dream back then. I could easily set the wood stove to burn all night and wake up to warm house in the morning but that involves not only knowing how but also a quality stove, the cheapy stoves sold in the home improvement stores aren't going to do it. When I moved in here the first several cords I split was with a hammer & wedge, learned quickly that the combination of oak and age made using a maul a fools errand. Only have a fireplace now so don't even try to heat the whole place with it, just supplemental heat and enjoy a fire on a cold evening. Never ever burn soft wood these days, the creosote will gunk up a chimney in short order.
fiver
Well-Known Member
I couldn't tell you what most of the wood I burn is.
lately it's been mostly old fence posts some rancher swapped out this summer and piled up near the lake.
there's some pallet wood in there, a little bit of doug pine, maybe some aspen, a little scrap 2x stuff, couple of chunks of decking [probably not wood] a bit of cedar I found somewhere [shrug] a bit of tongue and groove redwood, some leftover chip board pieces, a shoe or flip-flop might even find it's way in there from time to time.
lately it's been mostly old fence posts some rancher swapped out this summer and piled up near the lake.
there's some pallet wood in there, a little bit of doug pine, maybe some aspen, a little scrap 2x stuff, couple of chunks of decking [probably not wood] a bit of cedar I found somewhere [shrug] a bit of tongue and groove redwood, some leftover chip board pieces, a shoe or flip-flop might even find it's way in there from time to time.
Rockydoc
Well-Known Member
JWFilips
Well-Known Member
I remember when I got married ....every Sunday in the fall My wife and I went to her parents house and I went out with her Dad to cut firewood.
We only cut the dead standing wood from the adjacent woods...That was plenty for him! We cut in the mornings and came back for lunch ( always tomato soup and grill cheese sandwiches)! Then go back out and collect all the cut logs in a trailer pulled by a 22 hp Yanmar diesel tractor snaking through the woods! Unload it when we got back and split it with the PTO driven conical splitter!
We only cut the dead standing wood from the adjacent woods...That was plenty for him! We cut in the mornings and came back for lunch ( always tomato soup and grill cheese sandwiches)! Then go back out and collect all the cut logs in a trailer pulled by a 22 hp Yanmar diesel tractor snaking through the woods! Unload it when we got back and split it with the PTO driven conical splitter!