Can someone ID this firewood?

[TylerW]

Hey guys:

I use an insert for supplemental heat each year. It is a circulator, so it heats this house well. What doesn't work well is trying to get good quality firewood here in the deep south. You either get green junk that is supposedly "seasoned", people selling red and white oak that is years away from being usable, or some unknown stuff that turns out to be a dud.

I believe this stuff falls into that category. It's very dry, but it catches slow, burns slow and produces a ton of ash. It's lightweight(not dense) and splits poorly by hand. It tends to fragment instead of split cleanly. My circulator is a "slammer" with it's well-known drawbacks so I watch and treat the chimney very frequently. Despite that, it is starting to coke because of the low and slow burning.

If someone can put a name to this I will be sure to avoid this stuff again. Thanks.

 

[RustyRatRod]

Looks like pine bark to me.

 

[pauly]

It does look like pine bark. Looks really punky like it’s been dead lying in the woods for a long time?

But…dry pine usually burns really quick. As light as the wood is, I was thinking it could be ash too.

 

[like_A_pike]

if you pinch off a bit of bark and then snap it in half, does it have alternating shades of tan? I think it's old punky elm and crotch wood at that. It's pretty poor for firewood.

I used to visit old decks on timber company land just after closed out timber sales in the winter and early spring. lots of smaller (non merch) hardwoods would invariably not make it on a truck. Often I'd would take oak that was not bigger than my thigh. One hit with a maul and it's in the stack to dry and it would season up enough for use the following winter. This was deep east Texas and Louisiana, but the wood was similar all the way across to the Florida panhandle and up through the ozarks. All that to say, find out who owns comercial timberland in your neck of thes woods and buy a "firewood permit" $50 all you can haul usually. Great excercise. (can only comfortable cut and split a load for a Tacoma in one trip these days) About 7-9 loads for 3-3.5 cord and heat for the following winter. Forest Service does it too but lots more rules and harder to find them actively cutting. -if you're further east. good luck!

 

[Sharpone]

Cottonwood maybe
Dan

 

[TylerW]

A couple of you hit on it I believe. I had another load delivered a couple weeks after this stuff, and although the first guy seemed a lot more with it mentally, the second guy took one look at the stuff I showed you above and said "that's sure some punky wood" or some word besides punky. So, that's probably what it is. The first guy dumped a load of punky wood on me and I didn't know any better. Didn't know punky firewood was a thing. I do now. I also know I'll go inspect the wood first before I ever pay another scam artist to bring any out.

 

[RustyRatRod]

You're complaining that it burns slow? That's an attribute I actually WANT in firewood. lol