What kind of wood do you all use?

[Thiems sugarshack]

Was wondering how many of you guys use pine and how many of you guys use hardwood or if you burn what ever you get.I burn pine. Just curious:D

[smitty76]

Well Thiems, hoping to go to ng this year, but have been wood fired for 20 yrs and of course wanted kiln dried red oak. that never happened, we burned what ever we could get our hands on. we have burned alot of pine though, and poplar or what ever. One year we scored a dumptruck load of 1" x 1" x 16" oak sticks from some guy who new someone at a furniture factory, they were aesome. pine burns nice and hot, it really does not matter what it is as you are stokeing the fire so often no matter what you are burning.

[Ausable]

---Normally the wood at hand I don't burn to heat the house. Mostly Hemlock, Popple, White Birch with bark on, Bass, Balsam Fir etc... Mike

[BryanEx]

Mostly cedar. It's readily available from cutting posts and rails on my property but do I also add in occasional hardwood for a longer burn and at least some coals in the fire pit.

[ennismaple]

Softwoods - pine, spruce, cedar, hemlock, basswood, poplar. I know it has fewer BTU's than hardwoods but it's readily available and far cheaper when you buy it by the logging truckload.

[Thiems sugarshack]

I burn pine so i dont have to worry about coals when i want to shut it down for the night a because it is everywhere around here

[tuckermtn]

we started burning 100% hardwood- and every year since then we have been mixing in more and more softwood. We are probably at 60% softwood (I include poplar in that) and 40% hardwood.

just busted up another cord of red pine this afternoon. Should be dry by the end of the sugaring season..

[stoweski]

Last year all poplar. Went quick. Neighbor has over 200 acres of fields with woods along side. He and his brother have been cutting overhanging branches (from the past 30+ years) from the field. All kinds of wood but primarily hardwood. Guess what I'll be using this year???!!!

Is there such thing as 'too much wood'? He's been bringing me 3' logs in the back of a Cub Cadet UTV. I bet we've hauled close to 40 loads! I just hope to get it cut, split, stacked, and off the ground so it won't rot 3 years from now when I finally get a chance to use it!

Ah well, guess there are worse things in life. :rolleyes:

[Thiems sugarshack]

I dont think there is such a thing what ever you dont burn can be used the next year and it will cut down on the time it would take to split more the next season

[red maples]

Hard wood for the house and soft wood for the maple!!! the soft wood is losts cheaper I get most from my property but after the last 2 years of ice storm and windstorm there is still alot laying. I only buy it...if I need to buy it that is, from my local logger friend that if he has it, he might give me 1/2 truck load or something in exchange for a gallon of syrup or somethng. and I 'll pay his gas

[Goggleeye]

I burn whatever is available, but maple seems to give an awful good boil. But then that can be counterproductive, I suppose.

[Sugarmaker]

100% pallets, which are about 50-50 mix of hard and soft wood. Price is right but takes lots of time to get 9 cord.
Regards,
Chris

[nas]

Hardwood slabwood off my mill. I use mostly edging strips for a hot hot fire:evil:

Nick

[Revi]

We try to burn the crappiest wood we can find at the sugarhouse. Popple, hemlock, slabwood, etc. We had a friend come over with a chair he had found at the dump. It was the most uncomfortable chair ever. The next time he asked about it I was feeding the last leg into the evaporator. We try not to have any of the good hardwood at the sugarhouse. It's going for $200 a cord dry, so that would not be a good use of wood.

My new source is the brush pile at the dump. I find all sorts of great wood there.

My only rules are no nails, no pressure treated and no paint.

Otherwise, it's all good wood for the sugarhouse.

[danno]

Chris - I don't know how you do it. I had a large load (like tractor trailer size load) of pallets dropped off for free a few years back. For a couple of years I mixed pallets with soft/hard woods, but what a ton of work those pallets were. I wound up burning them all up whole this summer for bon fires just to get rid of them.

Don't know if you have a good source, but the plumbing supply company that delivered them to my house said they pay to get rid of them, so they were happy to deliver at no charge. They still occasionally call me to see if I will take more.

[3rdgen.maple]

Im with you Danno I dont know how he does it. I had a lumber company with a tandem flatbed drop off a bunch about 12 years ago. Was not my idea my dad thought it was a great idea. I remember cutting them up all summer and hating every minute of it. From that year forward I would hack up a few here and there and it took 10 years to get rid of the last one. Never again.
I use mostly pine and then any small limbs from the hardwood for the house. I really like pine it burns fast but dang it gets the pans ripping.

