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Thread: What's your preferred firewood source?

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    Default What's your preferred firewood source?

    Just curious to get some ideas of what everyone likes to cut for fuel, consider both easy of processing and burning quality.
    Last edited by OMark; 04-28-2017 at 01:35 PM.


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    Senior Member alaskabushman's Avatar
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    Everyone will probably have a different favorite wood since its very dependent on the trees that are locally available. Softwoods are rarely reccomended as firewood but that's all I have in my region. I burn a lot of Western hemlock and yellow cedar, but also a little Sitka spruce and red cedar makes great kindling.
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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    Growing up in a region of mixed hardwoods I have tried about all of them.

    I like ash as an all around fuel for its ease of processing and the fact that it will catch and burn well with no aging necessary.

    White oak is next on my list along with hickory, but hickory is difficult to split so you need to be able to pick and choose small stove sized logs.

    Top wood for burning all night??? It has to be either osage or black locust. You can melt a stove with that stuff if you are not careful. It will have you sitting in your shorts with the doors open to cool the house down.

    The worst wood is any kind of elm. It is so full of water when green that it simply will not burn, then when it ages and dries out it goes up in smoke like burning paper. I have been forced to quinch and unload the stove and replace half charred elm with good wood to get the house warm because the elm absolutely would not burn.

    The only soft wood I have ever burned is our eastern red juniper, also known as red cedar. It is an excellent campfire wood because it burns well as a multi-colored flame and smells great. It is not a good stove wood in my opinion.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Our "Place" cabin on my avatar.....burns wood as the main heat source...with electric back up.
    The is about 6 acres of wood lot....mixed bag of trees.

    Favorite is... Oak.....Have cut up and split several large oaks that were dead falls.....actually have a coupple more to try to get out of the ravine...but have slowed down on wood cutting.
    My main fuel...aged a year or so......

    Next is Elm.....I know many people don't care for it....but with about 100 plus trees that blighted and died...many falling in the fields and road...were cut and splits ok.
    I saved out quite a few rounds.... 4 to 12" dia....make wonderful "overnighters"....still going after about 6 hours.

    These were standing dead trees, killed off....or recent windfalls....

    If the bark was off...the wood is still good...then starts to gets punky from the ground up...
    If it still has bark in it...mostly bad and punky...going into berms and piles.

    Never cut a live elm...so can't speak to that.

    Next is black walnut....mostly just over hangs in the fields with just a few trees cut....haven't burned the bigger logs..are drying for projects.

    Last...Box elder...a soft, gnarly, fast growing weed tree...
    First year...real to hard to split green....and won't burn unless split very thin.
    Second year will burn....with better wood with it..
    Third year...toss as it is punky and light as a feather...no BTU's left.
    Mostly don't waste time a fuel on it...cut down...pick up whole tree with the buck forks....dump in pile for rabbit-tat.

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    Downed dead elm....saved the round for overnighters.

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    With 30 acres of mixed hardwoods I am not fussy . While I like a mix of oaks and hickory . What I burn is whatever is dead ,damaged or blown down .

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Fixit View Post
    With 30 acres of mixed hardwoods I am not fussy . While I like a mix of oaks and hickory . What I burn is whatever is dead ,damaged or blown down .
    Bingo.......
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    Senior Member Solar Geek's Avatar
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    Red oak. 35+ acres of red oaks; we can live for the rest of our lives with the dead falls.
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    Just don't be under one.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Doc is not real big on chainsawing, splitting, lifting and stacking....
    Kinda got real last fall....

    Sooooo.....Lately it has been "delivered wood"......
    Call my guy....he calls his buddy....they bring over a large pick up load....(Not quite a face cord)..$100 bucks
    Mixed oak and elm...cut to 16" fits better in the stove.....split, delivered and stacked...

    I meet them at the saloon...I pay then.... then they buy a few rounds....
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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    A few? That brings the price down to 12.95 delivered and a buzz. That's a pretty good deal.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Same guy did my new windows, roof on the shed, built pole barn...and grandson does my weed wacking.....
    Very good deal indeed.
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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Oak is my favorite. There is enough tree work in the area where I can collect enough for my purposes. If I had the room, I could have collected enough for a lifetime after Hurricane Matthew.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Crash...any concern about termites and ants in those trees?
    There was some talk about mulch from ground up trees, from down south after the hurricanes.. having termites mixed in with them.

    Lately....due to the Green Ash Borer,.... just about every ash tree is dead, or dying...thousands of trees....on street parkways, yards. parks......everywhere.
    These are big old trees....Really sad.

    You can have all you want...as long as it isn't transported out of the area......
    Ash burns well...bythch to split....
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    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    There is. Storing your wood off the ground is a must here (I also treat the soil below the cinder blocks to be safe). If it is lying on the ground it will quickly (by nature's standards) turn to dirt.

    Currently there are a couple of species of termites that will nest in trees (only one in this area - Formosan) and even consume them to some extent.
    Last edited by crashdive123; 04-04-2017 at 07:41 PM.
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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    In my area I prefer hard maple and white ash but generally burn white birch, spruce, oak, elm, trembling aspen, ironwood. For kindling wood I prefer squaw wood or split northern white cedar.
    so the definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law and you want me to believe that somehow more laws make less criminals?

  17. #17

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    Around here it's oak and some maple. White or Paper birch doesn't burn and gets punky the second year.
    The hickories are mostly gone.
    The ash all died a few years ago.
    This year I think we're going to lose the white pines to rust and hemlocks to adelgid. Lots of standing dead. No good to burn.
    So sad.

    I get mine delivered, mostly deadfall.
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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Paper birch needs to be split, I have some that is several years old that hasn't turned punky.
    so the definition of a criminal is someone who breaks the law and you want me to believe that somehow more laws make less criminals?

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    Most of the paper birch around here doesn't even make a decent sized log, let alone large enough to split. And they're infected with some kind of disease that makes them bend and not stand back up. Junk wood here.
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    Ed edr730's Avatar
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    Birch groves always catch some kind of disease and then they die in groups. I always have some birch mixed up in my firewood. It's a fair wood to burn. The white isn't as hard as the yellow. It's nice to have around because the bark burns like an oily rag and is a handy fire starter. Mine is always big enough to split.

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