Selling poplar as firewood

[gdh]

Does anyone sell poplar as firewood? I've got a lot of oversized stuff so either way I'm going to have to billet it first, just wondering whether to chip it or process it. I can't see it selling as hardwood or softwood and I don't want to have to explain to 100tons worth of customers. 

[Stubby]

Cracking good fire wood I recon . Why not use it yourself . Might see you out ! ?

Edited July 6, 2018 by Stubby

[billpierce]

I had a whole winter burning softwood about 8 years ago. I don't sell firewood. when it finally dried out it burnt as well as Sitka, hemlock etc. Not stunning but if I'd bought it at soft wood price as logs personally would have been happy.

So you sell softwood logs atm?Could you just mix it in with that?

[richardwale]

Poplar is hardwood

[billpierce]

Poplar is hardwood

Yah but if you were used to buying ash beech oak birch syc etc, and you got a load of pop you'd be gutted

[nepia]

4 hours ago, richardwale said:

Poplar is hardwood

Indeed but as with willow and horse chestnut I dribble it into the softwood loads.  Fortunately I only get very small amounts of each of those.

[richardwale]

I quite like the stuff, burns well, gives off good heat. What's not to like!

[gdh]

Thanks, we don't sell much softwood, despite my efforts it's still only 5% of sales. The problem is although poplar's technically hardwood most people wouldn't be happy to see it in a load so I'm either going to have to take a hit and sell it as softwood or try it as chip which should work out better as we charge per kW but seems a waste of 2ft plus logs. 

 

Or try and convince people it's a good hardwood but we haven't tried any ourselves yet.

[Stubby]

24 minutes ago, gdh said:

Thanks, we don't sell much softwood, despite my efforts it's still only 5% of sales. The problem is although poplar's technically hardwood most people wouldn't be happy to see it in a load so I'm either going to have to take a hit and sell it as softwood or try it as chip which should work out better as we charge per kW but seems a waste of 2ft plus logs. 

 

Or try and convince people it's a good hardwood but we haven't tried any ourselves yet.

If you " take the hit " and sell it as soft wood you will be breaching the trades descriptions act as it is indeed hard wood .   The thing with pop is to keep it dry ( more so than other woods ) as its make up , once seasoned , makes it react like blotting paper  and will take up moisture like no other . I use this next line quite a bit .........Dave ( Skyhuck ) boiled his central heating  burning pop . .......

Edited July 6, 2018 by Stubby

[Big J]

I really like poplar. Perfect compromise between softwood and hardwood. Lights off a single match with no need for kindling, bright flame, strong heat and leaves a bed of embers. So it doesn't last as long as oak, but if you split it now, it would be sub 20% by September (it dries extremely quickly).