First time I have had a lot of black birch, about 4 full trucks worth, to split and stack. Most of it was on the stringy side. Seemed as though the stringy rounds had rough bark. Then I came across smooth bark rounds. Both smooth bark and rough bark were about 10 inch diameter. The smooth bark split nice and clean. I was wondering what would make the difference? Possibly different subspecies of black birch? Growing conditions? All the rounds came from same property. And a little look at my current splitting situation. Almost done with the 4 truckloads of birch.
Growing conditions. Smooth bark is a younger tree. If the rougher barked tree was the same diameter as the smooth bark one, I’d have to assume the growth rings are a lot tighter on the rough one, which could make the grain a little tougher to split. I’d also assume that the smooth barked tree grew faster because it had more access to sunlight and wasn’t competing with neighboring trees.
That makes sense. Thanks. I cut it back in October, so kind of hard to count the rings now, and I only have a couple rounds left, so I don't think I will mess with cutting off ends just to count rings. As a firewood hoarder. I want to learn as much as possible, and find something new to ask about or research at least once a month. I was hesitant on taking alot of the black birch until I found out that it is a really good firewood.
BB is a scarce scrounge for me but ive more or less encountered the same. Most ive had has been on the smaller side. The BB pictured was one from my woods. Biggest ive ever seen that i can recall. Its 25"DBH
I have about a cord on hand myself for this upcoming winter. It’s one of those species I’ll take no matter how far ahead I am.
My favorite firewood is Beech but if I couldn't get it my 2nd favorite is Black Birch. get all you can.
In 9 years of scrounging, and 4 years of hoarding, last October's score of 4 trucks worth was the only time I got a decent amount of BB. Other times it was maybe a couple rounds worth, and I didn't even that it was good firewood. I never really took notice, but I haven't seen alot of BB in northeast Pennsylvania.
Do you have your own woods to cut from or is all your inventory taken from scores/roadside etc? I get some wood from ours...maybe 5% of what i cut. I take mostly storm felled wood and standing dead.
That's a big one for sure... My black birch trees are easily idenfied by the blue areas on the bark. My daughter says it looks like someone sprayed blue paint on the bark here and there. You can see a little blue in your pics also.
