Ads for free firewood

Look before you leap.

Kentucky and several neighboring states have many downed trees at present, due to Hurricane Ike which passed through last fall and the terrible ice storm we suffered last winter. I've noticed ads in the newspaper that say, "Free firewood, you cut and haul." People want some free help with cleaning up fallen trees.

Since firewoods are not equal in fuel value, it would be a good idea to identify the species of the fallen tree before promising to cut it up and haul it away. (And don't be surprised if the property owner doesn't know or is mistaken about the type of tree.)

Remember that firewood should always be burned in the area where it's cut to prevent the spread of diseases and pests. In particular, there are laws and quarantines for ash firewood so be sure you stay within the law.

The very best firewoods

Six excellent woods for heat

Here's a list of six of the best firewoods. (The number in parenthesis is millions of BTUs produced by a cord of this wood under optimal conditions.)

• Sugar maple (25.0)
• Red oak (25.3)
• White oak (27.0)
• Black locust (28.1)
• Shagbark hickory (29.1)
• Osage orange (30.7)

(Source: Wood Fuel for Heating, a University of Missouri extension service publication)

A few years ago, I did a lot of research on wood stoves as we prepared to buy a new one. In one online forum, I read an interchange between a New Englander and a Midwesterner. The Midwesterner wondered whether a certain brand of wood stove would withstand the hot fires he liked to made with hedge (Osage orange) firewood.

The New Englander replied that he made hot white oak fires all the time in his wood stove of that brand. He said with considerable scorn that he doubted if hedge could burn as hot as the fine white oak of the East Coast. He should have done a little research because, according to the University of Missouri publication linked above, he was mistaken.

Strong boughs of the pignut hickory tree

Splitting hickory firewood

My husband has been cutting up a hickory tree for firewood. The tree was uprooted by Hurricane Isaac when it ripped through Kentucky in September of 2008. I've identified the tree as a pignut hickory based on its bark and nuts and the location in which it grew, though I didn't ever get to see the tree's leaves.

We have a mid-sized Huskee hydraulic log splitter that exerts 22 tons of pressure, and usually, it does a great job of changing a slice of tree trunk into firewood-size pieces of wood.

The photo at right shows the results of applying the log splitter's force to a slice of the hickory tree that had a big knot -- that is, a big branch growing out of it. An outer section of four or five inches (or more) split away, but the branch remained firmly attached to the log.

That's why you don't often see a hickory tree with a limb that has broken off and torn the bark off the trunk of the tree. Their branches are attached extremely well.

I noticed also that these branches are attached at a right angle to the trunk they came from -- wider angles ("crotches") are less likely to split off. Narrow crotches can be correctively pruned out sometimes, but some trees are just built strong by nature. Hickory trees fall in that category -- I'm sure this tree never received any corrective pruning.

Hickory firewood is some of the best. It burns bright and hot, and it makes coals that glow and produce heat for hours after the flames are gone. When the coals finally burn out, very little ash remains.

It's too bad that this tree came down in the storm, but as the saying goes, "It's an ill wind that blows no good." The fine hickory firewood will be much appreciated next winter.

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P.S. That's not hickory that the split pieces are leaning against. I think it's something Dennis brought home when the Boy Scouts were cleaning up an old cemetery.

Tiny insect is big problem for Louisville Slugger

Ash baseball bats threatened by emerald ash borer

The Louisville Slugger is a baseball bat that has been manufactured in Louisville, KY, since 1884. Though also available in aluminum and maple, the traditional Louisville Slugger is made of white ash -- and not just any white ash.

The process of making a Louisville Slugger begins with selecting the timber itself. Although maple is rapidly gaining in popularity among today’s pros, the majority of bats are made from white ash. However, not just any white ash can become a Louisville Slugger. In fact, the only ash up to Louisville Slugger standards grows along a 200-mile stretch of land on the New York-Pennsylvania border. The soil, rain, sun – everything is just right there. That’s where the best bats in the world, Louisville Slugger bats, come from.

Source: Slugger Magazine

As you might imagine, the Louisville Slugger Company is concerned about the emerald ash borer, an Asian insect that has been wreaking havoc among North America ash trees. The emerald ash borer has spread through parts of Canada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, llinois, Michigan, and Indiana. As of yet, the insect has not reached the area where the ash timber for Louisville Sluggers is produced.

