This distinction can be helpful because most other firewood trees do have leaves. You can identify Oak firewood very easily using the end grain of the wood. Take a look at the end grain of your piece of firewood. You should be able to see the normal annual rings that indicate how old the tree was. In addition to the rings, Oak has clearly visible lines that run perpendicular to the rings, going straight outward from the center of the wood.
The other type of firewood where you can see the rays is Sycamore, but the lines are much smaller and closer together. If you happen to have a leaf on hand, you can also identify Oak using the leaves. For a leaf to be alternate, means that they grow on branches in an alternating pattern e. For a leaf to be simple, means that each leaf contains only one leaf simple and is not a series of leaves stuck together compound. Sycamore has a very distinctive bark that is easy to identify as firewood or when looking at a tree.
The easiest way to pick them out from a group of other leaves, is their large size and shape. Sycamore and Oak are the only 2 species of firewood that have rays that can be seen with the naked eye. If you missed it in the Oak section above, rays are lines that run from the center of the wood to the outside. In fact, you may not even be able to see them clearly from the photo above.
Elm and Oak are probably the only types of wood that I would recommend using the end grain as your first method for identification. The reason for using the end grain to identify Elm is that it has a characteristic that no other type of firewood has: the annual rings are wavy. For most types of wood, the lines of the annual rings are relatively uniform. See the photo above to see what I mean. Below is an image of a few Elm leaves.
As you can see in the photo, the edges of the leaves also look serrated. Plus, the bottom of the leaves may feel fuzzy, almost like a peach. Most firewood has a light brown color, but Cherry has a light red color. There are other types of firewood with some red color in the wood, like Mulberry.
However, 9 times out of 10, you should be able to identify Cherry firewood by the color alone. Mulberry is another species of firewood that is easiest to identify using color. Learn which plants thrive in your Hardiness Zone with our new interactive map! Choosing the right firewood is essential to having good fires and keeping a fireplace in good operating condition. Some woods, like pines, have high levels of resins that produce creosote when burned.
Creosote can adhere to chimneys and build up over time to dangerous levels, which can cause fires because creosote is very flammable. Hardwoods, like oak and hard maple, are the best firewood. Some woods, like willow and sycamore, have high-moisture contents and dry to burn almost like paper. Check a firewood guide before splitting or buying wood for firewood. Once firewood has been split, it's challenging to tell the woods apart. The truth is that all wood creates creosote.
Hardwoods, like Oak, burn slower and lower, so the smoke lingers longer inside the chimney, creating more opportunity for creosote build up.
You can reduce the amount of creosote by properly seasoning your firewood. Be sure to clean your chimney at least once a year to prevent chimney fires. You can sweep your chimney yourself or hire a professional. Oak is used in making furniture like tables, chairs, cabinets, and bookcases. Many houses have wood flooring that is made of Oak. There are many different firewood species to choose from.
However, not all of the options will be available to you since some trees only grow in certain parts of the country. In my opinion, Oak is a great choice of firewood because it burns hot and long. Oak hardwood is the best for firewood. Oakwood has been used as a hardwood timber for thousands of years. This is the mainstream firewood favorite for wood stoves, and probably one of the all-around best logs for a wood-burning stove. Thanks kamil siwarga wood ltd provide a variety of firewoods.
Why choose that? Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. We are the Johnsons and we are building our off-grid homestead in North Idaho from scratch.
Learn more. This site is owned and operated by Martin and Julie Johnson. Down To Earth Homesteaders is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. It's also more fuel-efficient, but it is heavier than my so I use the more often.
I know Stihl is a bit more expensive than other chainsaws, but I have never had any issues - I've left the saws out in the rain, cut in the middle of winter, dropped them, ran them out of bar oil, etc. Hi Farmer Rachel: The poplar can be difficult to split, we get lots of hunks and chunks, too.
We have never used a log splitter mostly because of the gasoline required. And like you say, when you split wood you are warmed twice!
I bought myself a battery-powered chainsaw to save on gas and fumes, also because it is much lighter than my husband's Stihl. I wanted to use it just for cutting the smaller kindling. It doesn't work that well, sorry to say. The battery packs are expensive and they only last a max of 45 minutes, plus the teeth are so widely spaced it kind of chews rather than cuts when it gets down to the last 15 minutes or so.
