Outdoor Wood Furnace Info

All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: mtoll on February 06, 2014, 07:15:41 PM

Title: Cherry wood
Post by: mtoll on February 06, 2014, 07:15:41 PM
Is cherry a hard wood how well does it burn fast slow etc
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: CountryBoyJohn on February 06, 2014, 07:18:59 PM
I have the same question! I hear guys raving about it all the time, but it's BTU rating is worse than soft maple! 18 million BTUs per cord! That's not that great! I actually have a chance to cut quite a bit of it, but I'm not sure how worth it it is!
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: mlappin on February 06, 2014, 07:20:50 PM
In a pinch you can burn cherry green.

I'd think it'd be better than soft maple though, especially considering the weight difference when it's dry
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: Scott7m on February 06, 2014, 07:22:17 PM
Its def heavier than soft maple...  Ive been burning quite a bit of it and I do consider it a quality firewood.  Its not oak, but does a lot better than most
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: Sluggo on February 06, 2014, 07:24:26 PM
I agree with Scott,I don't think twice about burning it.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: juddspaintballs on February 06, 2014, 07:41:25 PM
Cherry burns great.  In fact, I love burning pretty much all fruit trees.  They grow slow and have a very dense hard wood and they usually smell really good burning too.  I burn a lot of bradford pear wood by nature of the family tree business and the fact that they split and break apart in the wind very easily.  It's very heavy and slow burning, but a royal PITA to split.  It "chunks" rather than splits down the grain like a good piece of red oak but if you load your boiler up with pear wood it'll usually burn longer than oak in my experience.  I only split it if I can't lift it  :D
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: CountryBoyJohn on February 06, 2014, 07:52:45 PM
Thanks guys! I have a fence row full of cherry I have to get out before the excavator gets it!
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: free heat on February 06, 2014, 08:01:08 PM
Cherry is a great burning wood. The real benefit that I see in cherry is that it seasons really quick, like only a few months if it has been split. Where I live it's pretty plentiful and in my top 5 in preference.
My Wisconsin top 5 hardwoods to burn
1. Hickory hands down tons of btus and many hours of burn time
2. Oak Red or White a close 2nd to hickory
3. Hard maple
4.Cherry good heat just doesn't give you as good of a coal bed
5. American elm tons of heat but also tons of ash
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: mlappin on February 06, 2014, 08:07:05 PM
American elm...don't hear much of people liking that one, most likely because its a b*tch to split. Chinese elm isn't worth cutting, while I prefer red elm over oak when I can get it.

Burn mostly elm, oak, and wild cherry here.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: doow14 on February 07, 2014, 02:54:10 AM
cherry seasoned 6 or 8 months is good stuff I never pass it up,lots of it here in ohio. Way better than soft maple.Imo
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on February 07, 2014, 04:55:09 AM
I've been burning and cutting quite a bit of cherry lately.   A guy I know had his property logged and there's all kinds of cherry out there.   A lot of it is already at %20.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: wissel12 on February 07, 2014, 04:58:05 AM
I'm also going to clear a fence row of cherry. A lot of them are ugly trees. They don't grow there nice in a
fence row. So coming down.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: jrider on February 07, 2014, 06:58:38 AM
Nothing wrong with cherry.  In fact, for the fire place people out there, it's considered primo wood by many and will bring top dollar because of its aroma when being burned.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: Sprinter on February 07, 2014, 07:34:26 AM
This is one thing we need on this site, is a whole complete list of species and but content.
I see no one has mentioned that there are many,many specie of cherry. Some will make oak look like poplar. We have a lot of orchards in Michigan, and there are some cherry that you can't split by hand and even give a splitter plenty of strain. You can't even pound a nail in it.
The heavier the better wood.
With what we have here, 1 piece of cherry is equal to 3 red oak in the fire.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: CountryBoyJohn on February 07, 2014, 07:40:06 AM
This is the chart I use:  http://thelograck.com/firewood_rating_chart.html (http://thelograck.com/firewood_rating_chart.html)  There was another one I used to use, but they did some weird adjustments based on the voids in a cord that I didn't like.  So, I just use this one now.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: franky1 on February 07, 2014, 02:29:49 PM
never seen it,, bot Google says its a hard wood :bash: :bash: :bash:
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: duke on February 07, 2014, 03:51:33 PM
Burning cherry right now, but I agree with free heat, it doesn't seem to make as good a coal bed.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: hoardac on February 07, 2014, 04:09:54 PM
I usually cut what I can for boards out of it then burn the rest.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: CountryBoyJohn on February 08, 2014, 07:35:49 PM
Here is my score from today. All cherry.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on February 08, 2014, 07:56:37 PM
Nice!  I plan to cut some cherry this weekend.  But it figures, when I want to go cut its actually going to be above freezing for once.  The snow is gonna melt and make a sloppy mess!  :bash:
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: MattyNH on February 08, 2014, 08:00:21 PM
Cherry wood burns awesome..Occasionally I get cherry wood in my grapple load..
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: mlappin on February 08, 2014, 10:46:16 PM
At the auction today the highest selling pickup load of wood was cherry. $170 for a pickup load.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on April 01, 2014, 02:26:28 PM
American elm...don't hear much of people liking that one, most likely because its a b*tch to split. Chinese elm isn't worth cutting, while I prefer red elm over oak when I can get it.

Burn mostly elm, oak, and wild cherry here.

Mlappin, what is it about Chinese Elm that makes it not worth cutting.  I have a friend who is having two of them cut down and is offering me the wood.  From the sounds of it there is a bunch of it.  I'm usually not picky but I don't want to waste my time on it either. 
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: Pinehouse4 on April 01, 2014, 07:51:34 PM
That's the same Cherry I have here. It does dry fast as has been stated.

Catches fire fast but doesn't last like some of the harder woods.

I always liked to have some to get a fire going, very dependable.

Bob
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: mlappin on April 01, 2014, 10:38:03 PM
After doing a little research it appears several different elms can be called "chinese" elms. The true asian species of elm is actually the hardest of the elms.

I've burned it in the past from a few different sources. My grandparents had quotes from several different tree services when they had one topped out and another removed from next to their house, the services all called both trees a chinese elm.

Wasn't that hard to cut green, near impossible to split by hand without the use of wedges and burned alright, but not near as well as red elm.
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: farmboythegreat on April 02, 2014, 04:30:43 AM
I've burnt  about  6  decent sized  cherrys this winter  and love it . From standing to in fire the same day  :thumbup: gotta love that
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on April 02, 2014, 01:17:43 PM
Thanks!  He has two big trees both of which he said are 150 ft tall and he will load the wood on my trailer with his backhoe.  I have a splitter at home.  I don't think I can pass it up  :thumbup:
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: farmboythegreat on April 02, 2014, 03:59:29 PM
Thanks!  He has two big trees both of which he said are 150 ft tall and he will load the wood on my trailer with his backhoe.  I have a splitter at home.  I don't think I can pass it up  :thumbup:

I bet he's got really small feet
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on April 02, 2014, 08:47:44 PM
I bet I don't care how big his feet are. 
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: d conover on April 03, 2014, 06:06:14 AM
I bet I don't care how big his feet are.

I think farmboygreat meant the trees probably aren't 150' tall since chinese elm usually only gets 50 or 60' tall....
Title: Re: Cherry wood
Post by: AirForcePOL on April 03, 2014, 08:01:57 AM
lol I know, what I meant was I don't care how big the tree is because it's free.  All he told me was that his tree guy is going to have to climb the second half of the tree because he can only go 60' in his bucket truck.  We will see.