Hardwoods not to burn

[Deb]

Ok, another one, what prefrences do people have on hardwoods?

 

Which are great and which would you not poke with a burning stick!?

[Flyguy]

There are too many to go into specifics but in my limited experience:

 

Good:

Beach

Ash

Sycamore

Birch

Oak (eventually !)

 

 

Bad:

Horse chestnut

Willow & Poplar (not inherently bad - just starts wet and end up very light)

 

 

Although, as has been said before. Wood is wood and it'll all burn.

 

FG

[Joy Yeomans]

im burning some horse chestnut and poplar been in my wood store eighteen months burns v.well

 

no bad wood just get it all dry

 

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[Alycidon]

Agreed, burning pop in my stove showroom at present. Burnt willow at home for most of last winter.

 

A

[Peter]

There are too many to go into specifics but in my limited experience:

 

Good:

Beach

Ash

Sycamore

Birch

Oak (eventually !)

 

 

Bad:

Horse chestnut

Willow & Poplar (not inherently bad - just starts wet and end up very light)

 

 

Although, as has been said before. Wood is wood and it'll all burn.

 

FG

 

I never burn Beach, its too sandy.

 

All wood burns provided the moisture content is low, I tend to sell on all the stuff people want to buy and keep all the supposed poor wood for my own fire, keeps me warm just fine.

[Flyguy]

I agree that willow and poplar are fine when dry (and kept dry!) - its just that they burn up fast. So all in all you end up investing more work for a given amount of heat.

 

However I have never had anything but disappointment with horse chestnut - even after 2 years in the woodshed you still end up with a lump of wood reluctantly smouldering in the fire with hardly any flame.

[HCR]

Beech-wood fires burn bright and clear

If the logs are kept a year;

Store your beech for Christmastide

With new-cut holly laid beside;

Chestnut's only good, they say,

If for years 'tis stored away;

Birch and fir-wood burn too fast

Blaze too bright and do not last;

Flames from larch will shoot up high,

Dangerously the sparks will fly;

But ash-wood green and ash-wood brown

Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown.

 

Oaken logs, if dry and old,

Keep away the winter's cold;

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,

Fills your eyes and makes you choke;

Elm-wood burns like churchyard mould,

E'en the very flames are cold;

Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread -

So it is in Ireland said;

Apple-wood will scent the room,

Pear-wood smells like flowers in bloom;

But ash-wood wet and ash-wood dry

A King may warm his slippers by.

[kev7937]

Nothing better than elm that's been standing dead for a few years with all the bark fallen off, leaves a lovely bed of embers.

 

I've got some 4 or 5 year old yew that's pretty darn good too.

 

 

 

 

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[Stereo]

I've got half an acre of standing DED elm which is coming out this winter. Going to be toasty next year! Might need a bigger splitter though!

[Stubby]

Syc is the least labor intensive . Seasons quickly splits easy peasy and burns well .