And if you're in a pinch, like I usually am, standing dead elm that has shed its bark (but still solid) is what I go for if I can find it. Turns the arch doors cherry red.
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And if you're in a pinch, like I usually am, standing dead elm that has shed its bark (but still solid) is what I go for if I can find it. Turns the arch doors cherry red.
For the smaller operators and backyarders pound for pound the fastest hottest burning wood is old pallets. Usually available free. Some work to cut up but they really add the heat....
An option for those limited on fuel supply
From Chapter 7 of the 2006 edition of the North American Maple Producers Manual.
Attachment 19569
A lot burn whatever they can get. Hemlock burns hot but quick, more times stoking, more coals.
Find a tree service company, ask about they do with what they take down.
I used one that took down some with their cherry picker and standing dead. They left 3’ x8’ stalks, cut stand dead hemlock and took to a farm store that they use for outdoor furnaces and chipped up branches and rotting 2’+. I had to pay the crew.
Then 2 other times they cut down and grown stumps, I processed wood for sugar (hemlock,maple, beech, birch and hardback).
i used to use the same wood in the arch as i did in the camp stove but as red said, i now prefer to keep the maple and ironwood for heating my home and camp. i look for any punky wood that's in the woods. i have a lot of basswoods that come down in storms. popple n spruce burn hot. you get a lot less coals to choke the draft and i'm not concerned about firing up more often. i'm watching water boil; it's good to have something else to do!
I typically burn oak and locust but when I am getting close to syrup, I like a hotter flame so I will burn red maple or poplar. I believe that it gets the syrup to migrate better. I may be wrong but in my experience, I have watched sap bounce 2 - 3 degrees below syrup for a long time before becoming dense enough but when I make the fire hotter with softer woods, the sap gets to syrup quicker.
In short, I agree that some wood burns hotter but gives less btu's. But those hotter burning woods usually burn faster.
I burn red maple black cherry red oak These are just blow downs around the woods around the house.I saw on Dr. Tims sheet ash is good,there is a little poem that oak is dense and burns well but ash shall heat the hearths of kings.
I burn a lot of ash (mixed with box elder, elm, maple, etc). Definitely gives off its BTUs faster than a lot of other woods but still not too frequent firings. Makes the evap boil really well and it's a noticeable difference compared to say armloads of box elder or oak. Elm is a close second in my favorites to use. Firing with both elm and ash makes serious heat.
Something else that I have found is that the softer hardwoods seem to burn at a more even temperature. With locust and oak, my temperature readout is constantly fluctuating around 1/2 a degree but red maple and cherry seem to only fluctuate about 1/10 a degree. Drawoff is much more steady with the softer woods.
The Firewood Poem
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold
Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But ash wet or ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.
Fuel+Temperature+Oxygen=Fire There are an infinite number of permutations in this formula that result in getting firewood to boil sap, but a lot of the heat still goes up the stack unused. Terrible efficiency.