What wood do you like that people think is junk

Silver maple has kept me warm for 46 year's !! It's everywhere here and huge. Last year I only burned a 1/4 cord of my 8 plus cords of stashed oak. I only use the oak for making some coal's for restarts.

 

Some people turn their nose up at red alder. I burn a bunch of it every year. Sits easy, dries fast, grows like a weed, and the bark is clean.

 

Yup. I really like it when its in good round size, split in half or quarters(if its real big). On the plus side its a great bbq/ smoking wood.

 

Siberian Elm, people here call it Chinese Elm or pizz elm. I'm guessing everyone in my area that calls it bad has burned it well before 2 years of being split and dried. If you look at it on a wood density chart you'll know you shouldn't throw it away.

 

For me it's silver maple and pine. You can't throw a rock around here without hitting a maple of some sort. The silver works well, dries fast, and burns well. Pine is unusual around here, but people still eschew it. I've got a couple cords drying now, and love the smell.

 

I like Eastern White Pine. Once you get used to how it burns it has lots of uses. I wouldn't want to have to burn just it, but I have mostly pine and red maple here so I use those when I can and tend to keep the red and white oak in reserve. They keep.

 

Pine here, too. People are thrilled to find out they can drop it here, so I'm swimming in the stuff. Good for mixing, good for shoulders, irreplaceable for burning down coals.

 

I've heated my house almost exclusively with "JUNK" wood.........to reference the OP's post.

Probably 90% of the wood I burn is a combination of silver maple, box elder, slippery elm and ash. I've several "primo" sections in my wood pile with the woods you "WOOD SNOBS" would only ever consider burning....................................gag me with, "insert your own colorful metaphor"!!!!!!

Any; and every wood has value...................to call some wood junk is reprehensible IMHO. We're here to educate folks; not alienate them because they don't burn the "PROPER" wood in some of y'all's opinion!!!!

 

I like Tulip Poplar & Silver Maple. Easy to work & quick dry. Just finished off this year's batch of Silver. On to the "better" stuff for colder temps now. Elm is another species I don't shy away from. Bit stringy at times, but good heat.

 

Uh, that may have been the skunk that peed on your tire Pete.
Agree on Willow though. Best place for them is in the swamp they came from.

 

If anything, I think every willow cut down, a fire should be built over it. Big one. Burn over it for days and hope it never grows back.

 

Another wood I'm burning this year is buckthorn that I cleared off of a friend's land. It self split as it dried. After all of the scars it left on me every time I throw a piece in the fire I say to myself take that you #@*&ô !!!

 

Im not exactly following the rules here because where we live you will pay $150 for a cord of lodgepole pine, not that low btu eastern white pine many of you have..... but the good rocky mountain stuff. Around here pine is a staple and is not considered junk but other regions it is. Just having fun guys!

 

We'll keep that in mind when we're burninating hickory, locust, sugar maple, beech, ironwood, and lowly oak.

 

Just so I'm clear I burn everything when it crosses my path but silver maple is the one I loathe but will go out of my way to get.

Around here it's plentiful but it's usually wind swept so it's gnarly and work to split. But it dries so fast it's worth it for me.

 

Pine! Pine pine pine pine all the time is fine fine fine! That and silver maple, and box elder, if it's 16" or less, otherwise it gets to be a twisted mess, only things I turn down are cottonwood and Willow, but even then if it's super easy and I have nothing else to put in the truck when I go to the dump, you bet your bottom dollar I'm not going home with an empty truck!

 

I like poplar and cottonwood.
Where I live , the choice is white spruce, black spruce , silver poplar and cottonwood. White Spruce burns up too quick and doesn't leave much for coals. Black spruce is usually spiral grained . But I like it better than white spruce.
They both have more limbs than a woman's circular hair brush.
Cottonwood is limb also. Silver poplar doesn't have too many limbs. Splits fairly easy. And leaves much better coals than spruce.
I know where there's a bunch of mountain ash. But it's 76 miles away and inaccessable.
Then there's white and kindof a grey birch. But not the same grey birch that there is in Maine. Birch and seasoned red alder are about the best firewood in Alaska.
But, I'm the opposite of a wood snob. I burn 7 - 9 full cord per year. So having anything to burn sure beats the alternative !!

 

Does the oak, hickory, ash and etc that the tree guys give me count as peoples junk?

 

Must be....."One man's junk is another man's treasure"....right?