Debate with my dad: Is there such a thing as undesirable wood if its free?

I live in Spain where in the 60s and 70s, for reasons that escape me Arizona Cypress became a very popular landscaping tree - on account of its adaptability and so on- and, long story, not that it is falling out of fashion a lot of neighbours are getting rid of it.

Last summer, I spotted a bunch of these Arizona Cypress tree trunks thrown near a dumpster -incorrectly disposed by whomever dropped it there but whatever- and without missing a beat I decided to haul them to my dad's house to chop and season them, to which my father complained on account of being a fairly crappy wood - no coals, extremely resinous and prone to creosote creation when burning- and that we already had plenty of hoalm oak stacked to which, I simply replied that I rather process it and burn it than having it end up in a dumspter.

So, to summarize:
- Dad's arguments against it: lots of sap - which it is true extremely sticky resinous wood to process-, creosote-prone, rather heatless wood + already had a fairly good stack of good hard firewood.
- My argument: would end up in a dumpster, wood is wood we can still use it.

For context all those trunks provided about a week and a half worth of firewood this past winter.

Who'd you side with?

 

Gum

 

Yes

 

I say wood is wood it might not be the bast but you can use it as shoulder season wood and you say no coals so you can use it to burn down coals. remember a lot of use do burn pine here in the states and free is free
Like we all do just make sure you keep your chimney clean.

 

Less quality wood still has value, IMO. If nothing more than kindling or campfire wood.

Welcome to the site!

 

Thank you! Been reading the forum for a while, seems like it is filled with awesome people.

 

Welcome aboard!

At some point, the time and effort it takes to process firewood will dictate what species of wood you choose.


Meaning, your Dad (and me) will spend time processing the oak instead of the cypress.

 

If most if not all the work is already done, what have you lost?

 

Only work that had to be done was the hauling and sawing the logs which, fair is fair, were very, very, very resinous and ruined my gloves. I think in total it was 3 to 5 hours work for two weeks worth of firewood.

 

Welcome to the club, lots of great folks here sharing knowledge and humor.
I can see both sides of the question. The oak is great farwood, the cypress is different, similar to pine down here in the south. Folks if you say burn pine......I told my wife "what do you think folks in the NW that don't have Hardwoods burn?"
You did get some heat from it so that's a plus for you. When dealing with resinous woods, if you can cut into logs or rounds and let it sit for a few months, the resin has a tendency to dry and makes handling better. Sounds like it would make great kindling

 

That's exactly what I did . Picked it up around late August of 2025, let it sit in a sulight spot and started burning this March. It is night and day when it comes to the resin, but that first cutting left my gloves smeared in dirty resin (didn't ruin them by definetly didn't help'em look the best)

 

Thanks for the welcome, the input and for the link!

 

I’ll take a wide assortment of firewood. I factor in any drive distance and ease of cutting. Of course Hickory is at the very top. For me, weeping willow is at the bottom, smoky, little heat.

That said, I can deal with various pine, elm, cottonwood, box elder, whatever. I’m a mixer in the stove. When it’s 40 degrees out, I can easily warm the house to 75 with near any wood.

 

That wood sounds like the southern pine species the deep south USA is full of. I could get all every FHC member wants for free. Once they clearcut a tract, they leave crazy amounts of logs and tops. Due to the sap, it is not worth messing with when fresh but let it sit for months and that sap dries and then you can buck the stems. If it's too sappy for your liking when splitting, let it sit awhile longer. Pine doesn't burn as hot and doesn't coal, yes and yes, but it does make a nice flame. And free is good.

 

Left to dry through the coming summer (so a full year +) it may have been better as far as sticky sap and creosote creation

 

I hate sap and try hard to avoid it. Never fails I get it all over me, my hair, glasses just everywhere.

 

I believe that it is a native tree from Arizona

Agreed. A few more months would have been better but I didn't want to store it in my shed hence the early burning.

 

Depends on how much you can get for free. If the tree guys will give you more wood than you can burn then yes, you can be picky for whatever you want.

 

It's my understanding that a father son 'arguement' as such sometimes does not have an amicable answer if neither party is willing to aquiesse. (even when one party may be correct, the other party may have other motivations for being argumentive still)