I have an OWB so I'm constantly on the hunt for wood and I'm not known to turn down any free wood. I had found some birch stacked up in a vacant lot the other day. After asking a few questions at the house next door, the wood was mine...3 pick up loads full and already cut in 3' lengths (perfect for me). I've never burned birch before as we don't have a lot of it around here. My guess is that the bark is an issue. I've seen canoes and water jugs made from the bark so I'm guessing it's a good water proofer. If it keeps water out, I'm guessing it's good at keeping water in also...long dry times. Is this correct? I'd prefer to keep the wood in rounds and not split it as the rounds burn much better than splits. The rounds are perfect size - 6"-8" so another reason to not want to split. So, who's got experience with birch and what can you tell me about it?
Depending on the Birch species ,it can be considered anything from great firewood to just okay firewood . Black Birch is right up there with some of the best firewood types . Then yellow,grey ,paper ,etc ... But as was mentioned ...whatever it is ,get it split fairly quickly as it tends to rot if left upsplit especially if in contact with the ground .
Birch is good BTU. Yellow and black are near the top on the charts. But it does rot fast. I recall somebody saying they slice the bark with a chainsaw to open up a pathway for moisture to get out.
You are right about the watertight bark The birch here needs to be spit so it can dry. If not split, it'll get punky in the center, even 17" rounds, in about 2 years. 3' lengths might start to rot even faster.
Paper birch is great firewood, 22 mbtu's per ton, but yes, you absolutely have to split it otherwise it will rot in only a year or so. It's far better wood than a lot of wood that people think is better.
Birch bark is an excellent tinder for starting fires. I always look for some when I am playing around outside bushcrafting. Even the bark on completely rotten wood burns easily, it has good burning resins in it.
Yes, but I dont like having to split it. That means cutting all the pieces down to 24", then I'm left with about 12" cut offs, then I have twice as many little pieces of firewood laying around. Then I'm throwing 40 pieces of wood in the furnace at a time...pain in da rear. Sorta seems like I should have left it where it was. Lesson learned. Thanks for all the info guys - I really enjoy being a member here....lots of good people
Welcome to the forum dusky. Something else about birch bark. We have quite a bit of it here and I can remember many times even making Christmas cards from the bark. You have to find some you can just peel off. We then would use glue and glitter to make writings, pictures or whatever. We also used to peel some of the bark and write on it like you would write on paper and then send letters to the grandchildren. People find it fascinating when you do things like this.
Cut in half and split, I've burnt it plenty, no matter your species of wood moisture in the wood makes it inefficient to burn and terrible for the environment. I burn in an owb, first year I had wet red and white oak, second year I had dry pine, split at decent size pieces, and can you guys guess which lasted overnight the best, even with half the btus? Not to mention I always had a good bed of coals. Your right, the pine was way way better. Per pound every species of wood is relatively close in btus, it's just that oak is much more dense than pine is. If you keep moisture in it and all your doing is burning water, which as you probably know doesn't work very well.
