was out for hike with wife and dog today and came across a yellow and black birch near each other. Very similar in size trees and thought I would post as there are often requests for birch wood id's. first pic is black birch, second is yellow birch. Enjoy
Thanks for posting!!! I could almost swear that black birch and Alder look really alike. They are in the same family. Its only when you cut the alder it becomes a reddish inside if you cut or gouge the bark. Not sure what black birch does...
Thats something I like doing is smelling wood for identification. Just a way of cataloging for me but its interesting that wood smells change.
Her responses must be interesting but there is a bit of truth to this, women can smell things better in some ways than us men so you're probably good to ask her or say smell this. Just make sure its not a tree you sprayed estrus on if you hunt...
Contrasted with cherry which at times can be hard to tell apart from birch. Especially when they are saplings.
Alder runs rampant in the PNW and I've never cut into one finding black birch. I also did research on black birch, says that this climate it doesn't do well and its own climate gives it problems as it is susceptible to various tree ailments. So Alder wins the zinc metal in this race if that in terms of burning, its really easy to split and can be dried over the summer and ready by winter arrival if done right. Its good for bbq too, mild taste on seafood and chicken or pork. Black would likely be gold and yellow is silver and white being in the middle. I have a BUNCH of white birch. I mean this is a lot by my standards. So Im more so ready for the next 3 years with it but they say it burns fast. Im ok with that, its making your stove that burns it more efficient that counts, keep the heat make it last.
The zone here makes it more susceptible than its base. Prone to Leaf curl and bark rot and cankerts, borers, etc. all the more reason not to move it around.
I guess that depends on what else you have and I seem to recall you said you had a bunch of oak so I guess in comparison it will. Where we live birch is the highest btu wood available in the wild at 20 mbtus. My favorite though is larch which is close behind it at 19.5 mbtus. Both woods will easily survive an overnight burn in my stove.
White birch? Sean I will have to test out this a bit, it does burn hot I'll tell you that much. I was sitting out one time and my fire felt Hotter than it usually is. Maybe no wind or something but it was singing the bottoms of my old georgias. I also put a mix of other stuff in there too so I can't say it contributes to just birch but hey I can't complain. It was free, I found it close to my house I got to work on it as fast as I humanly could (but the part about white birch being so water tight was an oblivious thing) live and let learn moment for me. Last summer just made it tough to stay in the house for long. So I will test this out shortly. Folks on this site and others in general say this is "middle of the road" which is hard to put in terms because if you burn straight softwood like pine and the like, its gonna be pretty nice but I'll not just take their wood for it. Just ordered the wood stove by the way...
Yes white birch or paper birch. I agree on the heat comment. It can burn plenty hot when nice and dry and have had a few worried moments with the wood stove when I didnt turn it down early enough. Yeah this is true. Sometimes I envy people who have better woods than myself but then I look on the bright side. I cant get on the 3 year plan due to my property size so need wood that generally takes less time to dry. Over the weekend I stuck my moisture meter into some freshly resplit larch that was processed by yours truly in April 2016 from a green tree and was surprised to find it at 21% mc already. Not bad for my preferred wood. Im also rather spoiled because I often can get into harvesting trees that are already dry or close to it so it cuts down on the amount of time it has to sit in my stacks before burning.
