Wood, whats good to burn

[BenC]

Just thought I'd share this little guide that I've had knocking about for a few years. Cant remember where it was from, but can be very useful.

 

Alder: Poor heat output and short lasting. A low quality firewood. Produces nice charcoal that burn steady and is useful for homemade gunpowder.

 

Apple: Great fuel that bums slow and steady when dry, with little flame, sparking or spitting. It has a pleasing scent. It is easier to cut green. Great for cooking.

 

Ash: Considered one of the burning wood with steady flame and good heat output. It will bum when green, but not as well as when dry. Easily to saw and split.

 

Beech: Similar to ash, but only burns fair when green. If it has a fault, it may shoot embers out a long ways. It is easy to chop.

 

Birch: This has good heat output but burns quickly. The smell is also pleasant. It will burn unseasoned. Can cause gum deposits in chimney if used a lot. Rolled up pitch from bark makes a good firestarter and can be peeled from trees without damaging them.

 

Blackthorn: Burns slowly, with lots of heat and little smoke.

 

Cedar: This is a great wood that puts out a lot of lasting of heat. It produces a small flame, a nice scent, and lots of crackle and pop. Great splitting wood. Best when dry but small pieces can be burned unseasoned. Good for cooking.

 

Cherry: A slow burning wood with good heat output. Has a nice sent. Should be seasoned well. Slow to start.

 

Chestnut: A mediocre fuel that produces a small flame and weak heat output. It also shoots out ambers.

 

Douglas Fir: A poor fuel that produces little flame or heat.

 

Elder: A mediocre fuel that burns quickly without much heat output and tends to have thick acrid smoke. The Hag Goddess is know to reside in the Elder tree and burning it invites death. Probably best avoided.

 

Elm: A variable fuel (Dutch elm disease) with a high water content (140%) that may smoke violently and should be dried for two years for best results. You may need faster burning wood to get elm going. A large log set on the fire before bed will burn till morn. Splitting can be difficult and should be done early on.

 

Eucalyptus: A fast burning wood with a pleasant smell and no spitting. It is full of sap and oils when fresh and can start a chimney fire if burned unseasoned. The stringy wood fiber may be hard to split and one option is to slice it into rings and allow to season and self split. The gum from the tree produces a fresh medicinal smell on burned which may not be the best for cooking with.

 

Hawthorn: Good firewood. Burns hot and slow.

 

Hazel: An excellent fast burning fuel but tends to burn up a bit faster than most other hard woods. Allow to season.

 

Holly: A good firewood that will burn when green, but best if dried a year. It is fast burning with a bright flame but little heat.

 

Hornbeam: Burns almost as good as beech with a hot slow burning fire.

 

Horse Chestnut: A low quality firewood with a good flame and heating power but spits a lot.

 

Laburnum: Completely poisonous tree with acrid smoke that taints food and is best never used.

 

Larch: Crackly, scented, and fairly good for heat. It needs to be seasoned well and forms an oily soot in chimneys.

 

Laurel: Produces a brilliant flame.

 

Lime: A poor quality fuel with dull flame. Good for carving

 

Maple: A good firewood.

 

Oak: Oak has a sparse flame and the smoke is acrid if not seasoned for two years. Dry old oak is excellent for heat, burning slowly and steadily until whole log collapses into cigar-like ash.

 

Pear: Burns with good heat, good scent and no spitting. Needs to be seasoned well.

 

Pine: Bums with a splendid flame, but apt to spit. Needs to be seasoned well and is another oily soot in chimney wood. Smells great and its resinous wood makes great kindling.

 

Plane: Burns pleasantly, but is apt to throw sparks if very dry.

 

Plum: Wood provides good heat with a nice aromatic sent.

 

Poplar: A terrible fuel that doesn't burn well and produces a black choking smoke even when seasoned.

 

Rowan: A good firewood that burns hot and slow.

 

Rhododendron: Old thick and tough stems burn well.

 

Robinia (Acacia): Burns slowly, with good heat, but with acrid smoke.

 

Spruce: A poor firewood that burns too quickly and with too many sparks.

