# hemlock for fuel?



## penfrydd (Jul 27, 2011)

Yes, I've got plenty of hardwood, but geez, I'd like to get rid of some of the hemlock, and it's not worth logging.  I've never burned it.  What's it like to split?  Better to split green or dry?  I know I can build sheds with it and am better off using it green.  I also know I need roughly 1.5 times the cords of hemlock to equal my average hardwood in btu's.  

I assume it's okay in my tarm?

It's been great working in the woods again after a ten-year oil-burning break!

penfrydd


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## woodsmaster (Jul 27, 2011)

Don't Know how it splits, but I'm sure it would burn fine in your boiler as long as it is dry.


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## soupy1957 (Jul 27, 2011)

Yep, "DRY" is certainly the operative word there...........  

Everyone would LOVE 5 acres or more of Hickory, but not everyone is lucky that way.  Burn what'chu got!

-Soupy1957


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## willworkforwood (Jul 27, 2011)

woodsmaster said:
			
		

> Don't Know how it splits, but I'm sure it would burn fine in your boiler as long as it is dry.


+1
I processed a large conifer (not hemlock) 2 years ago and burned it last year - 3 weeks of Winter heating made it worthwhile for me.  I split it green, and it makes for a bit of a sticky mess when the pitch transfers from splits to gloves to maul handle.  I switched to the gloves with duct tape on the fingers, and stopped the transfer of pitch by grabbing a handful of dirt every few minutes :lol:.  You will do extra work because of less btus per volume, but the price was right - nothing feels better than "free" heat  ;-).


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## Duetech (Jul 27, 2011)

Another note is while the hemlock is there it is taking up ground that could produce higher quality btu woods so burning the hemlock helps you better manage your wood lot. I have a neighbor who has an OWB and burned all the good woods before he took down the lesser woods. The lesser woods are dominating his 20 acre wood lot now as they have had free reign to take up the open ground the denser trees occupied and most of those lesser woods are no more than 8" in diameter. My neighbor is now looking at having to buy wood for heating his home. Scary!


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## DaveBP (Jul 27, 2011)

A pound of hemlock will give you the same amount of heat that a pound of hardwood gives you. The hemlock just takes a little more room in the shed for that same weight.

I burn a fair amount of hemlock as part of my forestry improvement efforts here. It will split into some wild shapes where it is knotty, I wouldn't even try it without a hydraulic splitter. The clear, straight-grained parts split easily.  I split them up into "two-by's", pieces of whatever width but about 1-1/2" to 2" thick. I stack them seperately, they look like books stacked up on a shelf when put up in a pile. They dry very quickly and you can take a hatchet and whack them up into kindling very easily when starting a new fire.

All wood burns when dry. I burn the hemlock during the day(when I'm around to keep chucking it into the firebox) and during the early and late parts of the season when I don't need so long a fire, just to take the chill off.

Hemlock is a "softwood" alright but try cutting a 3" dia. hemlock limb with your hatchet.


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## Adios Pantalones (Jul 27, 2011)

It can be crazy wet when first split, but dries quickly.  Hemlock is a valuable tree for many critters, so I'd leave some good ones.  I love the sweet smell in hemlock stands in the summer.


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## NCPABill (Jul 27, 2011)

Adios Pantalones said:
			
		

> It can be crazy wet when first split, but dries quickly.  Hemlock is a valuable tree for many critters, so I'd leave some good ones.  I love the sweet smell in hemlock stands in the summer.



They are premium watershed trees.  They make a great buffer around wetlands, as well as outstanding boards for barn siding - some barns are old, without paint, and the hemlock will still be solid.


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## penfrydd (Jul 28, 2011)

Like I said in my original post; its great for sheds, but I've already got all the space I need.  I've torn down lots of barns with hemlock plank floors.  And it was always used for the floor of manure spreaders.  

I do know that after it dries, it can be as hard to get a nail into as oak.

Penfrydd


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## DaveBP (Jul 28, 2011)

> I do know that after it dries, it can be as hard to get a nail into as oak.



Try getting the nail out again. 

I used ring-shanked spikes framing my house of hemlock I sawed. Easier to get the sawzall out than pull one of those with a claw hammer.


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## bpirger (Jul 30, 2011)

I've been burning spruce all summer for DHW in my Garn.  Yep, have to burn more of course, but I had cut it a couple of years ago and it has to go.  When I first started burning it in the late Spring, I was burning stuff I just blocked and split, even though it was down in log length for a couple of years, it took a bit to get going.  Now that it has all been split and sitting outside for a month or two, it takes right off.  We are pleased aqs punch burning this stuff up once every three to four days to heat all our water.  I won't hesitate to every collect it again...


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