Random thoughts . . .
College boy is technically correct . . . but so are you.
As mentioned there are "soft" hardwoods like poplar and basswood and there are "hard" softwoods such as hemlock . . . but when it comes to firewood most of the times folks in my area would be pretty ticked off if they had a load of firewood that contained a lot of popple, basswood, etc. Typically I tend to see loads with maple (sugar mostly, sometimes red, rarely silver), yellow birch, sometimes some white birch, oak, and yellow birch.
That said . . . it's a buyer beware world . . . I know of at least one couple who were selling firewood and a good portion of their wood (a full cord at least) was poplar . . . of course they were originally from away so maybe they don't know any better.
In any case, I'm species- and density-blind when it comes to burning wood . . . if it's seasoned . . . I'll burn it . . . I mean to say I may not burn a lot of pine or popple in the dead of winter or when I'm loading up for a long, overnight fire, but I have been known to burn these types of wood when I'm kicking around the house or in the shoulder season. If it's seasoned . . . it burns . . . and if it burns it will produce heat.
Final thought . . . I would wager that all wood is hard . . . at least any time I've got smacked in the head with a branch it didn't often matter if it was softwood or hardwood -- at the time it felt pretty damn hard to me.
College boy is technically correct . . . but so are you.
As mentioned there are "soft" hardwoods like poplar and basswood and there are "hard" softwoods such as hemlock . . . but when it comes to firewood most of the times folks in my area would be pretty ticked off if they had a load of firewood that contained a lot of popple, basswood, etc. Typically I tend to see loads with maple (sugar mostly, sometimes red, rarely silver), yellow birch, sometimes some white birch, oak, and yellow birch.
That said . . . it's a buyer beware world . . . I know of at least one couple who were selling firewood and a good portion of their wood (a full cord at least) was poplar . . . of course they were originally from away so maybe they don't know any better.
In any case, I'm species- and density-blind when it comes to burning wood . . . if it's seasoned . . . I'll burn it . . . I mean to say I may not burn a lot of pine or popple in the dead of winter or when I'm loading up for a long, overnight fire, but I have been known to burn these types of wood when I'm kicking around the house or in the shoulder season. If it's seasoned . . . it burns . . . and if it burns it will produce heat.
Final thought . . . I would wager that all wood is hard . . . at least any time I've got smacked in the head with a branch it didn't often matter if it was softwood or hardwood -- at the time it felt pretty damn hard to me.