 

Sycamore: Burns with a good flame, with moderate heat. Useless green.

 

Sweet Chestnut: Burns when seasoned but tends to spits continuously and excessively.

 

Thorn: One of the best firewood. Burns slowly, with great heat and little smoke.

 

Walnut: Low to good value to burning. It a nice aromatic scent.

 

Wellingtonia: Poor for use as a firewood.

 

Willow: A poor fire wood that must be dry to use. Even when seasoned, it burns slowly, with little flame. Apt to spark.

 

Yew: This burns slowly, with fierce heat. The scent is pleasant. Another carving favorite.

[dor]

Was just about to post that list as I thought from the thread header it was a question!

[Mac of Cygnet]

This has appeared a few times in various forms, and once again, this applies to OPEN FIRES (and even then is not accurate). In a woodburning stove, any dry wood will burn fine. I've burned over 30 of them with good results.

 

Edited to point out that yew is just as poisonous as the highlighted laburnum. But slightly I came across this rather creepy piece about yew. Apparently it's a sort of anti-zombie wood:

 

The roots of the yew are very fine and will grow through the eyes of the dead to prevent them seeing their way back to the world of the living.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Mac of Cygnet

[system 4-50]

OK. Now how do I tell what type of wood this lump is?

[Jerra]

OK. Now how do I tell what type of wood this lump is?

Burn it and compare the result to the list above!

 

My Dad used to call Larch Devil Wood - "Sit at the back of the room and beat the sparks back with a poker".

[Neil2]

Useful and mostly accurate information. As Mac says on a stove you can burn pretty much anything but Beech is my favourite. It gives good output, it's easy to split and doesn't take years to dry. The sparking is the only drawback.

 

Least fave is eucalyptus - I still have several large logs which I can't find a use for as they are too big for the stoves and completely impossible to split.

[Stilllearning]

As far as I know the only poisonous part of the Yew tree is the seed in the fruit, the red flesh is delicious.

Eating a Yew seed "may result in sudden death" to quote from a British Pharmacological Society paper I was shown back in the 80s, after eating some of the flesh.

[Neil2]

As far as I know the only poisonous part of the Yew tree is the seed in the fruit, the red flesh is delicious.

Eating a Yew seed "may result in sudden death" to quote from a British Pharmacological Society paper I was shown back in the 80s, after eating some of the flesh.

I'm really disappointed, there was a thread on wood boats a while back that released some good tree/wood puns but not a one so far.

 

This is surely a case of "Yew'll be sorry..."

 

I'll see myself out.

[Jerra]

As far as I know the only poisonous part of the Yew tree is the seed in the fruit, the red flesh is delicious.

Eating a Yew seed "may result in sudden death" to quote from a British Pharmacological Society paper I was shown back in the 80s, after eating some of the flesh.

I think you will find all parts of the Yew except the red part of the berry are poisonous. Certainly they are to domestic livestock

[mattlad]

I think you will find all parts of the Yew except the red part of the berry are poisonous. Certainly they are to domestic livestock

According to Wikipedia most parts of the yew tree are toxic.

[tree monkey]

I think you will find all parts of the Yew except the red part of the berry are poisonous. Certainly they are to domestic livestock

This is correct, the compound is used as a cancer drug

[ackdaw]

which is why you find most yew trees out in the wild are usually in church yards as they were walled off to stop the livestock getting in , though ive seen sevel in large house gardens estates and parks

to make a yew bow you need to quarter the wood and leave to air dry for 3 to 5 years , bring on the french , nice interesting informative post

[tree monkey]

which is why you find most yew trees out in the wild are usually in church yards as they were walled off to stop the livestock getting in , though ive seen sevel in large house gardens estates and parks

to make a yew bow you need to quarter the wood and leave to air dry for 3 to 5 years , bring on the french , nice interesting informative post

aparantly the yew bow thing was a bit of a myth, although yew did make a fine bow, most were Ash due the the shortage of yew, i could be wrong of course LOL

[Stilllearning]

According to Wikipedia most parts of the yew tree are toxic.

