The BTU chart is interesting, I didn’t know such existed though I don’t know why it wouldn’t.
I have a fire in the stove beside me as we speak and it’s loaded with black locust. We have a grove on the farm that’s probably 2 acres of telephone pole size trees. They rarely get bigger than that and are odd to cut. They may have one live limb 20’ up that’s big as your wrist, the rest of the tree will be shedding all the bark and dead. Saw it down and it’ll have a live strip about 2” wide on one side going to that limb. The rest of the tree may be dry and hard as a ball bat or turned to styrofoam and worthless. Only way to find out is to cut it up, sometimes half will be rotted and half will be good, or all one way or the other. I like cutting them because there’s very little limbing just cut to length and load it up.
I burn some pecan, it’s decent wood but goes to sawdust in a year if left with the bark on. Some kind of bug or larvae is either in them or gets in them. It’s generally not too bad to split, I’ll take the trunks to split and dad takes the smaller stuff for his fireplace.
We burn some walnut, lots of them between coffee can and washtub diameter growing on the creek. I like burning it but ours are generally twisted and springy, hard work with the maul.
Dad, Grandad, and one uncle who all have fireplaces and don’t split their wood prefer red elm. The bark slides right off so you don’t have that in the yard or on the patio. And they make a pretty fire with big dancing flames but still burn for a good while. What we call a slick elm is second place for them, same kind of bark and fire but not as hot or long lasting. A red elm that dies, sheds its bark, and leans up against another tree will last an eternity without rotting. The old weathered mossy looking ones are dad’s favorite, they’re hard as a stone and a beautiful red color.
My uncle and I burn stoves and we share the big red oaks that come down. Either erosion on the creek bank, wind, or ice usually gets one or two a year. Some of them are big enough to make a year’s worth of wood for us with our short winters. They stink like piss in pickle juice when green but split so easily. The smaller limbs the fireplace guys cut to their length and take. With all of us burning no good hardwood goes to waste out on the place.
