Most underrated firewood: my list

[zmender]

"Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E'en the very flames are cold" - Firewood poem

 

[patrickk222]

For my underrated wood list would be red and black maple, hophornbeam, musclewood/blue beech, wild black cherry

 

[snojetter]

"Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E'en the very flames are cold" - Firewood poem

I've known that poem for many years and never found this verse to be even remotely true. I'm a big fan of elm as a fuel. Maybe back when the poem was composed, wood was cut shortly before it was used and elm is very poor as green firewood even by wet wood standards?

 

[ozarkoak]

My favorite wood is Black Jack oak. She pops and crackles but she burns hot and long. Also not fun to cut and split. I love her.

 

[zmender]

I've known that poem for many years and never found this verse to be even remotely true. I'm a big fan of elm as a fuel. Maybe back when the poem was composed, wood was cut shortly before it was used and elm is very poor as green firewood even by wet wood standards?

Perhaps the difficulty in splitting means people back then were more inclined to leave it as larger rounds?

Or perhaps the stringy structure hampers drying process leading to wetter than expected splits.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Young elm grows fairly quickly. You could probably keep it harvested while small quite easily. Then you’d never have to split it.

 

[rudysmallfry]

Black Birch. I finally got to burn some for the first time this season. Burns very hot and really gets my soapstone radiating heat. I'd take more of it in a second.

 

[zmender]

Black Birch. I finally got to burn some for the first time this season. Burns very hot and really gets my soapstone radiating heat. I'd take more of it in a second.

Black birch has 24~26mil BTU / cord, it's right up there with best of the northeast hardwoods!

 

[Davidram]

Walnut is the easiest wood I ever split and it heats pretty well.

Ash has been the go to around here since the emerald ash borer. The park guys will fill my trailer with rounds cut to length when I can catch them. The standing dead ones are already dry and can be burnt almost immediately. I stay away from the crotches since I split by hand. There are lots of crotches.

Apple is the best in the fireplace and smoker, but the orchardmen make me cut it up. Not much splitting involved.

 

[Youp]

Basswood. Cut it in July and burn the same year in August and September. I find I do not need any AC with that stuff burning in my stove.

That is my standard answer to guys from out of the area that buy wood for deer hunting camp. Some local 'nere do wells stick' it to them. And they are sniveling about the lack of heat.

 

[Max W]

”Ash green, ash dry will give you heat to warm your slippers by.” Heard that apparently old saying for the first time yesterday. While I like having a mix of woods that I dry ahead in the woodshed, there were times in the past when all I had was green and I did love that white ash.

 

[DonTee]

I’m also an ash fan. The biggest change for me came when I bought a cat stove. I used to seek out the higher BTU wood. Now with the cat stove it doesn’t matter as much. The cat makes a lot of the heat.

Usually it gets pretty cold in my area. The Amish around me survive off of hemlock and white pine slab wood. Almost all of them have their own sawmills. So they have a lot of slab wood. So it is possible to survive on softwood on the east coast. Even though many east coasters wouldn’t believe that. Lol.

In my area there is a lot of ash firewood because of the EAB. Many people I know look at it like the new pine now. They don’t want a lot of it in their hardwood “mix”. I don’t quite understand it. My dad and uncle are that way. But they also run older woodstoves.

There’s an Amish farm a mile down the road from me with stacks of hemlock and white pine slab wood by the road. They have trouble giving it away. You can pull your truck up to the pile and bring your chainsaw. Block it up and throw it in the back.
But the ole “pine causes chimney fires” saying is strong here. My dad taught me that. It wasn’t until I joined this forum that I realized how dumb that is. Any dry (natural) wood is fine to burn

 

[hickoryhoarder]

What firewood doesn't get the love it deserves?

Here is my list:

1. Red elm (a.k.a. slippery elm): Simply great firewood in every way. It doesn't stink like American elm (smells more like cinnamon). Sub-20% mc it burns like red oak. Good flames and good heat, not too fast, and good coals. The grain is very twisty and it's hard to split -- even with a hydro splitter. But that's one of its best qualities! Those shredded looking splits can be lit with a match -- no kindling required.

2. Soft Maple (Red Maple / Silver Maple): Red Maple in particular is a fine firewood. Easy to split. Dries fast. Lights easily and leaves good coals. Silver maple isn't quite as good, but it's better than you'd expect based on firewood BTU charts. Around here, soft maple grows fast and gets huge. Scoring a big tree can give you a ton of very decent firewood that will be ready to burn in a year.

3. High BTU small trees: My favorites in SE Michigan -- hornbeam (ironwood), hop hornbeam (my absolute favorite), serviceberry, and hawthorn. I could also add deer-apple apple trees to the list. (Apples trees that grow near a bait pile in the woods and stay small because of the shade.) These are all small understory trees in my forest, although hawthorn will get bigger if it gets enough sun. I cut these small trees to length and season them for two years. No splitting required and great for balancing out big splits of pine or spruce. They probably don't make up more than 5% of my wood pile, but I never pass on small, high btu species.

Red maple is very good as firewood. Silver maple is closely related, but I don't even bother with it. It would be a last resort. So I never use the term "soft" maple, when it comes to firewood.

 

[Wisco Shepherd]

”Ash green, ash dry will give you heat to warm your slippers by.” Heard that apparently old saying for the first time yesterday. While I like having a mix of woods that I dry ahead in the woodshed, there were times in the past when all I had was green and I did love that white ash.

This has been my experience as well. First year burning and while most of my ash is 19-20% I get the occasional higher piece. Still burns remarkably well and clean.