Eastern Red Cedar? Worth cutting up for firewood?

I am cleaning up a lot of Cedar on the farm, some alive, and quite a bit of leaning dead. I believe I read somewhere that you shouldn't burn Cedar in a wood stove, mine is an EPA Baffle type stove.

Is it worth having some Cedar? Or is it a bad idea? If it's dried out good, will it cause problems, because of the resin? I don't want to mess up my flue or stove. I just had a lot of fair sized logs (tree trunks) I hated to waste, as I don't use them for fence post anymore.

I thought maybe it would work good to mix a little in with my other wood, maybe at the start of a cold stove, especially. I think I have used it for kindling before, but not much.

 

Burn it!! I burn a lot of cedar here. It’s one of my favorites. It burns hot and clean. And it smells wonderful when it burns. It does not have nearly the same amount of “resin” that a lot of the pine I burn around here has. It is a very clean burning firewood.

 

It's like eastern white pine. Burns fast and hot.
When the wood is seasoned so is the resin/pitch. It burns because it is a fuel, but geez it's not gasoline !!!! . It's not a magical mystery compound, it's just resin/pitch-similar to sap in any other tree. It's just super sticky and thick instead of watery. The difference between sap and pitch is sort of like the difference between blood and blood clots - not the same but related.
Same rules apply as with all other wood - burn it well seasoned/dried out.

Burning like paper is a bit hyperbolic but it does burn kinda fast. It's not the resin causing it to burn fast - it's just a fast burning low BTU wood.

If you've ever had some amber - it comes from evergreen pitch. The terpenes are driven from the pitch and eventually it fossilizes into amber. Terpenes are one of the essential oils found in many plants and flowers. No need to be paranoid about resin just because they also get turpentine from it. If you've ever burned evergreen wood in a open fire you might have seen a pitch pocket burn. Like half a teaspoon of pitch. It's not hard like amber but it's dried out a little bit beyond being waxy. It can be a little tiny fairly intense tiny fire within the fire. Maybe a minute or two of cool colored flame. It's not harmful - it's still related to cellulose which no one has any fears of burning in a wood stove.
Off the New Jersey coast - the clam boats dredge up the bigger pieces of amber every now and then. Most of the guys probably toss it back not knowing what it is. . The dredge openings are small enough to retain the clams but leave the sand behind. They're not in terribly deep water and the amber is either deposited there because there was forest there many years ago ( in geological time) or trees floated down rivers and were deposited there. The scallopers are in deeper water with their dredges and they don't get much amber so maybe more likely the clams are in past forest areas. Who knows. Amber might also be found in Pennsylvania near the anthracite coal deposits. Some amber also floats and can be found on beaches. Forget now if it's the amount of oxygen in the amber or the degree of fossilization that affects its specific gravity/float or maybe both.

Also: eastern red cedar is also not a cedar but a juniper and its aromatic essential oils are used in foods and repel insects. The essential oil from the blue berries are used to flavor things like dry gin . There's no good reason to "fear the sap". I don't remember them being any where near as sappy as a pine tree anyway.

 

Its fine if seasoned I use it for kindling or to bring the fire back to life if the coals burn down too far.

 

We have white cedar here and it is used for kindling. This past summer, 99 threw some cedar rounds on the fire pit fire and I was amazed at how much babysitting those pieces needed.

They had been in log form since the 60's; no bark and dry...spliting by them selves the length of the log. No MC issue with that wood.

 

Hey bud, I'm an Arky to if you don't mind telling about where your located would love to bargain with you for some of your bigger cedar. Im in the middle of a remodel and going to need more. I'm in the middle of the state also. Saline county. Thanks brad

 

Dries fast and makes great kindling from what ive been told. I have a few bigger logs put aside to be milled. I dont go out of my way for it. Good to mix in for SS burns maybe?

 

Welcome to the FHC from one Brad to another.

 

Northwest Arkansas, it would be a bit of a haul for you. Most of the cedar I have would make pretty small boards, only the odd tree big enough to really make a good board, I would think.

 

Thanks buZZsaw. Been lurking quite a while just never posted.

 

Thanks for the reply. Kinda figured that you were in the north part. Lots of cedar up there.

 

If it's anything like the Eastern White Cedar I've been burning then you should be happy with the results. Great for shoulder season and the fact that its rot resistant is an added bonus. I plan on scrounging some more dead stuff myself once the snow cover is gone.

 

Well, I guess I will cut some into firewood then. I am cutting it out of an old fence row to clean the place up, some.

 

I've been using it for kindling for years. Good stuff to get the fire going in the morning.

 

Eric, do you mean Eastern white or Eastern red cedar? The red is the aromatic wood in cedar closets and chests. Proper name is Juniper if im not mistaken, but i still call it cedar.

 

White is what I scrounged back in the summer. It’s white all the way through vs the red center. Still has a nice smell though not as potent.

 

Interesting. Cant say ive ever seen any other than at the lumberyard.

 

Now you've got me thinking... There seems to be some confusion in the naming. According to some off the cuff Googling, Eastern White Cedar belongs to the Arborvitae family. Then there's Eastern Red Cedar which is classified as a Juniper... I know what I have isn't red.... Arborvitae are pretty common around here (I have 2 rows of them in my yard, different variants) and I know I've seen plenty of Cedars around, the stringy bark is a giveaway... I don't know! The more I try to narrow it down, the more confused I get. I'm reasonably certain whatever I have is in the Arborvitae family, and it does smell nice and seems to be somewhat rot resistant.

 

Here was what I found back in the summer. The bigger pieces were about 12" diameter, much bigger than your average landscaping row of Arborvitae.
EDIT: There is some other smaller conifer species in the picture.

 

Dried eastern red cedar. Sorry for the blurry pics. don't mind the window blanket we like it dark in the bedroom