Ah yes, that's right, and why I only eat the berry flesh, I remember now!On the subject of bows, I seem to remember being told that English archers used Portuguese bows as there wasn't enough English yew.

Then again, Kingley Vale in West Sussex is one of the largest Yew Forests in western Europe.

Just some random thoughts on a Monday morning!

[lampini]

I remembered writing this out as a calligraphy exercise many moons ago...

LOGS TO BURN

Logs to burn, logs to burn,
Logs to save the coal a turn
Here's a word to make you wise,
When you hear the woodman's cries.
Never heed his usual tale,
That he has good logs for sale,
But read these lines and really learn,
the proper kind of logs to burn.

OAK logs will warm you well,
If they're old and dry.
LARCH logs of pine wood smell,
But the sparks will fly.
BEECH logs for Christmas time,
YEW logs heat well.
SCOTCH logs it is a crime,
For anyone to sell.

BIRCH logs will burn too fast,
CHESTNUT scarce at all
HAWTHORN logs are good to last,
If you cut them in the fall
HOLLY logs will burn like wax
You should burn them green
ELM logs like smouldering flax
No flame to be seen

PEAR logs and APPLE logs,
they will scent your room.
CHERRY logs across the dogs,
Smell like flowers in bloom
But ASH logs, all smooth and grey,
burn them green or old;
Buy up all that come your way,
They're worth their weight in gold.

[SamKingfisher]

As mac says, all woods when properly dry have a very similar calorific value per gram.

 

Ash has a good rep as it is low moisture even when green. Hawthorn a good name as it is dense.

[David Schweizer]

Ideally the only wood you should burn is either that which is grown specifically for that purpose, or wood that cannot be used usefully to make things. Far too much decent lumber is burnt these days beacause the owners cannot be bothered to find a craftsman who could use it. When I had to fell a diseased Almond tree, the trunk went to a local wood turner, as did the trunk of an Ash which had to be removed because it was outgrowing its space,

 

I was recently in a small works in Sheffield where they use off cuts of hardwoods from the furniture trade, to make handles for Chisels, Screwdrivers, small saws etc. which I thought was a very imaginative way to dispose of what would otherwise be considered waste material.

[ackdaw]

aparantly the yew bow thing was a bit of a myth, although yew did make a fine bow, most were Ash due the the shortage of yew, i could be wrong of course LOL

i think amazingly enough we used to import yew and maybe the yew shafts , even in the middle agers , the yew was the prefered wood as it has a hard and soft section the red heart wood i think being on the inside of the bow , ones has compresive strength the otheir you need someone technical , the pull strength of these bows were massive and the archers arms were often popeye shape , i not sure about ash being good enough for a ( battle bow ) ? but the mary rose when pulled the sea she was full off yew wood shafts for bow making , though boews can be made of lots of differant woods and compounds etc .

its a interesting subject , but youve given me something to go look at

their is a archery club that just shoots the yew bow and a couple books wrtitten just on the yew long bow , amazing enough i was that miffed when i viseted nottinngham castle and they had a robin hood section but the display had a recurve bow on display .

i dragged the nearest official to it and asked him what this insult was .

he said due to the then popular tv show having a historically correct bow would confuse the kids as they all thought robin hood usaid that type of bow .

their was a fine white powder on the floor due to me grinding my teeth and i had to leave the display area or turn the air blue , york armoury has it right fantastic place and you can go in the researchers are in the libary and you can look at the books or ask them questions their delighted to recive them in person or written and no tv show will convince them otheirwise

just looked the ash does make what they call a big bow 110-115 draw weight , thats fairly good not sure about the middle age long bow but i guess its a distinct possibility i think the royal armory is at leeds not york but worth a viet

Edited December 2, 2013 by ackdaw

[ackdaw]

With heat-treating you can get a self-ash bow up to about 140lb @ 32" However, they tend to take a lot of set very quickly and lose a lot of draw-weight; and don't tend to last very long (a couple of dozen arrows seems to be typical)

It's very difficult to find good elm these days. Occasionally, you find a stave of witch-elm, which can make a decent, lower-weight bow.

