Yes, black walnut is 20 million BTU per cord, maybe 21 million depending on whose chart you use.
And red oak is about 24 million. White oak on most charts is about 26 million. Slight variances of course will occur on these charts.
So black walnut is not nearly as good as oak. And I burn a lot of oak.
On the other hand, this tree is just one mile from my house. Good point number one.
This tree can be driven right up to in my truck, Good Point number two. If I have access to a white oak, and it is 100 feet down a steep hillside, Forget It! Too much trouble.
Black walnut is easy to split and it looks funky and smells funky, I like to burn it. If I had easy access right now to some oak I would get it instead.
But I don't.
As for locust at 27 million, it is God's Gift to the wood stove guy. However, a blight 21 years ago killed all the locust up here and I have just about burned it all up.
So, up here in the NC mountains, those are my choices, oak, black walnut, and occasionally cherry. Love to burn cherry but it has about the same BTU as black walnut.
Not gonna burn poplar or white pine, got hundreds of those trees on my property, but low BTU.
I will use no wood with less BTU than black walnut but, all in all it is pretty good firewood. I can burn black walnut all day, and at 10 pm load the stove up with locust for the "all night burn."
