'Tis better to be stocked with coals, than to have coals in your stocking!

Alright group, a question of preference here. Looking at the week's forecast, I'm finally seeing some really crisp temperatures coming down the pike. What's everyone's favorite cold weather species/mix, that you know will leave you with plenty of coals several hours later for an easy restart? As for me, I like American Beech, Red Oak, and Black Cherry. New to me this year is Black Locust of which I have going right now and I'm very impressed with the coaling qualities. I know in a few hours from now I'll have some decent coals to work with before I throw a couple more splits on and turn in for the night. What do you prefer?

 

The beech is great but I'll take black locust for the all night load.

 

For me it's been a few different mixes for coals in the morning.

Red oak
Red oak
Red oak

Seriously, I do have some black locust. Not much. On the really cold nights, I'll mix a couple pieces of BL in wIth the RO.

The vast majority of what's in my stacks is RO.

Burn em if you got em.

 

Beech over anything else around here for me. More BTU's than Red Oak. SUPER fast drying time. Coals great. Very little mess in the house due to little bark.

 

I have been having good luck with elm. I still have coals enough for a relight after 9-10 hours.

 

I have to give a shout out to Black Birch here as well. I like to use it as an intermediate split, somewhere between kindling and full-size. It does do well as a high BTU, good coaling wood also.

 

Maple and Red Oak since its what Ive got right now. I always load a decent sized round in the back of the stove for overnight burns and always have coals.

 

Same as MikeInMa Red oak is very prolific here, if I'm lucky to find a split of white oak in my stack, that'll go in too . Looking forward to some black birch next season

 

White Oak is another good one. I don't have much of it on hand, maybe half a face cord. Red is much more common. That apple wood you scored in Wallingford should be pretty good coaling wood as well. I used some older stuff on Thanksgiving to cook my turkey and it stayed in coals for a long time. The next day the pit was still throwing some serious heat.

 

For the "good stuff" this year it's my 4 year old stash of big chunky white oak splits... I've been using them for overnighters, usually around 3 or 4 big 20" long splits. It's been fun burning it lately as I have waited for a while to burn it... Huge coal bed left in the am. I put one too many in the other night and the living room was at 81 degrees during a late night bathroom break. I think that's a record for me...

All the rest is a mix of red maple, red oak, Aspen, cherry, hickory and a few others.. Lots of red maple this year.

Found this pic of the white oak stack from spring of 2015 so I guess it's 5 years old... The cribbing is Aspen but the big splits in the middle is the white oak I've been using for overnighters. Only takes 3 or 4 that I can fit in the stove..

 

I usually have black cherry and black locust. Though the cherry doesnt give the btus or last as long. The other night I tossed in an UFC (unidentified firewood chunk) on the top of the splits and the next morning it was a really nice pile of coals where I had it.
Last night I had some very dry oak for over night. This morning very few coals. Not sure what happened.

 

I just went through a batch of red oak that gave a poor performance...so bad that the box elder that I'm using now is better...

 

Maybe its from the same tree

 

Not unless you been shoppin in my woods over here!

 

Was it fresh cut, or, standing dead? I find the solid heartwood of standing dead, to not coal as long as a 3yr split of similar size.

 

It was standing dead, and then did a couple years CSS to boot...

 

How could I forget the apple wood? 2021-2022 mixin' Black Birch and Apple, I'm looking forward to it already!!

Here's tonight's load of Red Oak and Beech, leftovers from last year so 3years css:

 

Anything that will burn and keep me warm. I could say oak which is non existent around here. So I will settle for some cottonwood.

 

Oak with a side of oak and oak for dessert. Maple gets burnt while I’m here.
Maybe some locust If I find a piece in the stack

 

None specific, as long as its dry.

Ive been gooder this year. Hopefully Santa thinks so too!