# types of firewood acceptable



## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

I've used wood heat all of my life and have primarily used various different types of oak to burn. I try to season it for at least a year prior to burning but have been caught a time or two and needed to burn some that wasn't cured so well. 

My question is: What different types can you burn? I know to stay away from green wood that still has sap and can make a creosote fire in the flu. But, I've got lots of elm wood on my place that I'd rather just not use a bulldozer to push into a pile and have a huge brush fire. Has anyone ever burned it? If so, what was the outcome and efficiency? I also have a lot of hickory and red cedar. I figured if I burned the hickory the house would smell like a honey baked ham when you walked in!!!

Thanks.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

We've burned elm and hickory. The hickory didn't make the house smell like a hickory smoked ham! LOL The cherry was delightful as was the peach (both trees had died already) The hickory was not seasoned and had only been cut that August. It burned nice and hot. The elm was dead but not dry (got rained on) and didn't burn as well as we had hoped. Slow and long but not a lot of heat, IIRC. 

Sycamore makes a nice hot but fast fire. Beech wood burns long and hot.

The cedar we burned was the scented cedar from a house we have been rebuilding. It was unfinished and burned really really fast.


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## topside1 (Sep 23, 2005)

Francis, I burn anything that will give off heat and clear more land. Poplar, oak, sourwood, maple, hickory, pine, sassafrass, you name it, it gets used. Some like sourwood, pin oak and pine gets extra ageing. Fire burn 24/7 come November...Stay warm,,,Topside


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

All wood has about the same fuel value per pound, so if you are buying wood in a volume measurement, like a cord, you want to buy the densest wood you can to get the most BTUs per cord. Southern yellow pine, a softwood, for example, is a better "buy" than yellow tulip poplar, a hardwood, due to density. ( IMHO )

Also, the denser the wood, the less often you have to feed the fire, as it 'holds' a fire better/longer.

But if you're cutting what you have growing, I burn about anything, with the exception of white pine....it's just too poor density wise to be worth my time to fool with when I live in the middle of hardwood country.... BUT if I had mostly white pine, I'd burn it.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2011)

Locust is about the best. I think Osage Orange is a little harder, and therefore a little better, but it has thorns like hypodermic needles.


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

I burn most any seasoned "hard" wood, but I do stay away from poplar and willow. I do not burn anything classed as a soft wood (pine, cedar, and spruce) as I just don't like the pops and snaps as it burns to hot and fast; let alone the creasote (sp?) it creates, but that's me......
This year most my wood supply is maple, hickory, elm and black cherry with some apple tossed in.
As a side note; I always thought that if'n you could smell whatever you are burning in the house you got a real serious problem - or a window open .......


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## Malamute (Sep 15, 2011)

You can burn about anything, unless you're allergic to the smoke.

Pine is about all that's available where I am, it works just fine and I love the smell of the woodsmoke on cool damp days. Smells like camp in the mountains.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

In our area we see a lot of these trees:
balsam fir (Abies balsamea),
red maple (Acer rubrum),
sugar maple (Acer saccharum),
speckled alder (Alnus rugosa)
yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) 
paper birch (Betula papyrifera),
beech (Fagus grandifolia),
white ash (Fraxinus americana),
white spruce (Picea glauca)
black spruce (Picea mariana)
red spruce (Picea rubens),
jack pine (Pinus banksiana),
red pine (Pinus resinosa),
white pine (Pinus strobus)
quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides)
hemlock (Tsuga canadensis). 
willow (Salix spp.) 

We burn them all.


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## Countrybumpkin (May 12, 2002)

I also burn whatever fits in the woodstove door. Softwood is still cheaper than propane, even if I have to load the stove more often.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Ash burns well green.


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## ||Downhome|| (Jan 12, 2009)

I sure would not be burning Fruit wood or Hickory in the wood burner. Unless I had far more then I knew what to do with or was freezing.

Much better to Cook and smoke with.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

In my experience dead elm rots where it stands, soaks up water like a sponge, and is danged near impossible to split.


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## artificer (Feb 26, 2007)

Burn what you can get, it all makes heat. If you can smell/see wood smoke, you are not burning the wood completely. Some times you can't help it (starting the fire), but you should try to minimize smoke as much as possible with good burning practice, dry wood...

I like this chart of BTU values for different woods. Whats amusing is that the lowest btu/cord value is for Balsa... a "hardwood."

http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm

Michael


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

topside1 said:


> Francis, I burn anything that will give off heat and clear more land. Poplar, oak, sourwood, maple, hickory, pine, sassafrass, you name it, it gets used. Some like sourwood, pin oak and pine gets extra ageing. Fire burn 24/7 come November...Stay warm,,,Topside


That's kinda what I have in mind. I'm clearing some land with a chainsaw and poisoning the stumps and sure hate to push the elms and bois'arcs (osage orange) into a pile to burn them when I could put them in the firewood pile. 

I'll second the motion made about elm being hard to split and soaking up moisture. I have a place to put it under roof to store and season it though.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

Bois'arc will burn hot and long good for really cold days or nights. Native elm burns good too, chinese elm is not so good but like a lot of trees the bigger trees seem to make better wood.


