I thought it might be fun to do a weekly series comparing two different beloved firewoods. For this weeks episode we compare American Beech vs Black Birch. According to the BTU and drying chart Black Birch comes out at 24.2 MBTU and 18 months to season. American Beech has slightly less BTU at 22.7 MBTU, but’s seasons quicker at 12 months. Choose your wood!!!
Beech is a more plentiful scrounge for me. Splits easy, seasons fast. Dont get me wrong i love BB too. Seasons in a year too. If memory serves me correct, you have not scrounged any beech???
I've burned plenty of beech. I can tell you that the BTU chart saying it is 22.x mbtu's a cord is way too low. Most charts have it at 24-27.5 mbtu a cord. I've not burned any black birch, as there's none of it here, but this is an unfair match up.
Both good options. I was given access to thousands of black birch trees that were taken down to thin the forest and allow the nut trees to flourish. Many "rounds" were 2-4" in diameter so I didn't split them. Most never dried out and began to rot. The 6-8" rounds I split in two dried out perfectly. American beech is a clean wood. The bark holds together, which is nice when bringing in an arm load of wood.
Love to burn beech and have a big score down the street that I will be getting to this winter. Have never seen birch in my neck of the woods.
C’mon man, don’t do me like that. I’m not a Beech virgin. Just haven’t had any in awhile, and it’s not a common sight around here.
Black birch dries faster than beech for me. We have an abundance of both in my woods. Prized firewood both.
We have a fairly large black birch in the back yard I keep trying to convince the wife is dead... I would say that they both are welcome in my stacks any time.
Most of the beech trees around here are stovepiped pretty bad. Looks like a lot of wood until you get into them and half or more of the trunk is hollow.
I have a Black Birch in front of my chicken coop that is 24” across. I have others in my woods that are even bigger, although most are smaller like in the 6-12” dbh range. I do have to say along with Red Oak, BB splits about the best and easiest of the woods I process.
Nice matchup! This was a tough one for me. I have plenty of both in my stacks. Both are relatively common in my area, I like the smell of both, and they both season fast and put out great heat. I went with the birch because I've found it splits easier (not that Beech is hard to split, but it can have twisted grain making ugly splits). Also Black Birch grows really straight with a long, uniform trunk so it bucks like a dream.
I’m thinking I’ll do maybe 6-8 rounds, then the winners will come back to compete in the semi finals. Make sure to cast your vote for the trees you want to win.
