Heating With Wood – Cutting Your Own Firewood

November 15, 2009 | Posted by Mark Z

We’ve talked about buying or scrounging firewood to heat your home. Now let’s consider cutting your own wood.

My family’s situation is extremely rare: we have our own heavily forested land. This is ideal for frugal wood heat.

As with purchasing wood, targeting the best available firewood is important to maximize your time. Standing dead is the best, as it has already begun the seasoning process before you begin cutting. Fallen dead is better when it’s not laying on the ground, and is safer to cut than standing dead, as tree felling is dangerous. Avoid rotten wood if possible. It will burn, but not very well. Wood cutting time and energy is best spent on sound wood.

If you have the choice, cut the hardwoods before the softwoods. Not only will hardwood provide more and cleaner heat, but it often takes longer to cure properly than softwood. It’s best not to even think about burning hardwood until it has seasoned at least a year. Two years is better.

Opinions vary on the burning quality of various woods. Wood rating charts can be found on the Internet or in books on wood stoves. In addition to how well different types of wood burn, other factors should be considered, such as how likely it is to give off sparks, and how easily it splits.

In our part of Southeast Alaska, the forests are overwhelmingly hemlock and spruce. We have a scattering of cedar, lots of birch, willow and cottonwood, and alder around the fringes.

Birch is our first choice for firewood. It grows very fast, and very tall, but then it dies within a short time. It’s prone to rot, because the bark is so watertight it holds in moisture. Since we harvest only dead trees, we watch the birches carefully, so we can fell them as soon as they’re dead. This is tricky, since a tree with a dead stump can leaf out for years afterward.

We save alder for smoking fish. Some people burn willow and cottonwood, but in my experience these trees don’t create enough heat to make cutting them worthwhile.

Hemlock is our second choice. It seems to burn better and hotter than spruce. It’s also easier to handle, as it’s less resinous, and hemlock needles aren’t sharp.

We have access to a lot of driftwood, but we don’t use it in our stoves. The salts absorbed by driftwood, when burned, eat metal quickly, especially if burned in a cast iron stove. We use driftwood for beach or other outdoor fires.

If you’re just getting started heating with wood, even if you own forested land, consider buying a winter’s worth of wood anyway. Some seasoned cords will get you started while you build up wood for future years by cutting and seasoning your own.

Next in this series, we’ll look at stacking firewood to dry in rain country.

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Mark Zeiger is a regular contributor to The Self Reliance Exchange. He and his family homestead off the grid in Southeast Alaska, heating their home and water with wood. See more at www.akzeigers.com.

Categories: home energy | Tags: cutting your own firewood, heating with wood, self reliance | No Comments »