[Z/MAN]

I burn cut 2x4's-6's and 8's. I have modular home factory nearby that is happy to let me take all I want. The more I take the less they have to pay to dispose of them. They burn fast and HOT.

[gmcooper]

I burn mostly pine and hemlock slab wood. Free from neighbors sawmill. Sometimes there is oak as well mixed in. Years ago I got bundles of kd maple edging from a hardwood floor manufacturer. Those were the best 1"x 1" just cut to lenght. Kind of pain to stack but great heat and they were free also.

[RileySugarbush]

I burn split hardwood, this season will be Elm and Green ash since that is what we took out of the bush. Mixed in is a lot of scraps of baltic birch from a my kids longboard business. I may be the only one on here with wood imported from Russia for a major fuel source!

[Buckshot]

I use hardwood. (maple, ironwood, red oak, beech) I will be mixing with pine slabs from the local mill.


What do you think about ceder/ hemlock/and basswood as options - which I normaly pass over - but see listed by some guys in here? I would like to hear more about those woods. thanks

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

I burn what is available but try to avoid basswood ,popple and grey birch. Some gets in there but I have lots of other hardwoods. I have some pine and hemlock, some from the woods and some slabs from my mill. I find ironwood (hornbeam) to be a great heat source. Currently have about 30 cord of wood put up for my 4x12, most of it being 2 to 4 inch diameter.

[Dennis H.]

The Tree Kind!:lol:

I use what ever I can get, it is all BTU's.

If I use pine I will mix hardwood with it, so I am not shoving in all pine at any given time.

[sfsshadow]

we used to use hardwood slabs from a local pallet mill. they were already cut 4ft and in bundles.hardwood takes longer to get going and longer to shut down. plus a huge coal build up, half way through boiling.pine leaves too much soot on the bottom of the pans. i like hemlock or spruce

[red maples]

Chris - I don't know how you do it. I had a large load (like tractor trailer size load) of pallets dropped off for free a few years back. For a couple of years I mixed pallets with soft/hard woods, but what a ton of work those pallets were. I wound up burning them all up whole this summer for bon fires just to get rid of them.

Don't know if you have a good source, but the plumbing supply company that delivered them to my house said they pay to get rid of them, so they were happy to deliver at no charge. They still occasionally call me to see if I will take more.

I cut up a few last year....forget it!!! what a PITA!!! I just now collect em up to stack wood on thats it. If I have one thats too busted up I'll break it up but geez 9 cord of pallet wood ooff!

[Rhino]

To us, burning with pallets is the best mix we can get. i can see if you guys have to cut them in little pieces to make them fit in the doors it would be a pita. We have to just rip them in half. Benifits to us are, they are free, alot of them are hardwood, they are easy and fast to fire up (slide right in), they burn super hot, and did i mention they are free? (besides gas to haul) but the place we get them is on our way to our woods. When we fire, we first throw some round wood in and then slide a pallet on top. We just keep staggering the wood like that through the cook time. They do burn fast but the btu's are cranking. Drawback to pallets is the nails/hardware left in the ash pit.

[nas]

If anyone in my area is looking for pine slabwood, I sell it for $40/cord bundled in 1/2 cord bundles 3'x8'long.

Nick

[C.Wilcox]

Anything that appears to be made of wood goes through the door without discrimination (except for treated wood). If it can burn, it will. We don't have much basswood around here, but it's really common up by my parents place and they burn quite a bit of it. It doesn't give much in the way of btu's, especially if it's wet, but if you split it small and make sure it's dry it will burn just fine. I have burned cedar, hemlock, and pine as well and they work great, but as someone said previously, they do tend to leave a lot of soot on the pans. If you don't mind doing some midseason scrubbing they'll work just fine. If you mix them with hot burning hardwoods you'll probably get less soot buildup.

[cncaboose]

I burn all hardwood left from thinning the woods. 75% sugar maple with some birch, red maple, ash, cherry, elm, and apple for variety. Most all of it less than 4" diameter. The elm seems to burn really dirty making a lot of dark smoke. The hardwood makes a great fire and leaves nice coals for cooking marshmallows and hotdogs by the ashpit door.

