I burn mostly cherry, shagbark hickory and maple cause they're so abundant in this area. This year I have some oak that is dry enough to burn. I have noticed that it'll burn longer than the other woods and it "ashes" real nice. But it doesn't surpass hickory in my opinion. Heat-wise, cherry does just as well in my opinion and "ashes" as good, it just doesn't give the burn times of oak. I like maple a lot too, but it takes so long for the coals to ash that it makes keeping the stove loaded for night a challenge. In the end, I'm not finding oak to distinguish itself far above the usual fare. But it's a nice firewood. All in all, I like cherry. It's plentiful around here, heats well, "ashes" good and smells great thoughout the cutting, splitting, stacking and burning phases.
I burn anything on this chart, anything that's free, if flammable and no more than 4 ft long, in it goes. Plus the chart has some funny banter about what a cord is or isn't at the bottom. Enjoy! Sweep's Library - Firewood BTU Comparison Charts
Funny thing I have to say is I brought up some red oak from another pile other than the stuff I burnt last year, that stuff rocked the box quite different and even coaled different....good stuff.
I'm shocked - Shocked! to read this thread. You guys all had me believing in the 'legend of the oak'. I don't expect I'll ever get to burn very much of it, as I don't have much in my woods. I've got a couple nice locust groves though, and I just burned some for the first time over the past 2 days. I must say, I am thoroughly impressed by that. I've been burning mostly soft maple and ash for the past few years because that was all I had dry. What a difference! Actually I ran a 1/2 ash mix - I couldn't imagine burning a full load of it! Guess I won't be needing any oak since it looks like I'll have about 5 cords of locust ready to burn next year. But tell me more about this 'Hickory'...
We have some shagbark hickory in this area. Except for locust (which I don't prefer for various reasons although I do use it from time to time) hickory is the best firewood I have available to me by far. But there are many people on this site with far more experience and expertise in this area than me. I will tell you that shagbark hickory is a bugger to split though. I highly recommend a hydraulic splitter if you're going to split shagbark.
It sure is Shawn Curry . That chart that Greg shows is, IMHO, the outlier that I throw out most of the btu figures for. A few are inline with all the rest of the charts, but there are quit a few on that chart I don't agree with, and more importantly not in agreement with the rest of the charts.
Lol, I thought the same way up till about 4 years ago when I got to try some well seasoned "Black" Locust, Black Gold in my book. The "Shagbark" Hickory for the little I have had is right there with it when I was burning the PE Summit. Silver Maple blows my mind in this new BK and the hard woods only gain about 1 hr or so burn time with more coaling time to boot. So when the ground freezes I'm going after the Pine I always pass up for the ease of processing and curing. There is a lot of truth in different stoves like different woods.
I think the Janka hardness number is probably the best way to rank them. Probably backed by a lot more data as well. But that doesn't tell you anything about how it burns, coals, and ashes - that's why I need you pyros. No hickory here at all, cept my neighbor's nice yard tree. Wonder if he needs a hand with it?
Start with how hickory makes a TERRIBLE yard tree, all the nuts and hulls.... he'll be ASKING you to harvest that tree before long.
That and the harboring of 4 legged tree fugitives. That reminds me of the GEICO commercial with the squirrels. " the squirrels are back in the attic." I usually mute commercials. So I saw the commercial like 5 times before I knew what was being said. I noticed the squirrels running around, and it piqued my interest.
Lodgepole is up there, but still can't match Osage Orange for heat output. I make sure I strategically place it in my wood shed so it's available during the coldest time of the year. I quit using it in the stove inside the house - can't control the fire and it's far to hot for my cat stove. The OWB, that's another story but even then I make sure I use it as a supplement and the entire load. It truly is great stuff and I have access to truckloads of it.
I guess some peoples expectations of Oak were (are) too high, its one of the best woods we have here but no means "the best of the best".
Coming from a place where there is relatively no access to CSS oak firewood I have no comment about it. But perhaps one day I'll move out East and I'll get a chance to start burning the stuff, and maybe I'll really learn to like it, but one thing I'm certain of, in that first year or two I'm really gona miss my easy access, ready to burn, Lodgepole Pine.
The Magical Ash- yep aptly named get a fair amount of ash from it In contrast to denser woods which leave less. Or Elm in this case Siberian good heat lot of ash again. Red Oak heats about the same as Elm but less ash . Ah the locusts good heat minimal ash- Hickory , White Oak, Beech , Rock Maple- Rock Elm and a bunch of others minimal residual ash. Got some Mulberry under a cord of Ash be awhile before I get to that. Don't know if my Ash is White or Green do know it is not Mountain. Box Elder ,Silver Maple and some others burn fairly quick easy to light as opposed to Locust and others Just need more of it for the same amount of btus
Wow, 7 pages and still going? Maybe I should say why I am not all that impressed with oak. The reasons are 3 fold. Reason 1, I know my expectations were set to high. Kinda like in JR. high school when a fella gets a nut for the first gal to grow a set of hooties and then finds out she is dumb as a box of hammers and her Dad owns a sawed off shotgun. Reason 2, I am so used to operating my stove with the wood that is prevalent to me that I am probably not running it the way I need to for Oak. Reason 3, And this is the most important reason. We live in the flatlands of corn field Iowa were wind and cold is king for 3 to 4 months. The stove is in the basement of our 24'x48' ranch style house. Since I rely mainly on natural convection to get heat to the main floor I need to or I should say found it works best for me to burn hotter fires on smaller loads in the stove and reload more often than many of you probably do. I have found that by doing this it gives me a more constant heat. It works better for me than having coaling oak just keeping the STT at a reasonable level for more time. My goal is to keep a 500° STT as much as possible. I don't want to wait for coals to burn down and I surely (Did I just call you Shirley?) don't want the thermometer on the wall to go down in a big hurry when we do get below zero temps and winds that will suck the warmth outta the hubs of hell. Oak is hard to come by round here so I just don't know how to deal with it. Now, give me some elm that everyone seems to be afraid of and then we are talkin. I love Elm.