Performance of these bows is considerably less than a comparable draw-weight yew self-bow.

There was a reason why 'meane wood' bows were never very popular in medieval England!

 

Due to years of playing tactical war games they tend to be stickers for detail lol and constanly try and get a edge which is why I dont think a 88mm and a 8.8cm cannon are the same

but ive laylaid the topic of burning wood whilst attempting to insult the old enemy the french

[Mac of Cygnet]

As mac says, all woods when properly dry have a very similar calorific value per gram.

 

Ash has a good rep as it is low moisture even when green. Hawthorn a good name as it is dense.

 

Ahem! I said nothing of the kind, and have no idea if that is true - it would depend on the cellulose, lignin and mineral content of the woods, and the bark thickness, if present. Ash certainly has the reputation of burning even when green, but I avoid doing it when possible. After one or two nasty skin punctures, I leave hawthorns, even dead, dry ones, well alone.

[tree monkey]

i think amazingly enough we used to import yew and maybe the yew shafts , even in the middle agers , the yew was the prefered wood as it has a hard and soft section the red heart wood i think being on the inside of the bow , ones has compresive strength the otheir you need someone technical , the pull strength of these bows were massive and the archers arms were often popeye shape , i not sure about ash being good enough for a ( battle bow ) ? but the mary rose when pulled the sea she was full off yew wood shafts for bow making , though boews can be made of lots of differant woods and compounds etc .

its a interesting subject , but youve given me something to go look at

their is a archery club that just shoots the yew bow and a couple books wrtitten just on the yew long bow , amazing enough i was that miffed when i viseted nottinngham castle and they had a robin hood section but the display had a recurve bow on display .

i dragged the nearest official to it and asked him what this insult was .

he said due to the then popular tv show having a historically correct bow would confuse the kids as they all thought robin hood usaid that type of bow .

their was a fine white powder on the floor due to me grinding my teeth and i had to leave the display area or turn the air blue , york armoury has it right fantastic place and you can go in the researchers are in the libary and you can look at the books or ask them questions their delighted to recive them in person or written and no tv show will convince them otheirwise

just looked the ash does make what they call a big bow 110-115 draw weight , thats fairly good not sure about the middle age long bow but i guess its a distinct possibility i think the royal armory is at leeds not york but worth a viet

did a bit of digging and it seems we almost ran Europe dry of Yew, in our quest for staves for bows, so it seems i may have been wrong about the myth thing, although other woods will make a longbow, yew was the favored.

 

i did spot a comment about yew trees and church's how they were likely planted to try and provide a long term supply for staves, although how a few specimens in church yard could of helped i am unsure,

 

i am in no way an expert in this but i have used a couple of long bows, not made of Yew, and after half an hour my arms were shaking and i had a blood blister from elbow to wrist, fun though

[mark99]

 

 

i did spot a comment about yew trees and church's how they were likely planted to try and provide a long term supply for staves, although how a few specimens in church yard could of helped i am unsure,

 

 

 

 

 

Important in Paganism which influenced some Christianity. There are loads of ancient yews nr Box Hill Surrey. Also a huge grove of them called Druids Grove.

Edited December 2, 2013 by mark99

[jodansgang]

The BEST wood to burn is of course free wood and who gives a toss how it burns just as long as it stops you freezing your nuts off your own branches. As for making bows, I've always found ribbon to be the best material to use. Just saying.

[ackdaw]

ribbon bows , very good , had me a tad perplexed ,lol took me a while for that to sink in ops not a word one should use on a boat form

Edited December 2, 2013 by ackdaw

[SamKingfisher]

 

Ahem! I said nothing of the kind, and have no idea if that is true - it would depen the cellulose, lignin and mineral content of the woods, and the bark thickness, if present. Ash certainly has the reputation of burning even when green, but I avoid doing it when possible. After one or two nasty skin punctures, I leave hawthorns, even dead, dry ones, well alone.

Aye I was being lazy there sorry. But I did research this on - I think - the forestry commission website, and the graph that plotted calorific value per gram against type of dry wood was almost flat.