And if I'm trying to cut up hardwoods, I get really frustrated! It works pretty well on sassafras though. Maybe this year I'll just buy a smaller, lightweight gas-powered chainsaw for me! What chainsaw do you use? LillyGrillzit - Thanks so much for your comment and following! I'm really glad you enjoyed the article and found it useful. I remember when I didn't know one type of tree from another, so it's nice to be able to share what I know with people now, and even nicer to find people who appreciate it.
Take care. This Hub is a keeper, I saved it as a favorite, as it is an excellent source of knowledge regarding firewood, and using the appropriate wood for the needs. Thank you for sharing your unique knowledge. Grandmapearl - Thanks so much for your comments and votes! I've been thinking about adding a section about maple to this article, considering a few people have commented about it. I don't personally use a lot of maple because I have so much oak available, but I do know it's not such a bad wood for heating.
We have so much silver maple here and it can be very tricky so split. Do you use a log splitter to split poplar? We have a lot of tulip poplar and it doesn't split so much as just kind of chunk and break away I know what you mean about the aroma of cherry as well. We had a lot of dead trees in the orchard here when we first arrived - cherry, apple, pear. It was the best wood for kindling and everything else because it all smelled so wonderful. Have fun making wood and take care!
FarmerRachel, I really enjoyed this article. We burn wood and have access to almost 4 acres of woods behind our house. Dead-fallen is all we work with, and there's always a lot of it. Maple is my all-time favorite for the amount of heat, and I prefer maple for kindling. I also agree that sassafras makes good kindling and it is a breeze to cut. However, we have a lot of poplar, too. It really stinks when you split it, and it takes a long time to dry, but we use it in the spring and fall when you need to create heat, but not drive yourself out of the house!
Black cherry is my second favorite for the aroma, but maple reminds me of my grandmothers kitchen. They burned apple and maple in the large cook stove--it just smells like her house and that is a great comfort.
My husband and I spend a lot of time cutting, splitting and stacking wood in our solar dryer. We found the directions for making that in an old Popular Mechanics magazine.
It cuts the drying time down to 1 to 3 months depending upon the type of wood. Voted this wonderful article Up and Useful and Shared. Good Job! Now following. Hi Farmer Rachel, living in a tropical country, we don't need to heat our home. This was an interesting read as I learned many things this morning :D I never thought of chopping wood as an art but you changed my mind.
Congratulations on your Hubnuggets nomination. Cowboy Tom - Thanks for reading! It's cool that you used to live in MN, my father's family is from Finlayson a lot of them still live and farm there, actually. I have seen a lot of maple and pine out there. I guess I'm lucky to have so much oak in PA!
But we also have tons of poplar and pine, hickory, black walnut, and maple here too. It's interesting to see the types of wood you're working with. I'm originally from northern Minnesota, and our favorite woods for heating were ash, oak, maple, and if nothing else was available, pine and poplar.
And it certainly warms you twice in this heat! Brittle maple, sounds like maybe Silver Maple? Or maybe it's already seasoned up a bit? Well, it's about 90 here, and I got home from work, which involves sitting on my butt all day talking on the phone, and I went out and split a bunch of maple. It's really brittle, but twisty, so it sometimes just breaks apart, and sometimes takes lots of chopping.
Nice for bringing up a sweat. Like you said, firewood warms you twice! Thanks, Living Well! I'm really glad you enjoyed it. And ugh, chopping in the heat isn't the best. Have fun with your maple! I've got some scarlet oak and a bit of cherry waiting for a break in the heat, too :. I have a pile of Norway maple ready to split with my Fiskars when the weather isn't so danged hot. Hey there Tmbridgeland - Thanks for the vote and comment! I love elm, too. Unfortunately, I haven't had much opportunity to work with it, just a few logs here and there.
In fact, I tried to split some really twisty elm into fence rails - disaster, haha. Maybe I should include elm in a later hub. As for maple, I have a lot of red, silver, and sugar.
All maple seems to be unfriendly to me! I use a lot of soft maple. This a very light wood, and if dry burns fast and hot. It is easy to split if the grain is straight, but it is often twisted.
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