The poplar CL score and my woodstack....

[scoooter]

This is what I ended up with in poplar. It took me about 5 hours to split and stack, with my awesome Fiskars <--First time user I will use it mostly in the fire pit and in the shoulder season.

Does it make good kindling? If you notice I split alot of it small?

The first image is what I have so far, the second is just the poplar and the third image is what I have left to split.... The right stack is oak and is 11 feet wide by 5 foot 6 tall.

 

[thewoodlands]

This is what I ended up with in poplar. It took me about 5 hours to split and stack, with my awesome Fiskars <--First time user I will use it mostly in the fire pit and in the shoulder season.

Does it make good kindling? If you notice I split alot of it small?

The first image is what I have so far, the second is just the poplar and the third image is what I have left to split.... The right stack is oak and is 11 feet wide by 5 foot 6 tall.

Nice score Scoooter, we used it last year for kindling and it worked great.


zap

 

[basswidow]

Poplar is easy splitting wood and it dries to be very light. Makes good kindling or mix it in with others.

 

[firefighterjake]

Great for the shoulder season, kindling . . . or for use when you're kicking around the house on a snowy Sunday watching football . . . not so good for those overnight fires in middle of January.

 

[Slow1]

Nice work there... I bet you are glad to get it all stacked up nice and neat in one weekend!

I have to believe that "poplar" as a type of tree may be about as descriptive as "pine." What I mean is that I hear it tossed around a lot and it doesn't seem all poplar is created equal. A couple years ago I scored some from a tree service and got it processed. I remember the bark being thick and the smell being like watermelon as I processed it - and it seemed just about as wet. I ended up with a cord or so of this wood. Well, I stacked it up and expected it to dry as light as pine and burn about as quickly so I split it nice and big. Now fast forward to this week - I'm burning it. It burns very nicely - quite a bit more dense than the 'Eastern White Pine' I have burned up to this point. It even seems to make decent coals - I had a load last night with 2pcs of the Poplar and 3 pine (loaded in that order) that lasted from 9p to a reload this morning at 6a - plenty of coals to easily re-start.

Guess my point here is I wouldn't write it all off as firepit wood until you get it dried out and give it a try in the stove. It just might surprise you.

 

[scoooter]

Nice work there... I bet you are glad to get it all stacked up nice and neat in one weekend!

Guess my point here is I wouldn't write it all off as firepit wood until you get it dried out and give it a try in the stove. It just might surprise you.

Very good point.

Can I leave it in the rounds under cover until the spring with out having to worry about it rotting? or should I split it all?


Scott

PS my arms and back are reminding me that maybe I should have made it a multi day process

 

[Slow1]

Can I leave it in the rounds under cover until the spring with out having to worry about it rotting? or should I split it all?

I would not do that - I'd get it all split up and stacked. Believe it or not, I helped a buddy split up some rounds a few weeks ago - some of them were from the same logs of poplar and birch that the wood I'm burning now came from. His rounds were in very poor shape and the wood (even if he does let it dry out before burning) won't likely burn nearly as well. I was rather surprised at how poorly it had fared.

PS my arms and back are reminding me that maybe I should have made it a multi day process

I had a coach in HS that would argue that the pain is just proof you need to get out there and do more. "You have to use those muscles to get the pain out or you will just tighten up into a knot"... hmm... well... pretzels seem happy enough to me some days.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice work there... I bet you are glad to get it all stacked up nice and neat in one weekend!

I have to believe that "poplar" as a type of tree may be about as descriptive as "pine." What I mean is that I hear it tossed around a lot and it doesn't seem all poplar is created equal. A couple years ago I scored some from a tree service and got it processed. I remember the bark being thick and the smell being like watermelon as I processed it - and it seemed just about as wet. I ended up with a cord or so of this wood. Well, I stacked it up and expected it to dry as light as pine and burn about as quickly so I split it nice and big. Now fast forward to this week - I'm burning it. It burns very nicely - quite a bit more dense than the 'Eastern White Pine' I have burned up to this point. It even seems to make decent coals - I had a load last night with 2pcs of the Poplar and 3 pine (loaded in that order) that lasted from 9p to a reload this morning at 6a - plenty of coals to easily re-start.

Guess my point here is I wouldn't write it all off as firepit wood until you get it dried out and give it a try in the stove. It just might surprise you.

