which species is better

[stoveliker]

OK, so who's got some "Beech" bark pics...splits or live trees?? 🤓

Bark is very smooth (smoothest I know). The split surface was also smoother than the (red) oak I've burned. Color of the wood is more uniform and lighter than red oak.
This is for beech in northwestern Europe though. Not sure if the beech here is different. Sometimes species are, sometimes they aren't, when crossing the pond.

 

[joop]

seems to be the one we have here.have it all mixed in my wood pile

Bark is very smooth (smoothest I know). The split surface was also smoother than the (red) oak I've burned. Color of the wood is more uniform and lighter than red oak.
This is for beech in northwestern Europe though. Not sure if the beech here is different. Sometimes species are, sometimes they aren't, when crossing the pond.

 

[joop]

i'll see if i can dig a load out see how it burns on it's own.as for oak it's a unicorn were i live.

 

[stoveliker]

when you compare, ensure that the moisture content is the same (and noting the difference in drying time, oak and beech of the same age likely won't be at the same moisture content unless very old) - otherwise any intrinsic difference will be buried by the difference in burning characteristics due to the difference in water content.

 

[Caw]

From your posting history, this is only your third year burning wood for heat, and your wood-ID chops don't appear to be all that great.

Do you realize you come across as a colossal a-hole when you say things like this? I'm assuming you're an adult given how long you say you've been burning but you certainly aren't acting like one.

The fact that you you made the effort to go back through my posting history so you could make a comment like this is beyond embarrassing and you do things like this regularly. I don't understand how you expect people to take you seriously when this is your behavior in response to a simple challenge to your opinion.

Also, please prove all the times my wood ID chops appear to be terrible. I don't claim to always be right about anything but I would love to see all the times I'm so far off you feel it's ok to make fun of me in public.

Please grow up and stick to discussion the topics not attacking forum members.

 

[peakbagger]

And back to the thread, American beech is smooth light gray bark that is easily scarred. In area with people,if they scratch their initials in the bark, a black scar will form and it will be there for years, in the case of hearts, probably far longer then the couple who scratched them in to begin with. Beeches are the most northern mast crop, beechnuts, they are usually farther north than oaks. They take a hile to produce. Bears will use their claws to climb up the smooth bark to get to the nuts and will leave scars that line up with their claws up the tree. A big "bear beech" will be loaded with the marks. Unfortunately there are couple of diseases impacted beeches. The one up in my area that has been around or awhile is the "beech blight". The smooth bark starts to look like teenager with acne breakout. In few years the "zits" turn in holes in the bark and then rotten pockets in the underlying wood and then eventually the wood in the trunk rots out so bad that the tree falls over. Some healthy beech are more tolerant than others but regenerating beech usually gets hit hard. It blocks the light from other desired species taking over.

There is also a new pathogen impacting beeches called beech leaf disease. I havent seen it up my way yet. I have about 40 acres of predominatly beech with the blight that are going to get killed off one way or the other so that other species can move back in.

 

[mcdougy]

 

[mcdougy]

 

[Woody Stover]

Do you realize you come across as a colossal a-hole when you say things like this? I'm assuming you're an adult given how long you say you've been burning but you certainly aren't acting like one.

The fact that you you made the effort to go back through my posting history so you could make a comment like this is beyond embarrassing and you do things like this regularly. I don't understand how you expect people to take you seriously when this is your behavior in response to a simple challenge to your opinion.

Also, please prove all the times my wood ID chops appear to be terrible. I don't claim to always be right about anything but I would love to see all the times I'm so far off you feel it's ok to make fun of me in public.

Please grow up and stick to discussion the topics not attacking forum members.

Whoa, back up the truck, podner! 😯
True, I've seldom been described as being "mature." 😏
Here's what you said in your post #12:
"Come on man...lol. You can eyeball the different between 25.7 and 24 million BTU per cord? More power to you.
Either list is fine with me, the point is still the same: beech and oak have about the same BTU value."
Now, most of your list I agree with, it's identical to mine except for the BTU of White Oak, which I've burned a lot of. Then you questioned my claim to be able to tell a difference between wood that are separated by 2M/cord BTU. So naturally I want to know how much experience you have in drying/burning various woods.
I certainly didn't "go back through your posting history," I simply went to your first post in May 2020 where you said " Hi Folks, I'm a brand spanking new wood burner," Then I happened to see a post by you just last month, wondering whether Black Locust was Hickory or Ash. 🤔
I thought to myself "OK, 'nuff said, not much experience. "
I did not say "your wood ID skills were terrible," as you seem to think I said, merely that they "don't appear to be all that great." You are no CincyBurner, my friend. 😏
I'm not going to go research more of your wood ID posts, I've already wasted enough time today that could have been better spent getting more dry wood for my SILs. 😆 I did get a dead tree down, at least. 🤗
I'm sorry you saw my response as an attack. I have nothing against you, and in fact have "liked" several of your posts.
If you're going to challenge a statement I make, I have no problem with that, but you're going to have to back it up with something, not just say "More power to you."

