Firewood

[heyttown]

I have the opportunity to get free fire wood,to burn...Being I live in the city,wood is tougher to come by without buying it...<br /><br />The wood is from a box elder tree, and also a willow tree.<br /><br />Im not very knowledgable about firewood,and such but was wondering if it was worth going to get and chop up.<br /><br />Now if it was oak,or cherry or another hardwood,it would be obvious but Im not sure if it would be worth my trouble.....<br />Any thoughts?

 

[JB]

Re: Firewood

Not sure about box elder, but willow burns like paper.. . .fast and cool.

 

[Pony]

Re: Firewood

What JB said......<br /><br />Even if it does burn fast and cool it might not be the worst thing in the world........<br /><br />I keep a stock of faster burning wood laying around all the time. I use it usually to get the fire started, get it going again if walk out of the room to eat dinner or something and we have to close the glass, or use it in the outside fire pit so as not to "waste" good wood.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Firewood

heyttown, the warmest you will get from those to types of wood is during the cutting and spliting

 

[heycods]

Re: Firewood

willow is going to stink burning, I have a box elder in my yard but I have never trimed enough to burn. I would think its harder than the willow.

 

[Paul Moir]

Re: Firewood

Lol, I'm with JB on that one. A big limb of a willow tree at my sister's fell apart last winter so I chunked it up for her. The heft of them felt about right for burning so we tried burning them. They burned long, but talk about cool! <br /><br />This year I picked one up and almost fell over - it was as light as a matchstick and burned about as fast. Those things must be 99% water and 1% fiber. They seem to burn clean though. And pretty easy to split.

 

[Bondo]

Re: Firewood

Box Elder is a Weed,.... Not a Tree............ <br /><br />Cut it up,+ Stack it,..... You'll have a Rash from the sap,+ If you leave the Woodpile for a year,......<br />It'll grow it's own Roots......Every block of wood has the potential to be Another Tree........<br /><br />It burns slightly better, longer,+ hotter than the Willow though.......

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Firewood

I'll only burn willow if it is the last resort. I've cut it up in chunks, and like Bonda said, each one will start a growth. Splitting it and stacking it so it dries out is the only way of killing it.<br /><br />I've burned elder too, not as hot like you get with hardwood.<br /><br />If your going to buy wood, make sure you get hardwood. It is worth the money in the long run.

 

[BoatBuoy]

Re: Firewood

Boxelder and willow both are lower in BTU content than most other woods. Search on wood btu.

 

[Ron G]

Re: Firewood

I was thinking klike bondo,i'm pretty sure the willow will start its on roots too and sprout.

 

[heyttown]

Re: Firewood

Thanks for all the great replies.<br /><br />It was offered to me,of course I have to haul it home split it and such, but Im going to save my time for more hardwood.<br /><br />Thanks

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Firewood

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm <br /><br />The almost definitive guide to heating with wood, including charactristics for different wood types (willow didn't even make the list, probably cause it's so high in moisture content).<br /><br />One thing that it doesn't mention that I'm curious about:<br /><br />Around here, almost all wood is sold not by the cord (or variation thereof), but by a full size pickup truck bed. Anyone know how this would relate to a cord? (I think it's safe to assume the wood is just thrown into the truck bed randomly rather than stacked, which I suspect would reduce the amount fairly significantly.) <br /><br />My very rough guess would be a pickup truck bed may be equivalent to around 1/3 cord?

 

[lakelivin]

Re: Firewood

Bump to see if anyone knows approximately what proportion of a cord a randomly loaded (not stacked) full size pickup bed load of wood would be.