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## Evons hubby (Oct 3, 2005)

francismilker said:


> I've used wood heat all of my life and have primarily used various different types of oak to burn. I try to season it for at least a year prior to burning but have been caught a time or two and needed to burn some that wasn't cured so well.
> 
> My question is: What different types can you burn? I know to stay away from green wood that still has sap and can make a creosote fire in the flu. But, I've got lots of elm wood on my place that I'd rather just not use a bulldozer to push into a pile and have a huge brush fire. Has anyone ever burned it? If so, what was the outcome and efficiency? I also have a lot of hickory and red cedar. I figured if I burned the hickory the house would smell like a honey baked ham when you walked in!!!
> 
> Thanks.


I used to burn a lot of hickory. Its a good long lasting high heat producer. Elm is also pretty good firewood but some is a bit tricky to split. Red cedar is a firewood of last resort as far as I am concerned.


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## pheasantplucker (Feb 20, 2007)

I burn mostly ash, white oak, and hickory. Whatever happens to be blown down and falls in the woodlot. Ash is super easy to split. Oak and hickory are tougher to split, but they give off a bit more heat and those logs seem to last longer than the ash. I would caution against osage orange. (Way too hot and sparky). I've burned cherry, and it's good, but kinda rare to find one that's down. One wood I bypass is sycamore. My maul and wedges bounce off it, like it's made of rubber. It might not be as bad if I had a log splitter to work with.


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## mdharris68 (Sep 28, 2006)

francismilker said:


> I've used wood heat all of my life and have primarily used various different types of oak to burn. I try to season it for at least a year prior to burning but have been caught a time or two and needed to burn some that wasn't cured so well.
> 
> My question is: What different types can you burn? I know to stay away from green wood that still has sap and can make a creosote fire in the flu. But, I've got lots of elm wood on my place that I'd rather just not use a bulldozer to push into a pile and have a huge brush fire. Has anyone ever burned it? If so, what was the outcome and efficiency? I also have a lot of hickory and red cedar. I figured if I burned the hickory the house would smell like a honey baked ham when you walked in!!!
> 
> Thanks.


I have found that elm, both red and chinese give off good heat, but the bark has to be slipped off before I will cut it up. It is hard to split by hand because the fibers are kind of twisted. Very good btu per pound I think. Hickory on the other hand is supposed to have the highest btu per pound even over that of locust. I think the hedge (osage orange) may be higher yet and it can be cut and burned in the same day. Hedge has a lot of sparking and popping and can burn a good stove out if it gets out of hand. 

Just my experience


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

Cut down a few elms about 10" in diameter and chunked them up into firewood sized pieces. I stacked them between two waist high stumps in a firewood pile to dry a little before even attempting to split them. I'm going to give this clearing with a chainsaw a go. It's amazing how much future heat you can see out there stacked up and not in a huge brushpile. 

Besides, with our drought conditions and burn ban for most of 2011, I couldn't burn a huge brushpile if I wanted to. 

My stack(s) will end up with blackjack oak, hickory, elm, and a few post oaks. I'll reserve the bigger of the red cedars for the sawmill and make some nice cedar furniture out of them. I estimate this two acre tract I'm cutting on will make me 30 or more ricks of firewood and I'll plan on using the backhoe to rip out the stumps once they've been cut long enough for my stump poison to make it to the roots to try to prevent sprouts. I plan on long-term to put in some clover for the milk goats and needed a clearing close to the house so I can keep the girls close enough to not worry about predators. Man, the trouble we will go through to keep the family in milk. With the cows, I can turn them out after milking and not worry about where they go. With the goats, I have to think about the coyotes!


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## FTG-05 (Mar 10, 2010)

What you can't or shouldn't burn, is probably a shorter list:

- treated wood, creosote logs/timbers etc.
- processed wood i.e. hardwood floor ends with varnish/poly coatings etc.
- old pallet wood that may have absorbed oils and chemicals
- plywoods and chipwoods that contain various wood glues

Firewood from trees: it all depends on what's available in your area and what you're willing to spend time and/or money on vs. the heat available. Just make sure it's well seasoned.

Good luck.


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## Jim S. (Apr 22, 2004)

I've burned all kinds of wood but

First choice: Hickory

Second choice: Oak

Third choice: Osage orange (bois d'arc) - This burns so hot you'll want to mix it with other woods if you can, and will burn out a thin stove. You can start a fire with this wood and close the stove up completely and be very toasty. Be careful when opening the door, because the wood has a tendency to shoot sparks out into the room when it gets fresh air.

Cedar is a wonderful ambiance wood that can be added to a fire for the fantastic smell.

This year we'll burn oak, just because a 300-y-o tree was blown down in our fenceline by a 15-minute windstorm. There's 2 years of wood in it!


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2011)

This is a good site to bookmark, it has woods from the hardest, and most BTU per volume(osage orange) to the softest and least BTU per volume(balsa) on one side of the page, and arranged alphabetically on the other. 
http://chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm


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