Softwood vs hardwood

[brynseiri]

What are the pro's and cons of softwood? This is the first year we have got softwood as firewood, I went and bought a grain trailer load, extracting it my self from a local forester as due to work commitments I haven't felled any wood on the farm, our own woods are mostly oak, so that's all we've burned all my life. Is softwood fast burning rubbish?

 

 

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[Woodworks]

I am relatively new to softwood as none grows on the farm but have picked up some in recent times.

 

Pros

 

It's easy to process and handle

Cheaper per ton

Dries quickly

 

Cons

 

It does burns quickly

Takes up more storage space per dry ton

It may be cheaper per wet ton but not convinced you get much more energy per pound as so much weight is lost in drying.

Nightmare to sell.

[ballibeg]

It has different characteristics to oak certainly but it's not rubbish!

 

All dry wood has pretty similar energy per kg. Softwood is lighter so yes logs burn quicker but they also dry quicker, are cheaper and also more abundant in the UK.

 

Lots of posts on here about educating customers to the benefits of dry softwood so they realise softwood isn't a no no.

 

Get it dry, get it burnt.

 

Dave

[Mortimer Firewood]

I am relatively new to softwood as none grows on the farm but have picked up some in recent times.

 

Pros

 

It's easy to process and handle

Cheaper per ton

Dries quickly

 

Cons

 

It does burns quickly

Takes up more storage space per dry ton

It may be cheaper per wet ton but not convinced you get much more energy per pound as so much weight is lost in drying.

Nightmare to sell.

 

We also started selling softwood this year the larch is really good but the scots pine has gone mouldy in the stack & it's up off the floor on bearers. All the above points are what we're finding?

[Woodworks]

Going trough some douglas ATM and it looks promising. A delight to split and got some samples in the house for speed drying and seems a bit weightier than the rest of our softwood.

[bobh]

You can't buy anything but softwood over here, and we're not all sat around shivering and wishing we lived in that mythical land where ash and oak firewood grows on trees 😁😁

Seriously I've not found a softwood yet that doesn't heat my house when properly dried

[Mull]

You can't buy anything but softwood over here, and we're not all sat around shivering and wishing we lived in that mythical land where ash and oak firewood grows on trees 😁😁

Seriously I've not found a softwood yet that doesn't heat my house when properly dried

 

 

Hope you're right bob, I've just had 25t of larch delivered, read somewhere it's the hardest of the softwoods but dries fairly quick. Will find out over the coming months I suppose.

[Philip Anderson]

Going trough some douglas ATM and it looks promising. A delight to split and got some samples in the house for speed drying and seems a bit weightier than the rest of our softwood.

 

Douglas burns really well as does cedar and scots pine ,it dries quickly and we mix it in with hardwood so sell mixed load ,people like it and are not that bothered about burn rate just as long as it does burn.

Stove suppliers in my opinion are the ones who need educated as they are constantly telling customers to use only hardwood which is fine if you've got it .

[bobh]

Hope you're right bob, I've just had 25t of larch delivered, read somewhere it's the hardest of the softwoods but dries fairly quick. Will find out over the coming months I suppose.

 

Not burnt any of that load that I got delivered yet, I guess you got yours from the same place as me.

Just got to get it split and hauled now

[Mull]

Not burnt any of that load that I got delivered yet, I guess you got yours from the same place as me.

Just got to get it split and hauled now

 

 

Not burned any of it either, good to have a decent pile sitting there though, you got a splitter or is it still the x27?