I am going to try some cottonwood - have a co-worker who dropped a few recently. Why not? Worst stuff I have messed with so far was a huge ornamental red cedar. That was the most twisted demonic bunch of rounds you could imagine. There was not a straight grain in a single giant round. On a good note, it burns really hot and catches real fast so it is definitely a plus if you are starting on a cold stove (which I am not doing).
What would you not take for free
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I think you'll find cottonwood about the same heat output as cedar. The cottonwood I got was the easiest wood I've ever split. I've found cedar to be easy to split usually, too, but you seem to have found a bad one.
I think regular cedar is not too bad, but this was the one with the very red flaky bark. Rounds were about 30 inches and it grew like a corkscrew - every piece of it was twisted. The splitter had all kinds of problems with it and I had to noodle the biggest rounds because they ate the wedges.. It was free stuff (dropped off by a tree service), but it was still more work than what it was worth. I have so many smaller pine trees on my own property that I won't fool with that stuff again.
I burned a lot of cedar this fall, some of the rounds were 20”. Most of it split easily, deep beautiful red inside. I found it dumped in one of the local cemeteries cut into around 20 inch lengths plus a lot of 4 to 5 foot pieces from 2” to 6”. Great fall fireplace wood and I split some up thin for kindling. I don’t have to worry about the stuff I have left rotting. Last year the same cemetery provided me with a lot of cherry. There was a sign that said no dumping but not a sign that said no taking, so I pretty much cleaned the place out of dumped, dead firewood.
I won’t go out of my way for tree of heaven unless its thick trunk pieced already cut to length.
I won’t go out of my way for tree of heaven unless its thick trunk pieced already cut to length.
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Fred Wright
Minister of Fire
Cottonwood, tree of Heaven, willow, gum. Wouldn't want 'em if it was delivered to the door for free.
Gum is OK shoulder firewood ~ if ya don't mind cleaning ash out of the stove every day.
Gum is OK shoulder firewood ~ if ya don't mind cleaning ash out of the stove every day.
Sycamore.....its disgusting thru and thru......won't burn, and very low BTU if you can somehow get it to burn.
Surprising that nobody's yet mentioned "tree of heaven" (ailanthus), because it's such total poo. Once it's air-dried down into the teens MC, it can float away on a gentle breeze, almost. Burns kinda like rolled toilet paper. Only way I'll take it, is if I've taken it down on my place to stop it from seeding the world with its demon descendants. And it stinks, especially if you bruise one of the leaves. Eau de skunk.
laxin213
Burning Hunk
Next time I get a blown down Cottonwood that I have to process, I'm cutting it into 8' lengths and getting a guy with a portable sawmill to come out and mill it into boards. The firewood is near worthless to me, but big, wide 1" and 2" thick boards are very useful. I've milled up other hardwood, after it is sawn you can seek out a local kiln drier (mine costs .40 a board foot) or you can seal the ends of the log (pre milling) with anchor seal or latex paint) then stack it with spacers no more than 2' and put weight over it; cover the top, and put ratchet straps around it. Just google air drying your own lumber
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Benchwrench
Feeling the Heat
Since I too process wood for heat I've learned it takes the same energy to cut split and stack poo wood. Therefore I've been turning away red maple. Anything below that gets pushed in the burn pile.
Yank.....
You are 100% correct about Tree of Heaven. That is the most miserable tree out there, the only way to really kill them is to girdle the big ones and paint the girdled area with stump killer and dig the small ones out. I have found if you just try to cut them down they will sprout a million seedlings all around the base. Truly a miserable tree
Good call........Craig
You are 100% correct about Tree of Heaven. That is the most miserable tree out there, the only way to really kill them is to girdle the big ones and paint the girdled area with stump killer and dig the small ones out. I have found if you just try to cut them down they will sprout a million seedlings all around the base. Truly a miserable tree
Good call........Craig
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