I prefer big red oaks. If we lose one of the big ones to ice or wind and I can cut it when it’s green it splits easy and dries nicely stacked out over the spring and summer.
We have a black locust grove that’s a couple acres and I cut quite a bit of that. Best cut green, split and stacked out, easier to avoid rotten ones that way. I have about 3 ricks stacked on the porch right now that we’re feeding the stove with.
Been cutting a lot of ash lately as we lost a bunch last winter. They split easy and burn nice but produce a lot of ash, have to muck the stove out every other day.
Black walnut burns hot and long if you mix it with something else. Hard to get started by itself. I don’t cut a ton of it but did cut up a little last weekend.
Bodark I mostly stay away from. Burned the firebox out of a potbelly in high school burning scraps from building self bows. Not hard to get your stove too hot with it if you’re not careful.
Slick elm is easy to cut and handle, bark slides right off a dead tree when it’s ready to burn. Basically unsplitable without hydraulics. Dad burns it in his fireplace since he can fit big rounds. Makes a pretty fire with long orange flames.
Red elm is much better than slick elm but less common. It’s a harder wood and splittable. Me and dad are on a constant scout in old hedgerows and creek bottoms for dead standing red elms.
