# The worst firewood?



## StihlHead (Sep 4, 2013)

What is the worst firewood available in your area?

I saw this in ad posted on CL today. It looked good until I saw that it is _Tree of Heaven, _which is now listed as an invasive species in Oregon. So a lot of people are cutting them down. I never burned any of it, but I believe that this is the worst of any "firewood" available in this area.

Free fire wood (Portland, OR) 

Had a huge _tree of heaven_ taken down in my yard, and most of the tree is cut and ready to go. HUGE pile of wood. You will need a pick-up, don't think you'll get a trailer up the driveway.

Email reply if interested.

Anyone interested, its still available as of this posting time.


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## PA. Woodsman (Sep 4, 2013)

Yeah I gotta go along with that as being the worst; have several huge ones in the work parking lot area -they LOOK impressive but they aren't as far as fuelwood goes!


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## ScotO (Sep 4, 2013)

Yep, Ailanthus and also willow, IMO, are the worst....


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## StihlHead (Sep 4, 2013)

Yes, willow is one of the worst firewoods here too. Hard on saws, rots/piths out fast, low heat, some species smell bad when burned.


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## egclassic (Sep 4, 2013)

Probably Sycamore here.


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## Blue2ndaries (Sep 4, 2013)

StihlHead said:


> Yes, willow is one of the worst firewoods here too. Hard on saws, rots/piths out fast, low heat, some species smell bad when burned.


 
Ditto on the willow---made that mistake once....once.


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## WeldrDave (Sep 4, 2013)

Down here I would have to say the pitch pine or the Virginia pine, were loaded with them.  We have the pine barrens forest and preserve here, I don't burn it or cut it.  Some do but I won't, gum's up the saw, nasty to work with and just a pain in the A$$ all around


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## Thistle (Sep 4, 2013)

Ailanthus or Tree Of Hell. Nasty stinking stuff.I had 2 very large & 1 medium sized ones removed from the property in March 2000.Didn't want to pay to dump it at county landfill & especially didn't want to dump it at parents acreage 1 hour away & risk any of those seeds sprouting & taking over their woods.Finally burned it all 2 years later,took another 3 years after that to be free of all the little sprouts that kept popping up all over the yard.


Very heavy when green,split easily,dried quite fast & really stinks.Left more ash than anything I've ever burned.

Never again.Its the only wood I wont cut or bring home.


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## Backwoods Savage (Sep 4, 2013)

Willow.


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## NortheastAl (Sep 4, 2013)

Sumac! The most useless wood ever. It is a pioneer tree that fills any void on land. The wood is soft and seasons to the consistency of styrofoam. Pretty tree in the fall, though.


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## Paulywalnut (Sep 4, 2013)

+1 on the willow. A big green weed with horrible thick bark.


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## JOHN BOY (Sep 4, 2013)

Dont see many willows down here , or up in the mountains area's But the little that i did have , was willow . Aint worth a hoot !


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## teutonicking (Sep 4, 2013)

StihlHead said:


> What is the worst firewood available in your area?
> 
> I saw this in ad posted on CL today. It looked good until I saw that it is _Tree of Heaven, _which is now listed as an invasive species in Oregon. So a lot of people are cutting them down. I never burned any of it, but I believe that this is the worst of any "firewood" available in this area.
> 
> ...


 
The worst one I have processed is sweet gum.  I had trouble even with the 22 ton splitter.  It was so stringy and would not split.  It did burn pretty well, but it made a lot of fluffy ash.


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## bogydave (Sep 4, 2013)

Of our 6 types of trees, Cottonwood has the  lowest BTU .
Tamarack almost all gone due to the larch sawfly. A few areas in the center of the state have some, none near me.
Black spruce is small, mostly in swampy areas & usually crocked,  or broken tops so not much used as fire wood & hard to get close to.
Cottonwood & Quaken Aspen (poplars) are easy to come by, but  for me they have to be really easy.
That  leaves me white spruce & birch.  Spruce is 18.1k BTU/cord
I'll work  extra hard to get birch.   23.6 k BTU/cord  & is our best BTU wood.


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## StihlHead (Sep 4, 2013)

egclassic said:


> Probably Sycamore here.


 
Yah, that is on my firewood 'no-get' list as well. I had a huge sycamore tree in California and the firewood was not very good for heat. It also left a ton of ashes, is hard to split, has a ton of water in it when green, and it can smell bad if it is not completely dry when burned. I wound up giving all my pruning wood from that tree to an ex-GF that was a firebug.


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## StihlHead (Sep 4, 2013)

teutonicking said:


> The worst one I have processed is sweet gum.  I had troubled even with the 22 ton splitter.  It was so stringy and would not split.  It did burn pretty well, but it made a lot of fluffy ash.


 
Sweet gum? AKA: liquidambar. Interesting. I have several of those trees here on my property. I felled one 2 years ago that died. It processed pretty easy and split OK. It burned OK. I only had about 1/3 a cord and I cooked it pretty fast. Cannot say I would pass it up, though there are several different types and they vary. I replaced the one that died with a red maple though, as the liquidambars have spikey seed balls that I am not thrilled with, and the trees do not seem to be too happy here (as compared to my Norway maples, cherries, apples, plums, Japanese maples, black pines, and dogwoods).


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## WeldrDave (Sep 5, 2013)

teutonicking said:


> The worst one I have processed is sweet gum.


I get it here as well T,  It burns fairly well in the Fishers and I get good burn times with it, but your right, it's a  "BEAR" to split.  If I can get some 6" to 8" rounds, I'll take it all day as long as I can just cut and stack


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