Wondering what others around the country prefer as their choice for firewood. I prefer Alder here as it burns well in our little stove, doesn’t have any pitch, doesn’t have a lot of limbs when grown in a woodlot, splits easy, seasons fast and not a lot of bark to deal with. The downside is it doesn’t store well outside for long. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
If I had to pick one, it would be black locust. Dries fast, splits easy, stores forever, and packs a wallop.
This year it would be Honey Locus with Beech coming a very close second. How fast? Chart says 2 years. Just cut a problem black locus and can cut more. Kind of thinking maybe next years burn if split small and in the sun to season.
I don’t really come upon locust much, but I do like sugar maple. Burns hot, not too much ash, and doesn’t take as long to season as oak. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hard to pick a favorite in my region, being blessed with Oak, Hickory, Cherry, Locust and more. Been cutting a lot of Ash lately since the EAB blight...easy to cut and split and dries pretty quick.
Here in the Puget Sound area its hard to beat a mix of Madrone and Douglas Fir. Both are plentiful and season quickly and this is important because I only have enough space to store about 2.5 years of wood. Both split well especially now that I have a splitter. Fir starts fast and burns fairly hot with little ash. After the start a couple good splits of Madrone laid on the coals will burn slowly and evenly with far less ash than most hardwoods. Lots of BTUs there. There are others that I like. Cherry is a wonderful wood with scented smoke. Same for Apple. I have a bunch of locust which is great heat but the smoke has a slightly chemical smell. Our western Maple has about the same BTUs as Fir. Splits easy and cures quick but leaves a lot of ash. Oak is great firewood but I just don't have the room for wood that takes at least 3 years to season. I keep coming back to Doug Fir and Madrone. Works for me!
I burn what I've got. Red oak, white oak, red maple and eastern white pine. The oaks are nice when it is cold, the maple when it isn't so cold. Pine is niche convenient.
Red elm for sure. Clean wood no bark if standing dead. Smells great when split and good btu's. Have a lot of red oak on hand now ,but takes to long to season properly. Ash would be a close 2nd.
Ash grown in the woods Free Black cherry for the smell Locusts black and honey Oak Norway Maple In that order
Probably shagbark hickory would be my pick. I like the dead standing barkless wonder that american elm is, and I love the heat and smell of both beech and sugar maple make. I really like a selection of different wood to burn.
Like Horkn says, I love the varieties I have available here and love burning “designer” loads...Love red oak with ash, beech with maple and white oak with shagbark when it gets downright beyond nipply....as with most here my stacks tend to species specific due to when it was put up- its easy when moving to the house to gather a mix of whatever my flavor of the day might be...
We have alot of good firewood species here in IN, but i would say my favorite is sugar maple. Usually splits and burns well leaving coals. Only wood i dont like messing with is poplar. I will take sassafras over it, you can burn it as soon as its cut if you are in a pinch.
