Printable View
It's all soft wood out here. Anybody discovers a species of hardwood that grows in a dry climate at 10K' above sea level, I'll clear cut my property and start a nursery. We buy a little over a cord of crap oak they ship in from MO, so we can keep the stove going overnight. Nothing like back home though. Never realized how good we had it.
In order of burning preference around here: Lw (kootenays), Doug Fir, Birch, lodgepole pine, yellow pine, aspen, spruce and true firs, cottonwood. Enough BTU's in the bark of dry Lw to smelt low grade steel. Birch burns hot, but seasoning is an absolute must and it still leaves a lot of creosote and ash. Aspen and western red alder burn about the same - quick, hot and lots of ash. Logging truck load approx (35m3 or 12 cords) of a mix of Doug fir, lodgepole pine and maybe birch will cost you around $1400 around here. Worst to split are the spruce, true firs and large wet cottonwood. Usually needs wedges as the maul just bounces right out.
Hardwoods (aside from myself of course) are hard to come by. But I've got a ton of alder on my property and big ones go down every year.Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
Besides, think of it as a quiver: alder for quick ignition and daily burning that needs attention. Fir/wild cherry/etc for the all night burners.
Think of the Byrds: To every season (burn, burn, burn).
If you're getting creosote accumulation you are burning wet wood. Creosote formation has zero to do with the species and everything to do with your seasoning/burning practices, or perhaps a shoddily installed stove.Quote:
Originally Posted by BCMountainHound
Piñon and juniper are preferred here in NM, at least en el norte. Occasionally you can get some Gambel oak or Douglas-fir, but not that often. Lots of people burn ponderosa, spruce and aspen because those're common.
But I'll take all the oak, maple, hickory and ash you want to bring by, ice.
Agreed. Birch prefers an open flue, and doesn't like to be in an O2-deprived state such as a damped down stove for the night. At least as compared to larch and Doug fir under similar burning conditions and seasoning.Quote:
Originally Posted by glademaster
Are we talking white or yellow birch here? If I don't fully close the damper on a stove full of yellow birch, I get close to melting down my stove.Quote:
Originally Posted by BCMountainHound
I really like yellow birch. The rest of the birches I would not pay a nickel for for, but if they are free ....
Like Glademaster said, if you are getting creosote, then the wood is not properly seasoned. That said, all of the soft woods you need to watch as they can burn very hot.
Paper birch (B. payrifera). IIRC, with a BTU of around 20M BTU per cord. Western larch is just above that, and Doug fir is about 18M BTU. I'd have to look up what the comparable BTU's are for yellow birch. BTU's vary a bit by the source, but they are reasonable for comparison between species.
Lw is larch yes? I only have a fire for ambience (heat included in rent!), but have a stack of beetle kill pine. Last year we got a bit of weeping willow that broke in a storm, surprisingly good, it burned much longer/better than the pine. But the shitty ambience open fire in our place needs to be all the way to 11 otherwise the fking fire goes out.
The fact that softwoods off-gas faster than hardwoods is only a problem if you're previously burned unseasoned wood and caked your chimney with flammable material. This is how pine got such a bad reputation as a dangerous fuel source in the northeast. People would smolder green oak all winter, because it takes 3-4 years for oak to season AFTER it has been split, then throw in a load of pine (which seasons in only 8-16 months after being split), which would subsequently cause a chimney fire.Quote:
Originally Posted by cat in january
my experience with wet cottonwood is that the maul will go in 3-4 in and and just get stuck. Like trying to split a wet sponge. But it won't dry until the bark is off. Find it better if I aim for the edge rather than the centre.Quote:
Originally Posted by BCMountainHound
This weekend'
Attachment 157008
became
Attachment 157009
12 pickup loads. Next weekend it all gets split.
Everything splits better when aiming for the edge vs centre. Look for the tiniest of splits just starting.Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
Wet cottonwood does such.
Wish I'd had carried a camera with me for the year I worked doing tree work here on the North Shore, we dropped/split/cleaned a tree a day. Lots of big suckers and plenty of rope work. We dropped a big cottonwood over a creek in West Van that made one hell of a mess. If it were up to me I'd turndown cottonwood jobs.
that may be but cottonwood here are almost mushy in the middle so just swallows up the maul when wet.
Let it dry?
Don't waste your time and energy on Cottonwood?
I rank it among the very least desirable species to burn along with Alianthus, Weeping Willow and Russian Olive. Even here in Utah where this is not a whole lot of variety I will pass on Cottonwood.
Cotton wood is bonfire wood. Going up to Jackson to split a 28" standing dead maple this weekend. Smoking meat and splitting wood. Can't wait to try the tire trick and save all that bending over and resetting.
Does having a sharp maul really help much? I only file them, rather than the file, diamond stone, ceramic stone until it shaves I give a felling axe.
I sharpened my mauls on an electric grinding wheel, made them Holy Fuck! sharp. I thought it made a difference on anything, but i think green wood even that would not help
cottonwood with the bark gets wetter and wetter. It has almost a perfect anti gortex jacket. water comes in but never leaves. Leave it a year on the ground held up by branches and it will be wetter than the day it was cut down. Anyway its not that bad wood though I can't be choosy. It was cut to length and my truck and trailer were driving by. Actually it split pretty easy this time.Quote:
Originally Posted by telemike
Huh... Never dealt with it.
Yeah you gotta take what you can get. I love scores like that.
I'm lucky in that where i live I have a lot of good wood to chose from and it doesn't get so fucking cold here that I need to burn a cord a week.
Yeah but red oak splits if you cast a stern look in its general direction, so that doesn't really count. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by blu
Hit placement is much more important than a sharp maul.
Indeed. I do all my splitting by hand, and wish I could fill my stacks with nothing but red oak, cherry and white ash. Those three are a pleasure to split.Quote:
Originally Posted by blu
We were splitting green 18" white birch rounds the other weekend with a few friends, with the bark on, competing over who could split one in the least hits. Some of the tall skinny dudes were taking 20+ hits. Some got one in 3. As said above its all about placement and POWER.