The time has come friends. All of the first round battles are over. Lets do a quick recap of the battles and winners. Battle #1---American Beech vs Black Birch---winner American Beech 19-12 Battle #2---Shagbark Hickory vs Black Locust---winner Black Locust 23-28 Battle #3---Ponderosa Pine vs Lodgepole Pine---winner Lodgepole Pine 7-8 Battle #4---White Oak vs Sugar Maple---tie White Oak and Sugar Maple 18-18 Battle #5---Hop Hornbeam vs Osage Orange---winner Osage orange 4-5 Battle #6---Red Oak vs Mulberry---winner Red Oak 26-7 Battle #7---Black Cherry vs Red Maple---winner Black Cherry 26-8 Battle #8---Honey Locust vs Blue Beech---tie Honey Locust and Blue Beech 7-7 Battle #9---White Ash vs yellow Birch---winner White Ash 20-6 Battle #10---American Elm vs Red Gum---winner American Elm 16-3 Battle #11---Silver Maple vs Douglas Fir---winner Silver Maple 7-2 Battle #12---Boxelder vs American Sycamore---winner Boxelder 19-4 Now that we have that out of the way, lets get on to the rules and guidelines. Pretty simple. It'll be a Royal Rumble kind of thing. All of the competitors will be in the ring at the same time, all trying to knock the others out. You can vote for up to 4 firewood's. No changing your votes, so pick carefully. The top vote getter will be crowned "King of the Firewood's". Should a tie arise, we will have a one on one battle to decide the ultimate winner. Poll will close after two days (48 hours). Before you vote though friend, I urge you to take a moment and ponder why it is your voting for that firewood. After all, there are a number of reasons a firewood could be your personal favorite. Among some reasons could be. *How many BTU's does it offer *How quickly does it season *How available is it in your area *How quickly does it rot *How bug resistant is it *How easy is it to split/process *How does it smell when processing and when burning *How well does it stack *Does it bring you back to a different time in your life you have fond memories of *How are its coaling properties *How much ash does it create etc, etc, etc. Enough of that, lets get it on!!!
I predict Ash as the grand champion. (but who knows...seems to be an epidemic of Locustitus around here lately ) My vote...after much fretting... Sugar Maple Red Oak Ash Silver Maple Still can't believe that Shaggy didn't make the finals...
I was surprised as well. Then again he was up against Black Locust who has a cult like following. If Shaggy went against any of the other winners from round one he very likely would have won. I debated doing a wildcard to bring him back, but it wouldn't be fair to the others.
Well based on your Poll title: KING OF THE FIREWOODS & your questions Osage blows the doors off the rest of the competition. Tops in BTU 12 months to season Abundant in this area, areas back to the east & south & southwest per growing maps & folks I have spoken with. Rot?? Ha, What’s that ? Stack it & forget it, top covering is for lesser woods. Pest resistant? Absolutely Splits easy. Processing can occasionally be tough if you don’t have/use the correct equipment. Smell: no smell to speak of when processing or burning. Stacks great, shrinkage is minimal, stack & forget, see your rot question. Reminds me of helping my dad build fence when I was just an ankle biter. Great for coals Very little ash. We have a clear winner. Only competition should be from Black Locust.
I've never seen or burned Osage. Sounds like a great choice. I have to wonder though, if its so abundant why did only 5 people vote for it when other species got 26 and 28 votes. Most of the losing firewood's from round 1 got more than 5 votes. Seems most refrained from voting due to no experience with it.
.... For red oak. It grows everywhere around me. 80% of my 12 stacked cords, is RO. Yes, it needs a lot of nap time, but I'm fortunate to have the space for a decent sized bedroom
I have never burnt Osage Orange ( bois d'arc) named by the French =Wood of the bow. We used it for fence posts, and I remember my dad commenting when he saw one in a fence row. He would note that he had set it, like 20 or 30 years before, and I would come back with, "yep, and I have re-stapled the wires to this same post at least 5 times in those years". I have some I need to clean up, I never though about using it for firewood. I may give it a try.
I predict Red Oak as the overall winner. But of course I prefer it because it's plentiful where I live and easy to find standing dead, and it's also pretty easy to split.
I've never seen too many big ones either...I always thought that that was another reason they are commonly called "hedge"...seems like it would take a bunch of trees to make a decent pile of firewood.
I know Red Oaks get absolutely massive. This one is 8' at the base. This one was also huge The one I just cut from my SIL's was "only" a 50" tree and I stopped after harvesting 4 full cords. Probably still 1-1.5 there.
I've seen some Ash trees just as big though. They season much quicker than RO, and split pretty nice. Any takers?
I think the perfect size tree for firewood purposes is dependent person to person. Some people love working up huge blocks, as they make tons and tons of splits. Some like 10" trees. One 4 way split and boom you're done. No heavy lifting. Me personally, I think 12"-20" is the sweet spot. Big enough to make some splits, but not so huge you struggle. I'll take anything though. If its too big I'll make some noodles. Too small I'll grab a bunch more.
When Brad gets online, there will be a big push for Darth Locust. He'll try to convince people to go to the dark side.
White Oak is the king of kings in the tree world and Red Oak is the borrowed mule of the wood heating world.