It’s timmmmmmeeeeeeee.......In today’s first battle we have two mid range contenders who think they should earn a spot in the top rankings. They season quick and are easy to process. Let’s meet them!!! First up we have Black Cherry. Coming in at 19.5 MBTU per cord and 12 months seasoning time. Cherry said he smells good and his bark looks like potato chips, so vote for him. Red Maple our other contender disagrees. He says chips are bad for you and so is burning Cherry. He comes in at 20.0 MBTU per cord of heat potential and also seasons in 12 short months. Which one of these will it be????
Cherry for the sweet smell! I've had gnarly cherry and gnarly red maple, but either splits fine if it's straight. Red maple is bland, reliable firewood, very common around here, but cherry is a treat.
Contrary to many, although I've burned lots of cherry, I never get the great scent others report and as for firewood, it does not hold fires very long at all so I say it is margial. Red maple, although it won't hold a long fire like hard maple or oak etc, it does make great firewood and super kindling wood. It is one of the easiest splitting wood there is. It will dry in less than 12 months and we've burned it many times in 6 months and it is dry then. Unlike some of the other wood, it will give super coaling which adds to the good heat it gives. In addition, it is much lighter to handle which makes it great for many. Give it a try!
No red maple around here that i know of. Plenty of black cherry and I love the smell of the smoke. I can also get a good price for it when I sell "Holiday Fireplace" wood.
Two of my favorites for the fireplace for all the reasons above, which makes it hard to decide for me. I'll take cherry just because I like the way it smells.
More dead cherries to be found than Red Maple. So many Red Maples are used in landscapes that I think it will eventually be a firewood that finds you. I like how easily Red Maple lights up when starting a fire and I agree it makes good coals. I’m picking cherry for the color, smell and ease of splitting dead cherry.
I have lots of both. Cherry for the win, it coals better..... though it doesnt break down to fine ash like the maple. It certainly lasts longer in the stove.
Like farmer steve said, no red maple around these parts. Plenty of black cherry though. I find black cherry will dry in less than 12 months too. I have about 2.5 cords for this burn year, so it gets my vote.
I'm like Backwoods Savage , I don't get the smell with cherry...to me the wood doesn't smell like anything special, and I rarely burn any in the firepit. When I burn it in the stove or furnace the smoke smell very likely doesn't come down to ground level until its across the road (which is just a corn field) and we spend very little time in the front yard in the winter (shoveling/blowing snow would be about it) so the smell earns zero points for me. As far as the way cherry burns, I put in almost in the shoulder season wood category...always disappointed with it so I make sure to only mix it in a load, never 100% cherry. For me its Maple for the win...and not even a close fight...its always a solid performer.
Both are good firewoods. I like the maple better because it gives way less ashes than cherry. I swear if i carry a cord of cherry wood in, i carry out a 1/2 cord of ash.
I went Cherry as well, nice smell & plentiful. I do like Red Maple, but just don't get much of it. I make Cherry chips for smokers for few people too.
Black Cherry for sure. Red maple smells awful, although in an indoor wood stove you pretty much have to go outside and be downwind of the smoke. Red maple smells like burning dirt. Don't get a lot of black cherry here but the little I've burned tended to coal rather than flame but had good heat for maybe a little longer than red maple. Cherry smoke doesn't smell anywhere near as nice as, say, yellow birch or even pine, IMO, but some people seem to like it. A lot. Even for campfires, which seems like a waste to me, but then I have a mini monoculture eastern white pine forest. I'd pick the cherry for an overnight burn over the red maple. If I had the choice. In an open fireplace where I wanted visual flames I'd pick the red maple.
Cherry, only because it's a valuable tree around here for furniture and the like. Same reason I like Walnut. Makes me feel like my firewood is more valuable...
I like them both equally for different reasons. Although both are in my stacks at home, for firewood I prefer the maple (which can be found in abundance in my area) The less common Black Cherry I like having on hand for cooking and I'm saving a few choice pieces for woodworking projects. Another great matchup sirbuildalot .
i chose black cherry because my 2nd yr down here we had a ton of it and kept my house really warm i lik3 red maple 2 it has managed to do pretty good as shoulder wood on days when its about 35 to 45
I really like cherry. There’s plenty of it, smells great when I cut it up and when we burn it, and it’s very manageable. I just love the stuff!