[Sugarmaker]

Yes pallets are royal pain! I do have to cut them up small to get that many cord in the woodshed plus we don't have large door openings on the King arch.
I pick them up daily during the summer near where I work. Someday maybe will go back to oil. For now its my work out, as I don't go to the gym much:)
Chris

[Brokermike]

we burn mostly softwood, pine, polar. It comes from natural thinning around the house. For the house we burn cherry, ash(lots of ash), and birch. We make a concerted effort not to cut much maple or oak (I like oak and they make good wind breaks for the other ones)

[heus]

Last year (my first) I made the mistake of only burning rounds. I heat my home with wood and I figured all small rounds would go for sugar wood. Even though they burn, I found that rounds dont burn nearly as good as small split pieces. This year I have split poplar, willow, and cherry. In my house I burn mostly ash, sugar maple, cherry, and red maple. Small amount of beech, too.. It seems that no matter what kind of wood it is, rounds require at least twice the amount of time to season than split pieces.

[BoarsNest]

I burn mostly split oak. I have a lot of oak tops and dead standing ones. My carpenter buddy also supplies some kiln dried trim from the place he gets his trim boards. Mix this half and half and it burns hot and hard. This year we split our wood smaller after reading on here how most people split it smaller than I did last year.

[poolguy]

we burn it all ....but of course like hardwood the best as its less cutting and splitting. however, the biggest rule of thumb for a hot burn is seasoning. two year seasoned wood produces 15% more heat than one year seasoned wood. (there are charts available) we allways stack it as soon as possable and cover just the top and never go more than 4 ft wide.

[TapME]

whatever is at hand to put in the wood shed. Last year I put the word out that I was looking for pine to burn and we now have 8 cords cut and 6 split all here. have to make a bigger wood shed for next year. The only exception is no PT or enginered wood products. The glue will do funky things to the underside of my pans.

[Bucket Head]

We burn whatever we can get our hands on and we've burned just about every type wood at one time or another. We too had quite a bit of pine the last couple of years. It burns up quick, but it makes one hot fire!

Steve

[Dave Y]

I burn mostly hard wood. I will burn soft wood if I have it. dont go looking for it, but I wont trip over it to get to hard wood. Currently have 40 cord.

[3% Solution]

We burn Hemlock slabs, always have, always will (if we can get them).
Get a log truck load when we get them, 7 bundles (little over 1/2 cord per bundle).
They are hot, makes for a good fire.
Need to get another load next spring.

[collinsmapleman2012]

i burn whatever i can get my hands on, and usually its hardwood since we use that for our outdoor wood boiler. last year though, my brother was remodeling so i burned 2x4 and the like... we put lots of hardwood flooring in the stove but i didnt want to use it in the evaporator since i didnt know what the finish would do when it burned. had been getting a lot of hardwood scraps from the local sawmill but it burned down a couple years ago, however it will be rebuilt in the spring. all in all ive figured out through trial by error that a 50-50 mix of hard and soft works good.

[Slatebelt*Pa*Tapper]

Here we use Mainly a mix of red maple, black gum, red oak some paper and yellow birch and scrap building materials untreated only

[maple flats]

I burn almost every kind, from thinning, hedge row clearing and forest management. I also have a sawmill and burn lots of the slab, both hard and soft. If I am burning soft I try to use about 60-70% hard mixed in. I also burn lots of rejects for my home woodstove, punky, ants, etc.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I try to burn mostly locust which is about the highest btu wood and try to only burn it when it has been seasoned for a couple of years and in the dry for 6 to 9 months. Also burn hickory and red oak too that is dry and seasoned.

[shane hickey]

I use only pallets and old hip barns (barn boards) and mix it with 1/3 of hard coal, to much coal it plugs the flus. That is just like adding gasoline to the fire, this process will have to most btu but you have to fill it every 4 to 5 minutes.
shane

[ahowes]

I am thinking of burning dollar bills since they are getting so worthless :cry:

[shane hickey]

Isn't that the truth, and I afraid that it will only get worse?

[maple flats]

I am thinking of burning dollar bills since they are getting so worthless :cry:
Tell you what, I'll trade you cord for cord!!! No limit. What I bring will all be split and seasoned, your $ bills can be unseasoned, but nothing with bank dye marks all over it.

[farmall h]

Maple & White Birch this year. No more softwood slabs!