Took a branch off the lone Siberian Elm on our property. I know it's considered invasive in some areas. Curious what others experience burning it? It has not been easy to split, I'll tell you that much.
I believe JimBear has burned some in the past. IIRC he said it wasn't as good as either American or red/slippery elm.
I didn’t care for it BUT if I needed firewood I would take it. It’s barkless & clean. Several people around here call it red elm. Most of what I had was cut when it was green/alive. I have burned some dead standing & it was ok. That wascgreat find for Sandhillbilly not a lot of timber in his area.
I've burned some in the past, but don't recall if it was anything really exceptional. Took a long time to season though. Also,it must taste pretty delicious to porcupines, as we had one big fella hang around the yard, and he would usually be found munching on it mostly late at night. Edit to add video link I forgot I had
I’m not really up on the proper ID of the various types of elms. I’m not sure what red, and slippery elms are. Around here, as far as I know, there are two kinds of elm that I am familiar with. And I refer to them as American elm and Siberian elm. To me the leaves look similar but there’s a significant difference in size between the two, with the Siberian being the smaller. I also think the American variety has a much shorter “ shelf life” when standing dead. I definitely prefer the one that I call Siberian elm, and in my opinion, when taken in the standing dead form, it far outshines any other readily available firewood in my area. (‘ceptin maybe, (and that’s a pretty big maybe) black locust. But that crap is some of the dirtiest wood I’ve ever dealt with) P.S. don’t tell buZZsaw BRAD I said that
That might be a location thing, if you get a lot of blowing sand and fine dust where you're at. The bark on that stuff is like a sponge so I'd imagine it'd harbor a lot of airborne particulate. But the wood itself... No getting around the fact that it's brutal on chains. I cringe when running full chisel square ground on it. If I'm ever cutting a lot of BL, I'll switch to semi chisel if I can.
If you’re talking about the locust, I was referring to the rot and crumbling punky stuff full of bugs. What was good was really good but I had quite a heap of bug infested trash when I was done with that pile of locust logs. Granted they did come from a pretty wet area. Going for the gold today
LOL!!! Yes BL that's been down for 1-3 years with the bark still covering it is some dirty wood. IMO it take 3-5 years for mother nature to weather it off and the wood to wash clean like your elm in this score. Haven depleted most of my little hidden scores of it I don't see it much anymore.
Once seasoned a bit, I’d think it’s just fine, like ‘regular’ elm. It does look similar. Of course it won’t have the heat of oak or hickory, obviously. It’s best to burn when max heat isn’t needed, or mix it in. I’m fairly good at taking some of the peripheral firewood, for the Midwest. That could be Aspen, box elder, most pine & such. Of course I much rather cut the good stuff, as able. My favorite time to get ‘free’ wood is late Winter to early summer. In the fall, now, everyone & their brother is looking, scrounging & cutting. I draw the line at Willow, tried years ago, smoky, low heat, nasty. This was of ‘weeping willow’ variety. If needed, I have a few lifetimes of pine all around me, including the neighbors. They have a phobia about burning even one stick, so it’s all mine for the taking.
I have burned red willow and it was alright. but man oh man...I hope I have such zeal for life when I get older. You can cut the smaller 3-4" stuff and pile it, and next spring it's all like "Hey guys, one last push! We can survive this!" and every single round will throw out 10 shootsTakes a while to season and is nice and mild for a smoking wood with pork or chicken.
