Battle of the firewoods-Boxelder vs American Sycamore

The final battle of the first round of the Battle of the firewood's!!!!!

In todays battle with help from Brenndatomu, we have two more contestants for you, the voters to decide the fate of.

First up is Boxelder. Coming in at 17.9 MBTU per cord and 12 months dry time, he plans to "box" Sycamore clear across the ring. American Sycamore, also comes in at 17.9 MBTU and also 12 months seasoning time. He says he's "syc" of Boxelders smack talk, and plans on an easy victory.

Easy now fellas, lets let the voters decide!!!

 

I vote for BoxSmellder ONLY because it is plentiful here and I burn metric F tons of it in the bonfire pit.

 

I abstain.

 

I've never burned either of them.

 

I've only scrounged Boxelder once as it's rare in my area. I'm assuming the ones that are established here were originally brought in or descended from the Midwest population. I've heard enough people west of me say they use it for shoulder wood so I'll go with it. The majestic looking Sycamore tree I've heard splits like granite and burns/seasons like willow so umm yeah, I'll pass

 

The Boxelder splits better but I like the way the Sycamore burns almost like Maple.

 

Boxelder is basically soft maple, although all those crappy little shoots, twigs and gnarly branches makes it one of my least favorite woods to deal with. I'd rather have sycamore.

 

Boxelder is a weed tree and sycamore will make you sneeze and vomit if you have to cut it down in the summertime. Both go to the dumpster with poplar and va pine.

 

Box elder is a maple. Acer negundo - Wikipedia

I like box elder. It dries quickly and splits easily.

 

17.9 for boxelder, really? I didn't realize it was the same as sycamore. I have to go with boxelder, because it's so easy to process. I like burning sycamore, it smells like vanilla, but I'll only pick up branch wood that doesn't need to be split.

 

I voted boxelder. Dries rather fast, gets job done for shoulder season for me.

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Never had box elder, but had some big sycamore. It was a pain to split, even with hydro. Burned fast, lot of ashes...
I'll vote for box elder.

 

I voted for box elder. Great for shoulder season and easy to process. Starts out really heavy but dries down to a manageable weight. Pretty red color too.

 

Box Elder only because I have easy access to it. Never seen any those sycamore trees.

I have had a hard time splitting Box Elder if rounds are not spit right away. Splitting greens not as bad.

 

Never cut any and this was the only time ive ever seen it. Log at the dump

 

I avoid sycamore like i do elm. Wouldnt touch it with a ten foot axe. Never processed any box elder and hear it splits easy so it gets my vote.

 

Box Elder for me too. Sycamore is horrible to split & leaves a huge ash pile.

 

Last Winter, the wood i had in my basement was mostly cottonwood and box elder. Basically, shoulder woods that were trying into the depths of Winter. I was out of wood by new years.

 

I’ve burned Boxelder, it’s ok but I don’t go out of my way for it. Fun fact... As it’s a Maple variety you can tap it for sap and make maple syrup with it. I’ve got a Sugar, Norway, Silver, and Boxelder tree on my property. Tapped them all one year and ended up with 3/4 gallon of syrup - yum! It was a lot of work to boil the stuff down.