Sitting here by the stove on a rainy, chilly morning just watching the fire and enjoying a good cup of coffee. And reading the forum. I’m fortunate to live in an area that has oak, hickory, cherry, apple, maple, birch, locust. And I’ve burned it all and have some of each in the wood storage area. But my favorite firewood is cherry. It’s plentiful, easy to split, and smells great at every step from felling through splitting to burning. And produces decent heat with good ashing properties. To me, the smell of a cherry fire on a cold day or night is one of life’s simple pleasures.
My favorite by a large margin is black birch. Love the smell when it's cut and split, easy to handle, usually splits clean, high BTUs. Unfortunately they grow nice and straight and tall and rarely die in my woods, so I don't get a lot of it. In second place is probably beech. I also like to see shagbark hickory, yellow birch, black or honey locust, sugar maple and hornbeam in the stacks. I could go a lifetime without ever having to deal with oak. What I burn the most of is probably ash and pine.
