Debate with my dad: Is there such a thing as undesirable wood if its free?

Welcome to the site Heptameron and please give my regards to your Dad ! I first voted with you but then removed my vote for several reasons. I have limited space in my wood yard so I have to be a little picky as to the quality of the wood I burn. A wood like willow or cottonwood just doesn't cut it btu wise. Also can't have a wood that takes several years to season. Almost all my firewood is relatively fast curing Doug Fir, Cherry or Madrone all available close in from Tree Service work for home owners. I don't need to travel far for firewood so if it is some distance away I don't need it even for free. All of this goes out the window of course if I am down to 2 cords because of a drought in wood scores. I think that both you and your Dad are right given specific circumstances. You can always keep all the marginal firewood and give the primo stuff to Dad! I'm sure he would agree to such a compromise. What a wonderful Son!

 

Thank you so much for such a nice message. This forum is absolutely amazing. I've enjoyed quite a bit sharing the comments of this thread with my dad (he has long retired from handling wood) and he is loving the debate. Needless to say I'll also share this one with him

 

Same here. Willow is where I draw the line though. I won't process willow. If any breaks and needs to be sawed, it goes in the woods. Good news is that there's really no will at any of my areas I cut wood. The last was at my buddy's old house and a branch broke on a yard willow. We used my then new ms170 that I won in the raffle at Denny's gtg. The pieces went into the brush pile he had in the back yard.

 

I've never burnt willow, is it that bad? My line is with poplar; tried it once and never again - the only pro is that it is easy to cut -

 

Willow is worthless. I had 2 huge ones in my yard. Years ago, one uprooted in a big storm and fell on our pool. It got sectioned up and burned in the fire pit. Even sucks for that!

 

Willow is always super wet, full of water/ moisture so it's heavy. Then it splits horribly, and takes seemingly forever to dry. After all that, it's super low BTU 's. Like 14 mbtu's a cord.

I'll take poplar. Yeah, it's wet and heavy when green, but it splits well, and dries super fast. Like 1 summer and it's ready after split and stacked. Sure it's low BTU as well, but the quick drying and easy splitting make up for that

 

I love poplar. It can get a fire going really good.