Unstable Firewood Piles, Photo

I move and stack a LOT of firewood, but despite my experience, a pile topple is a scary reality. Be very careful out there, particularly if you have children!!

When stacking your firewood, avoid gnarled, odd shaped and overly short pieces as they can potentially compromise the pile's stability. Don't stack too high either, the taller they are, the harder they fall.

Happy heating!

Black Walnut Firewood Photos

I'd never seen a black walnut or identified the wood before one fell over in my neighbors yard, demolishing his neighbor's garage! It's really quite striking in color and beauty, you will immediately see why it's coveted for high-end furniture and/or veneer. I'm saving several large chunks to hopefully fashion into a nice table or chair. It's a shame to burn the rest but black walnut firewood puts off decent btu's. Click on each photo for a high-res look at the grain. Support Firewood blog by visiting it's sponsors.

Firewood Pile Art

I doubt this is a functional firewood pile, but it's very impressive! Art meets function??

What a sight... shrink wrapped firewood

I know not everyone heats their house with wood and occasionally people want to use their fireplace once or twice a year, but I couldn't help but shutter when I saw shrink wrapped firewood bundles!

It's got to be the lowest of the lows for a tree; cut down in it's prime, split, aged, shrink wrapped in a petroleum derivative and affixed with a cute nylon handle and bar coded. Oh the shame...

Proud of your Firewood Pile?

Proud of your firewood pile and want to show it? Send me a picture of your pile, how you split it, your location and the type of wood and I'll post it to the blog!

Whether you split via axe and maul or hydraulic splitter, splitting firewood it a LOT of work. Splitting, moving, stacking, hauling, rolling... you'll use muscles you haven't used in a while! Personally I'm very sore, but a small price to pay for energy independence.

(unfortunately that's not my firewood pile to the left!)

Black Cherry Firewood Photos

Black cherry firewood is a GREAT firewood to burn. It's sad really, because it's so beautiful. The core of the wood is a peach/pink color grading out to yellow, white and then bark. It burns HOT and LONG and coals nicely. It gives off a little scent, a semi-sweet smell. If you find any, you'll treasure it for sure.

As a general rule any of the fruit woods (cherry, apple, pear, etc) are dense, hot burning firewoods. Click the photos for a high-res view:

Firewood Photos Cross Section

I found this photo on a discussion group. It's great, but unfortunately too small. I hope to create something similar but in high res so you can really see the wood grain.

White Ash, Wet or Dry

I'll be damned! Having burned or try to burn wet wood, I was HIGHLY skeptical of the claims in the firewood poem. Fortunately I was able to put it to a scientific test! I had just split a half cord of White Ash a day earlier (Saturday 2/21) and I grabbed a piece from the pile. Did it burn, yes! Don't get me wrong, it still emitted some moisture, but it wasn't like burning a piece of wet oak. It took to the flame almost as good as my dry wood. I'm really excited about next Winter, this Ash should burn very nicely dry.

I'll take some high resolution shots of not only the tree but also the split wood, soon.