 

[Woody Stover]

Bark is very smooth (smoothest I know).

Yeah, that's what jumped out at me when I saw some while driving in eastern So. IN. I assume those were Beech, but didn't get a chance to look at the leaves.

 

[Caw]

Whoa, back up the truck, podner! 😯
True, I've seldom been described as being "mature." 😏
Here's what you said in your post #12:
"Come on man...lol. You can eyeball the different between 25.7 and 24 million BTU per cord? More power to you.
Either list is fine with me, the point is still the same: beech and oak have about the same BTU value."
Now, most of your list I agree with, it's identical to mine except for the BTU of White Oak, which I've burned a lot of. Then you questioned my claim to be able to tell a difference between wood that are separated by 2M/cord BTU. So naturally I want to know how much experience you have in drying/burning various woods.
I certainly didn't "go back through your posting history," I simply went to your first post in May 2020 where you said " Hi Folks, I'm a brand spanking new wood burner," Then I happened to see a post by you just last month, wondering whether Black Locust was Hickory or Ash. 🤔
I thought to myself "OK, 'nuff said, not much experience. "
I did not say "your wood ID skills were terrible," as you seem to think I said, merely that they "don't appear to be all that great." You are no CincyBurner, my friend. 😏
I'm not going to go research more of your wood ID posts, I've already wasted enough time today that could have been better spent getting more dry wood for my SILs. 😆 I did get a dead tree down, at least. 🤗
I'm sorry you saw my response as an attack. I have nothing against you, and in fact have "liked" several of your posts.
If you're going to challenge a statement I make, I have no problem with that, but you're going to have to back it up with something, not just say "More power to you."

Somehow while attempting to make it better you've managed to come across even more condescending.

Giant edit - You are not worth my time. Best of luck, Woody. Feel free to challenge anything I say in the future.

 

[GrumpyDad]

View attachment 310071

looks like maple to me 🤷

 

[peakbagger]

looks like maple to me 🤷

 

[mikey]

We need to also look at what your stove is and how you use it, I have a Jotul 602 in a small room it needs to burn hot in order to burn clean, long lasting coals is not that important, although a few coals in the morning is nice.

 

[Eman85]

Look in the woods now, the trees with yellow leaves that didn't fall off are beech trees.

 

[ohlongarmisle]

Im surprised to see Red Oak so far down the list next to White Ash.

Take those ratings at face value only, black locust is down on the list ,and speaking from experience burning it it burns the longest, only osage orange and hickory can rival it, by a hair, red oak burns with the best of them slow steady and long, maybe stove types alter those btu ratings.

 

[Mutineer]

Number one reason I have red oak at the top of my list is the lack of any significant ash produced. When I'm lucky enough to burn exclusively fully seasoned red oak, I can go 9-12 days or longer between ash shovel outs in the Lopi. Number one negative feature of red oak is related to the above- very hot burns leave very few coals for the morning start up. No free lunches out there for us in the woodburning sector.

 

[Caw]

Number one reason I have red oak at the top of my list is the lack of any significant ash produced. When I'm lucky enough to burn exclusively fully seasoned red oak, I can go 9-12 days or longer between ash shovel outs in the Lopi. Number one negative feature of red oak is related to the above- very hot burns leave very few coals for the morning start up. No free lunches out there for us in the woodburning sector.

That's interesting. Ive had similar yet different experience.

Red oak absolutely leaves very little ash compared to other woods. When I'm burning a lot of red maple especially I feel like I'm shoveling out the stove every other day versus every week+. It keeps the hearth a lot neater for longer.

However regarding coals I feel like red oak is one of the best coal producers there is. I can reload my relatively small 1.85 cu ft stove with oak at 9:30 pm and reload on coals at 7:30 am no problem. With other woods I need to reload later at night to make it last. Often times I'll save some oak and stick a big piece in the back with other woods to make morning reloads better. In fact red oak's coaling is actually a detriment for me in very cold weather as I have to spend time actively burning down coals for a quick reload. During cold snaps I prefer to burn stuff like pine, maple, cherry, poplar, etc. Things that burn hot and fast for faster reloads on less coals. Then I save the oak for the regular cold but not arctic days where I want length.

I don't think there's any perfect firewood but it's fun to use different species for different purposes or to combine them to get what you want.