Emerald ash borer tunnels under an ash tree's bark. Photo by National Park Service

The Louisville Slugger company is bracing itself for the possibility that the emerald ash borer will reach and destroy the ash forests that produce Slugger lumber. Company labs are conducting research on other woods for bats, especially beech.

In a press release about the Emerald Ash, the Louisville Slugger company urges the public to avoid transporting firewood. When firewood is moved out of the area where it was cut, the emerald ash borer may ride along, expanding its range far more rapidly than the insect could do without human assistance.

Only time can tell what will happen to America's ash trees. We certainly hope for a solution to the emerald ash borer problem, but you might want to buy an ash Louisville Slugger bat (link opens a PDF) while you still can.

Technorati tags: Louisville Slugger, emerald ash borer, white ash

Don't transport firewood.

Use firewood in the area where it was cut.

When you head for the lake or escape to the woods this summer, don't take firewood with you. And when you start home again, don't bring firewood back with you.

Forestry departments across the continent are begging campers and homeowners to avoid transporting firewood out of the area where it was cut. To help spread the word, the USDA Forestry Department has a poster that can be downloaded as a pdf file. (Thumbnail appears at right.)

Transporting firewood is a perfect way to carry tree diseases and pests to new places. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources points out, "Insect pests spread at a rate of about 0.5 to 2 miles per year on their own. When they are carried on firewood, their spread rate jumps to 55 miles per hour."

Here's a short list of some killer tree problems that are known to spread through firewood:

• Pine pitch canker
• Oak wilt
• Gypsy moth
• Sirex wood wasp
• Dutch elm disease
• Emerald ash borer
• Various other borers
• Sudden oak death
• Beech bark disease
• Asian longhorn beetle
• Various fungi and rots

Buy firewood that was grown as near as possible to the place where you will burn it, or better yet, look around for dry dead wood on the ground that you can burn. If you do buy firewood, don't buy more than you can burn, and be sure to burn all that you buy. And please help spread the message to others who aren't as well-informed as you are.

Comparison of the fuel value of firewoods

Wood burners agree that oak and hickory are great firewoods.

If you have a wood stove or fireplace, it's prudent to know what types of wood will produce the most heat per cord (or rick, or truck-load, or whatever unit by which you buy wood!)

A great chart is available at Firewood Ratings and Info. A short study of the chart reveals that oaks, hickory, white ash, and beech wood are some of the very best.

The Utah State Forestry also has an excellent firewood ratings chart with information about a somewhat different set of trees than would be found in my area (Kentucky). It gives high ratings to osage orange, pinon, honeylocust, and black locust, as well as oak and beech.

Compare those results with the following observations from about 130 years ago. It's interesting, but not surprising, that they liked oak, hickory, and white ash as firewoods. Beech didn't make their list, for some reason.

It is a great convenience to know the comparative value of different kinds of wood for fuel. Shellbark hickory is regarded as the highest standard of our forest trees, and calling that 100, other woods will compare with it for real value as fuel for house purposes as follows :

Shellbark Hickory, 100
Pignut Hickory, 95
White Oak, 84
White Ash, 77
Dogwood, 75
Scrub Oak, 73
White Hazel, 72
Apple Wood, 70
Red Oak, 67
White Beech, 65
Black Birch, 62
Yellow Oak, 60
Hard Maple, 59
White Elm, 58
Red Cedar, 56
Wild Cherry, 55
Yellow Pine, 54
Chestnut, 52
Yellow Poplar, 51
Butternut and White Birch, 43
White Pine, 30.

It is worth bearing in mind that in woods of the same species there is a great difference, according to the soil on which they grow. A tree that grows on a wet, low, rich ground will be less solid and, less durable for fuel, and therefore of less value than a tree of the same kind that grows on a dry and poor soil. To the ordinary purchaser oak is oak and pine is pine, but for home use, the tree grown on dry upland and standing apart from others, is worth a great deal more.

Source: Manufacturer and Builder, January 1878. Volume 10, Issue 1, page 19.