Silver maple vs red oak vs bitternut hickory = Tie??!!

[Longstreet]

Not to nitpick, but it's not really the compression itself which would raise a flag. In the end, all they are doing is turning the wood into exactly what we want - a wide variety of wood species packaged at the same density. Perfect for measuring btus/lb. The real difference is the drying to single digit moisture contents. Hard for us to replicate that.

It's also 8600 (hardwood) to 9050 (softwood) on average. The more resinous softwoods, like the yellow pine etc, have more than that.

They are all the same but...completely different. Trees...not necessarily wood. Think of them as a plant first and then wood as a byproduct.
And I imagine the softwoods with their resins, pitch, and characteristics they present to offer higher BTUs.
All of these chemical constituents get totally passed by when you measure differences by weight alone. Volume even less.
And yeah, I noticed that too, the different forums have different followers. Its interesting.

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[Applesister]

Not bad Longstreet, thats some fast typing, very corporate of you!!

 

[Jags]

Not to nitpick, but it's not really the compression itself which would raise a flag.

Agree - not trying to nitpick, but I am not sure I agree that compression doesn't have a part to play. Maybe not so much in a "per pound" sense, but more from a burning characteristic. For much of the same reasons that Osage has different characteristics than Maple.

 

[Applesister]

Not bad Longstreet, thats some fast and fancy typing, very corporate of you!!
Impressive

 

[DougA]

Black locust is prone to causing chain spark as well. I always thought it may be minerals in the wood. Not sure what it is, but locust causes my chains to spark and dull quickly.

I see sparks fairly often when cutting and I always attribute it to the chain grinding on the bar when going through tough wood. Even with a sharp chain you can still feel the chiselling when you are cutting through the really hard stuff compared to a knife through soft butter on the easy wood. I see a lot of sparking because up here, we only get a glimpse of the sun in the winter.

I was cutting a lot of oak yesterday and thought my chain was needing sharpening, then I cut some black cherry. Wow, so much easier.

 

[Longstreet]

Agree - not trying to nitpick, but I am not sure I agree that compression doesn't have a part to play. Maybe not so much in a "per pound" sense, but more from a burning characteristic. For much of the same reasons that Osage has different characteristics than Maple.

No doubt. As soon as you move from the theoretical to the practical, you enter a whole new ball game. Don't get me wrong, I love me some science, and no offence to @Ashful, but scientist can live in their own world sometimes, lol.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Black locust is prone to causing chain spark as well. I always thought it may be minerals in the wood. Not sure what it is, but locust causes my chains to spark and dull quickly.

I agree. BL and Osage Orange, spark in the stove and when you cut it. I use a carbide tipped chain, lasts a lot longer.

 

[blades]

1 pound of Pine vs one pound of Oak . Other than the obvious volume difference you will be reloading in couple hours with the pine and later in the day with the Oak -- Fast heat soft woods want the heat to linger hardwoods in wood stoves.

 

[heavy hammer]

I want to know if two identical stoves were loaded with the same weight of wood but two different types of wood like pine and hedge. Other than maybe the one with pine needed reloaded sooner could anyone tell the difference in heat from one stove compared to the other. There are a lot of characteristics for each and every type of wood but seasoned wood burns hot, some lasts longer than others but, it would be hard to distinguish the difference between one hot stove compared to the other.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I get way more blue flame (as opposed to orange) with well seasoned oak and hickory in the stove together. Don't know if this means higher temp., but to me it does. Oak kindles at a lower temp than hickory, so it works better to have oak in the fire the first hour.

 

[Flynhigh]

Keep in mind that temperature and btu are not the same thing.

If I light a match the small flame will burn me and cause pain. This is temperature .
If I fill my bathtub with warm water and close the bathroom door for 10 minutes and come back into a warmer room, this is BTU.

All wood gives off roughly the same amount of heat. Its the Btus that change. The firewood btu charts also give us a weight per cord, which for Silver Maple is about 2800 lbs. Oak weighs 3600lbs. per cord. Which helps give you an idea of the energy stored [or btu] per cord of various wood.