In June a tree service dropped me off some tree of heaven logs. They were super heavy and smelled nasty, but split easily. Five months later, they are well seasoned. I have heard it's poor firewood, so I brought a bunch inside for a my first few fires of the year. After burning tree of heaven for a few days, it is better than I expected. It lights easily and burns hot. Similar to soft maple, but maybe a little better than soft maple. It doesn't coal very well, but doesn't just flame out and disappear either. From my initial impression, I'd say it's a mid-grade firewood, something like cherry or black walnut, and significantly better than willow, cottonwood, or basswood. Anyone else think the stuff burns pretty good? Or am I just excited to be burning again?
IMO smells bad burns faster than silver maple. I'd put right around cottonwood except the smell puts lower
Soft maple range is right around where I'd put it. Def dries fast and splits easy but the smell is gross. Burn it within a season or 2 though because it deteriorate kind of fast.
I've had good luck with it. Similar experience to your own, somewhere in the neighborhood of Silver Maple. The smell goes away pretty quickly once it's dry.
I burn it SS and mix it in later with better BTU wood. Once in a while I can smell it burning, but its when Im outside. I have many TOH on my property and some are huge trees. I believe it's the lantern fly host tree but they also are killing them. I have 4 or 5 standing dead I need to drop. I would put it below cherry. Maybe in the box elder category. Though you get some coals with box elder. Definetly a wood I burn when Im around the house and can reload often. I dont go out of my way to look for it, but will process what I have.
Feel confident that I could heft and carry a 20"x10' log of it around once fully dried. There's just nothing there density wise, which means that labor can be more efficiently applied by opting for other species.
I have about a cord of it stacked on pallets. Was thinking I may sell it at a discounted rate, sell it in .75cuft bags or burn in my fireplace. I like fast burning wood that puts out bright flames in my fireplace. Maybe I should just burn it?
Just blend it in to your pile. Shoulder season, when you don't constantly have a fire going, it helps to get one going. It's like the intermediate wood: not kindling, not high density all nighter wood.
I have burnt it as they are around the house and I cut up any that blow over. Agree with all the posts regarding how it dries/burns, worst of all is smell of the smoke for me.
Ill take it when easy and not all gnarly. Wouldn't want it all the time. I mix it in. Matter of fact I don't think I have any in the stacks as I type.
I mix a piece or two in with bundles when I have it as bundle inventory as I do for tulip, sassafras, basswood etc. Lesser quality splits get mixed with general cordage but not over 25% by volume give or take.
Well maybe I'm imaging things since most of you seem to rank it lower than me. My seasoned splits are about as heavy as cherry, and noticeably heavier than similar size splits of basswood or cottonwood. I haven't tested it with a moisture meter, but they light right up in the stove, which tells me they are sub-20% MC. It smells something awful freshly cut, but has no noticeable smell once dry. Then again, I've got tall chimneys on both my stoves, so I don't smell much. Thanks to everyone for weighing in.
I sometimes look at The Wood Database website since it tells you the dried weight (lbs/ft3) of a bunch of different wood species. It's got tree of heaven at 37.1 lbs/ft3 which makes it better than silver maple (33 lbs/ft3) and close to black walnut or red maple (both 38 lbs/ft3). Maybe people underestimate it because it's not great firewood in other ways (smell, heavy when green, likes to rot) and because it doesn't coal well.
I’ve heard of a guy that will burn all he can get. I got a log of it that had been laying in the woods a few years and was shocked, shocked I tell ya, about how much it weighed.
I haven't burned any yet, and only scored a small amount for the very first time back in the spring. If your experience is that it dries fast, splits easily and burns hot, I'm going to have to try using it for when maple syrup season starts. I do hate those nasty invasive trees, and would thoroughly enjoy burning them.
I have not burned any tree of heaven yet, just got two pickup loads of TOH from a marketplace score. I did not have the same experience as you with the nasty smells. I am hoping to have good luck with this by using it as shoulder wood and maybe mixing it in with oak and locust.