There is a difference Slow. I recall the first time I went out east in the spring and saw the yellow or tulip poplar. Sure looked strange but that stuff makes good lumber and I understand years ago they cut massive amounts of it in the south.

Some areas, like places in British Columbia the people heat 100% with poplar and love it. I recall one year when I burned a lot of it. Trouble was the short burns we got made us getting up a night a lot.


Oh yes, it does make good kindling.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Nice work there... I bet you are glad to get it all stacked up nice and neat in one weekend!

Guess my point here is I wouldn't write it all off as firepit wood until you get it dried out and give it a try in the stove. It just might surprise you.

Very good point.

Can I leave it in the rounds under cover until the spring with out having to worry about it rotting? or should I split it all?


Scott

PS my arms and back are reminding me that maybe I should have made it a multi day process

Scott, you can leave it in rounds but are always better off getting the stuff split. It just won't dry as well in rounds. Get it split and stacked then cover the tops and you will sleep well.

 

[fire_man]

I'm now burning some dreaded Cottonwood (identified in person by Backwoods Savage himself!) So far I am pleasantly surprised after all of the negative reviews I have read. Dennis was right, it burns just fine but has it's purpose. The stove cooks pretty hot but burns down quick. It's great for these warmer days and nights when you want quickly to take the chill out but don't want to burn your better wood. It lights really quick and seasoned in less than a year even on my terribly shady lot. From what I have seen so far Cottonwood has unfairly gotten a bad rap unless you're a wood snob! :zip:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Glad it worked out well for you Tony.

 

[Slow1]

Good dry poplar likely burns better than wet oak I do wonder how many different types there are - The pictures that Dennis shared of that ugly weak tree cluster looks nothing like what I am burning.

I left home this morning with the stove humming along with 2 pieces of poplar and 4 pine on a generous pile of coals (started up with pine and poplar a few hours earlier). Stovetop was reading on the order of 400* and I had the air set for a lowish burn (somewhere between .5 and 1 for my stove). I got home more than 8hrs later to find the stove top at 250* with some coals in the box and a house that was a good 5* warmer than I left. Peak stovetop temp while I was out was around 500* per the foil high-water marker. Granted it wasn't the coldest day of the year (high was around 50) but still that is some decent heating for "low grade" wood. Just out of curiosity I just stirred up the remains and if I needed to I am confident that I could start up another burn now (over 10hrs after that last feeding) without kindling/paper/SC.

I attribute it to the wood being very dry of course as well as the low burn made possible by the cat. Pretty soon I'll do a full load of just the "poplar" that I have and will be able to see what it's potential is. That is assuming it gets cold enough to do a full load... Looks like we'll be coasting tonight as it is 71+ inside and low is only in the upper 40's tonight.

 

[maplewood]

Great for the shoulder season, kindling . . . or for use when you're kicking around the house on a snowy Sunday watching football . . . not so good for those overnight fires in middle of January.

+1. It leaves a light, fluffy ash, but almost no coals.

 

[Slow1]

Great for the shoulder season, kindling . . . or for use when you're kicking around the house on a snowy Sunday watching football . . . not so good for those overnight fires in middle of January.

+1. It leaves a light, fluffy ash, but almost no coals.

I'm going to have to take some pictures of what I'm burning to get an ID from the experts here... the more I read the less I am inclined to believe it is Poplar.... I do get coals here. Fluffy ash too - but it seems I get a lot of that from whatever I burn.

 

[Wood Duck]

There is Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and then there are aspens and cottonwood (all in the genus Populus). Tulip isn't closely related to other poplars. Tulip Poplar (aka Yellow Poplar, Tulip Tree) is a really big, tall tree of the east coast and appalacians, ohio valley, and as far west as Illinois and the Mississippi River, more or less. Aspens and Cottonwoods grow all over the continent, especially out west and in the north. I think the wood of Tulip Trees seems like cherry or walnut as far as its general density and splitting charateristics. Aspen and cottonwood are lighter, white wood that seem more like spruce than hardwood. It will all burn, and if it is dry and not punky (aspen gets rotten quickly) it burns great.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

I have three different types of poplar at the farm. The shape of the tree and leaves are about the same. But the bark and color of the bark are distinctly different.

Billy