 

[ohlongarmisle]

Number one reason I have red oak at the top of my list is the lack of any significant ash produced. When I'm lucky enough to burn exclusively fully seasoned red oak, I can go 9-12 days or longer between ash shovel outs in the Lopi. Number one negative feature of red oak is related to the above- very hot burns leave very few coals for the morning start up. No free lunches out there for us in the woodburning sector.

Amen, which Lopi?

 

[stoveliker]

That's interesting. Ive had similar yet different experience.

Red oak absolutely leaves very little ash compared to other woods. When I'm burning a lot of red maple especially I feel like I'm shoveling out the stove every other day versus every week+. It keeps the hearth a lot neater for longer.

However regarding coals I feel like red oak is one of the best coal producers there is. I can reload my relatively small 1.85 cu ft stove with oak at 9:30 pm and reload on coals at 7:30 am no problem. With other woods I need to reload later at night to make it last. Often times I'll save some oak and stick a big piece in the back with other woods to make morning reloads better. In fact red oak's coaling is actually a detriment for me in very cold weather as I have to spend time actively burning down coals for a quick reload. During cold snaps I prefer to burn stuff like pine, maple, cherry, poplar, etc. Things that burn hot and fast for faster reloads on less coals. Then I save the oak for the regular cold but not arctic days where I want length.

I don't think there's any perfect firewood but it's fun to use different species for different purposes or to combine them to get what you want.

I do the same. That last cold snap (single digits and howling WIND here, on the Sound), I mostly ran pine with two big (17" long, 6" wide) oak splits at the bottom row against the bricks at the sides (N/S). The pine gives me good heat, and the oak makes sure that when I'm a little late with reloading, I don't have to start from scratch (my stove is in the basement, so out of view) because the coals are still there.

In a bind (i.e. when I know I won't be home at reload time, but will be there a few hours later), I use maple or ash on top of oak. The %&*#( ashes bury some coals. Even when I run wide open throttle, which normally works to burn up coals quite quickly, the ashes of the maple on top of the oak make sure some coals survive.

Mix and match.

 

[Mutineer]

I have a 13 year old Lopi Republic 1250 with a blower, unlike CAW I only have a nice bed of coals in the morning after I load up with black locust or red maple, just getting into my first (after 30 years burning) hickory and it seems to coal nicely too.

 

[Woody Stover]

looks like maple to me 🤷

I was out there yesterday, light was fading, and I saw something with pretty smooth bark. But I found a couple shriveled leaves still on it...young Sugar Maple. But I haven't seen one of those with the bark irregularities in mcdougy's pics.

 

[mcdougy]

We have alot of maple here as well. When comparing maple to beech there is no doubt when you see a beech tree. The bark is much smoother than any of the maples. The blemishes in the above pic are scars from something. The bark being as smooth at is, is easily blemished by other trees or animals. As Eman says the beech hold their leaves for the majoriry of the winter. In our woods if you see a tree with leaves mid winter it is either a beech or what we call ironwood. Some sugar maples may have a very few leaves but the beech and ironwood have a significant amount.

 

[Prof]

It comes down to Ford or Chevy type debate. IMHO, beech wins out as its got thinner bark. Bark is much lower btu content so for given split the less volume taken up by bark the better and red oak has thicker bark as a response to having high fire resistance. The trade off is well developed beech blight is creating a layer of lower btu content and my guess is that beech with blight stored poorly (not covered or up off the ground) will start rotting quicker as the blight pockmarks are perfect to hold water.

You are right about the blight. Oyster mushrooms have grown on my holz hauzens in wet summers. Unfortunately, all I seem to cut these days is beech--since they are coming down like crazy on my land. A healthy beech tree has comparable BTUs to oak and seasons quicker. If I ever get caught up on the dead-fall, I will start dropping any beech over 10 inches--to get it before the rot does. The heart wood seems to stay intact, but it pains me to sacrifice half of the volume of a spit just to get at the good stuff.

 

[Max W]

OK, so who's got some "Beech" bark pics...splits or live trees?? 🤓

Unfortunately there are couple of diseases impacted beeches. The one up in my area that has been around or awhile is the "beech blight". The smooth bark starts to look like teenager with acne breakout. In few years the "zits" turn in holes in the bark and then rotten pockets in the underlying wood and then eventually the wood in the trunk rots out so bad that the tree falls over. Some healthy beech are more tolerant than others but regenerating beech usually gets hit hard.

I don’t have a split of healthy beech at hand but here is what badly blighted beech looks like. Rot inside had started inside a larger hole. I hadn’t known the cause of this damage.

Leaves do stay on the trees in winter. In a beech stand, maybe on the side of a hill, you can hear those dry leaves lightly rattle when the wind blows.