Other than saving some of the hickory & cherry for smokers, I C/S/S & burn in the shop as it comes. In the house my wife is pickier & does not want yellow wood which sparks/pops out of the stove like hedge & mulberry. The spark show clashes with the carpet. Most of the wood I get is oak, locust, hedge, & cherry. Not because I am a snob, but that is what is more abundant or folks are trying to get rid of. Thorny trees which love to find tires are just not appreciated! Go figure. Like Scott said, evergreens, soft maple, punky wood, ... placed on the coals with the other stuff from the pile on top helps the fire restart. (Then I cheat & use my heat gun to fan the coals & speed the process. It has a low volume of air so it doesn't send the ashes flying unless you are within 2". Even then it is minimal.)
A chocked down dogwood burn. Brought the saw with me up to the wood pile and cut a multi trunk dogwood that's been laid over for 5-6 years now - I never cut any of the live ones the woods are too pretty in the early spring with the scattered white blooms
"The Good Stuff" My pal comes by for the 2nd time in two weeks out of farwood, he's gotta' new job, out of town he's a good guy, been pals for years, blah blah blah I sez lets chunk a couple days worth of this Ash I'm unloading/splitting/stacking on ya' to get ya' thru and he insist on grabbing my Hedge!! No, no, no, I tell him, the charity/beggars firewood is NOT Hedge, he says he'd rather have just an armload of Hedge than a "rack" of Ash ...sometimes it's tough havin' buddies...LOL I went ahead and thru an armload of Honey locust on top of his (MY) Hedge.
Last week heard of a family who were about out of firewood. I had a standing dead elm I was going to take down, cut it up & split it. I sent word to them they were welcome to bring their pick-up load it up. I heard back they did not burn P--- elm. Oh well I guess they didn't need wood too bad. Must not have heard the phrase "Beggars Can't Be Choosers".
OAK !!!!!! sorry, it's all I have left. Sometimes I prefer grey birch and maple, less time with piles of glowing coals at reduced heat output. I've been burning oldest stuff first so it really hasn't mattered nor have I really noticed that much of a difference, but then I haven't had stocks of poplar/big tooth aspen to try to suck heat out of. If I want to make the stove and pipes glow red I'd load up with pine. Right now I only use pine to get fire and heat established in the stove again - then in with the hardwood.
I would burn the driest wood you have. If you have multiple species of good dry wood check a BTU chart and burn the highest BTU you have. That being said, 99% of my wood is Red Oak (thank goodness), so that is what I burn. Lesser species (like White Oak, yes I can be a wood snob) goes to a friends shop or I sell to a neighbor for $120 a cord delivered and stacked. The local going rate and otherwise it would rot.
Depends on the BTU chart. I prefer it because it splits much easier and straighter, making it stack better, which makes it easier get a full load in my little stove. Also makes less ash imho.
The good stuff....hmmmm, the biggest, baddest, meanest, hunks and slabs of oak, locust, hickory, or mulberry that I can find, and it ALL has to be 22 inches or a bit more, stuff that bad boy Oslo full, then tuck in whatever other little stuff I can, and lastly, jam some rolled tight cardboard in if possible.
I don't have a lot of variety. Most of what I have is ash right now, with some maple, apple and spruce thrown in. This time of year I burn what I can get to. I had to snowblow a path to the wood stacks when I got home, but I came up with a few armfuls of ash and a few chunks of apple for tonight's fire.
Sounds like your mulberry is on the wrong side! So far for me walnut seems to be a curious case. It takes off well, burns nice and warm and seems to burn forever compared to the dried mulberry and apple I have. Not as hot, but very long burn. Thoughts?
Guys, I just went through this thread and jotted down a lot of information that will eventually become a script. Any last thoughts on what it is that makes good woods good?
Almond! Very high btu (over 30 mbtu), very little splitting (only the short trunks are big enough to require splitting) and they actually plant the stuff. Out here in the irrigated desert, oaks grow very slowly, cattle browse the seedlings and nobody plants them.
Some wood is great for fast starts & hot burns while others have a longer burn time but doesn't get quite as hot. Then some like hedge has great BTUs but due to the popping, my wife won't burn in the house. (That's ok, it is great shop firewood!)
Nothing like a good piece of Ash. White Ash, depending on the BTU chart can be close to Oak for heat and coals, for me found this to be true. Green Ash, depending on the BTU chart it is a little better then Silver Maple for heat and it dries fast and works well for starting fires, large rounds once dry are very nice.
Most of our wood is good stuff but we do save the oak for mid-winter. Must still be mid-winter as it was -14 this morning.
There's something about my Shagbark Hickory that makes it the good stuff. Maybe because its soo heavy when bucking and hauling and splitting but stacks nice. It's pretty. When dry, that shaggy bark lights off and the wood burns hot and long. The smoke smells good and when there is no smoke the heat in the house and the radiant plume out of the chimney pipe is a pleasure to see!
