Thought I would bump this for the spring season. Happy campfires, everyone!

Avocado, eucalyptus and red oak.

But... I only use about 1.5 - 2 cord a year and then it's mainly for the ambiance and less about the BTU.

I thought Hickory was always top? For putting out heat in the woodstove anyway, and long burning.

That said, I’m a scrounger, take what I get. I’m completely happy with red or white oak & sugar maple. But I’ll take most of what I see available, that can include, aspen, box elder, and some pine.

Aspen & box elder doesn’t keep long piled. I also don’t use light wood or pine exclusively, normally it’s mixed in with better wood, or starting a fire.

When I go north to the camp property I take back some rounds of White Cedar, my favorite kindling wood.

One of the woods I avoid is willow. It seems always damp, smokes, & puts out little heat. A number of years ago I treated myself to my own Iron & Oak log splitter, no more borrowing.

When I lived in Washington state we always looked for Alder. It was easy to split and burned OK. Here in Missouri our farm has a pretty even split of Red and White oak so that is what I use. I seldom have to take a tree down as there are usually enough blow overs.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
Avocado, eucalyptus and red oak.

But... I only use about 1.5 - 2 cord a year and then it's mainly for the ambiance and less about the BTU.

Avocado? Really? I used to (only half-jokingly) say that avocado absolutely sucked as a firewood because by the time you got back to your chair after throwing an avocado log on you might as well turn around and go back rather than sitting down. You’d only have to get up and go throw another log on anyway as it burns so darned fast. Avocado also leaves a lot of ash.

I think the only reason we ever burned avocado when a kid was because we didn’t have a chipper.

It’s not bad for kindling to get a real fire going though.

I was always prejudiced against eucalyptus growing as it popped so much. With the old screens, that could be a pain / problem. Good heat though and seems like less ash to clean up than red (coast live) oak. With a stove or the new sealed inserts with a glass front though, who cares about popping?

Larch/Tamarac
Doug Fir

Madrona

https://www.firewood-for-life....adrone-firewood.html

I don't burn but like watching Adam on YouTube,
At Hometown Acres

Red oak properly seasoned, which seems to take at least 2 years, burns hot and leaves little ash. In sealed stoves, hedge burns very hot with popping and sparks flying when you open the door.

Interesting thing about hedge, I used to cut wood on a friend's land nearby and hedge was so rot resistant, it would season while still standing. Some hedge trees I could fell and burn immediately. I wouldn't be surprised if some hedge trees die and stay upright for five years.

My Morso stove tolerates hedge and seems to like burning hot, but I suspect not all stoves can handle it.

quote:

Originally posted by Billythekids:

quote:

What's your favorite firewood?

Are you drunk? Between this post and the one in Pipe Smokers thread earlier I have to wonder.

Jim

I use pine and juniper because hardwood is too freakin expensive out here.

I love burning hard maple in the fireplace. Starts easy, burns hot, smells great.

I have been using almost exclusively ash since it is plentiful due to the ash borer, I do like it but I prefer maple.


.

Good, hard, dry oak.

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Madrona

https://www.firewood-for-life....adrone-firewood.html

Best darn thing west of the Mississippi

quote:

Originally posted by GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by FishOn:
Madrona

https://www.firewood-for-life....adrone-firewood.html

Best darn thing west of the Mississippi

It really is. We had a large one down on the property in a winter windstorm this year, and I am about to cut it up and stack it. The wood burns clean and hot and for a very long time.

I burn about 4 cords (128 cubic feet per cord) per year in my fireplace insert. My fire burns about 20 hours per day for 6 - 7 months per year. I burn whatever I can get my hands on for free, preferably cut up so I only have to load it up and split it at home. I've hooked up with a tree guy (professional arborist) in Denver who cuts the trees down and and cuts the logs to length and I haul them away. Length of cut will depend on diameter as he makes it so 1 person can lift each piece. I tell him to call me when he has maple, maybe some elm, but elm isn't my favorite.

As we live in the west, pine is most common, usually Ponderosa in my area. It burns just fine. I like to have a mixture of hardwood and pine. The hardwood tends to burn at a lower temperature, but for longer. The pine is nice because it heats up quickly.

My tree guy calls me because I am dependable. He calls and I go pick up the wood. We have a very good arrangement. De-limbing and blocking is the hard part...that's why I will drive 30 - 40 mins or so to get the wood from my tree guy.

This is about a cord of maple from my guy last summer. I met him at the job site and loaded up!

One of the best batches of firewood I used was a huge old pin oak. It was over 100 yrs old and just some of the limbs were over 5 ft in diameter. It was easy to split and burned better than most of the other oak I had used. I split about 4 chords of it just using a maul and wedge. That was my getting back in shape chore for that year.