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Hey, so what happens if you've dried your wood for lets say 6 months and accidently you forgot to put it under cover and it is exposed to a heavy nights rain.. does this mean the rain water had penetrated the wood deeply and you basically would have to restart the 6 months process all over? I've heard in the past that some people purposefully spray the wood with water in summer months as that moisture then helps draw out the moisture sitting deep within the wood? These would be my to main questions on seasoning your wood. Oh and a thirst question- I understand that smaller wood pieces burn easily and probably faster and therefore probably burning hotter. But is it not more efficient when you use bigger pieces lets say a log split in have as apposed to a log split into 4 quarters?
Thank you so much! I am in VA and I have some sugar maples on the property. I would love to do my own syrup but couldn’t get definitive details on how possible it would be with my temps and a small amount of trees. This gives me some hope and I am so excited to try this next year!
I don't see a lot of the great fragrance coming from the mentioned trees from the Northeast us. Some of those smell nice by themselves, but burning them does not bring out all these wonderful fragrances that everyone is mentioning here. From what I can tell though, I've never seen hickory or pecan. The only one I really appreciate is yellow Birch and that one is fantastic when it's burning but has no fragrance when it's split. Unless you have some branches around that that can sometimes smell like Wintergreen if they're small branches.
Black cherry smells the best just after it's been split and stacked it gives off a wonderful fragrance, but I've never had a fragrance from black cherry while it's burning. The only really outstanding fragrance I find is from Yellow Birch. Sometimes the hemlock can smell pretty good as well.
When we built our village house there were four 55-year-old poplars right on the borderline with the next property so they had to go. The wood lasted us three years but I hated it. You had to visit the furnace every twenty minutes because it burned so fast. The only good thing about it (apart from being free) was that it burned hot so in summer we could heat water for showers in half an hour. For me, alder and birch are great for the furnace, and apple for the fireplace. I tried to split some elm with an axe yesterday, but I don't want to talk about it!
Maybe there are different types of elm with different qualities as fire wood. I had a big oak that toppled over and knocked down a section of my elm tree during a Tornado in MS in Mid April 2024. I just cut and split the elm yesterday. The trunk was about 18 inches in diameter. I used the same splitter (30ton, upright) as what I used for the massive Oak rounds. It split super easily and straight. All the bark popped off every piece. I have burned elm before, but never tried to split it because my Dad (who is a retired forester) always told me Elm was too hard to split. So, I was pleasantly surprised. The elm I have burned before was just fine in my big fireplace and didn't stink.
Thank you from those of us like myself that go find free firewood. I use mine for my smoker and my wife is allergic to pecan and walnut so I avoid them like the plague. I also try to avoid anything like birch, elm, or pine since they taste terrible on smokers. This gave me the keys to know what im looking at. Going to go get some free cherry wood this afternoon.
My go to woods are based off of the prevalence in the area. My main wood is black walnut, with maple coming in a distant second, oak not far behind that and a little bit of locust, cherry and whatever ash is remaining thrown in. I’m not afraid to throw some spruce into the stack because they are everywhere too, softwood sap bleh bleh bleh creosote yeah yeah whatever that’s not true. I really wish poplar and willow hd some heat output cuz every single yard in my neighborhood has at least 20, they work for kindling but there is almost no heat output.
by accident i found it cleaned my silverware beautifully without scrubbing hard, was astonished how spoons forks ect would shine after a light rub down of ash
Do other hickory trees also have that shaggy bark? Or is it just the shagbark hickory? Occasionally I come across a hickory with leaves that are a bit smaller, and from guide, I thought maybe they were pignut hickories, but with the shaggy bark. I also thought maybe they were just shagbarks with smaller leaves for some reason. Any help would be appreciated!
I got some Pine once here in Ohio it smells so good I smelled it the little neighborhood I live in. I wanted to again I'll just mix it with other wood .
One comment here says aspen is the oldest living tree but that is incorrect. They are the largest living single organism and the oldest living trees are bristlecone pines.
I live in southern Colorado and have used wood as a heat source all my life. Pine, white fir, juniper, aspen and pinion along with some cotton wood are woods I use. I don't cut and use much oak because it is not large here. My favorite is pinion because it is heavy or dense and produces a lot of heat without ever popping. Pound for pound aspen is as heat intense as pinion but of course weights much less so a cord of aspen only weights maybe one half as much a pinion. I use aspen to clean the flu. If you take a cold day and burn a hearty aspen fire it will burn the fouling from the chimney especially on a wood cook stove. In most cases aspen it used to make match sticks and as kindling it will light a fire without any other fire started. Aspen also works well as a wood used in smoking meats. I do not and never have cut living trees to use a firewood. When I worked for the forest service aspens were considered the weeds of the forest.
wow, you are associating BTUs the Temperature?? you have not leaned anything about fire. PINE BURNS HOTTER than hardwoods! it burns quicker but it burns hotter. BTUs are potential energy. hardwoods burn slower but are not as hot as pine. i can believe you didn’t catch that from the papers you supposedly read.
Hello BB. First time viewer and very grateful for this video. I recently got "switched on" to identifying Trees and Plants in my neighborhood and this video has been a great tool in how to better identify trees on sight. I do have an app that I like, but having someone point out the nuances is priceless. Many thanks!
Odd you said it is quite difficult to split. I find it to be one of the easiest splitting in my area (northern Italy). My hardest to split are hands down red sycamore and elm. Anyway, guys that know firewood know locust is one of the best. I like your videos!
I know this is 3 yrs old, but I did a small scale sap boiler out of a rocket stove made from bricks, a 6 gallon pot and tapped 2 huge trees, my 6 gallon pot makes 1 pint and takes about 6 to 7 hours to cook down. It was my first time and I was very successfull. My stove was about a foot to 14 inches high , 2 ft long and about a foot wide, Took a peice of portable dog fence for a rack and my pot. Before it turned into syrup, I would strain it and bring it into the house in a smaller pot to finish, and goes quick when getting close. I made that mistake the first time, but it made delicious candy. I am hooked and on my 5th batch. which works out great seeing my only 2 huge trees which i have 3 taps on each and 1 more smaller tree with 2 taps. I found that the sap cant sit for more than 2 days, it gets real cloudy, but I did boil cloudy sap and tasted fine. When i drank the cloudy old sap, it did make me feel like throwing up for 5 minutes but was fine after that. Drinking raw sap is extremely good for you. I am definetly hooked, thanks for the great info, cuz Im finding it difficult to locate more trees, they all look alike to me