Staghorn Sumac for firewood ?

A buddy of mine just gave me two large dumptruck loads of cut and split wood for $40. HE said he cannot sell it to his regular customers cause it is Sumac.
The wood came from a large tree, some of the logs are close to 15" in diameter.
Is this wood poison ? can I burn it ?

I know - i should have asked this BEFORE I bought it. Too late.

Smokey, don't eat it & if you let it season for a couple yrs, it should put out some heat--unless you're useing it in the garage & then--who cares--never seen anybody die or get sick from burning it

smokeyCityTeacher wrote:A buddy of mine just gave me two large dumptruck loads of cut and split wood for $40. HE said he cannot sell it to his regular customers cause it is Sumac.
The wood came from a large tree, some of the logs are close to 15" in diameter.
Is this wood poison ? can I burn it ?

I know - i should have asked this BEFORE I bought it. Too late.

freetown fred wrote:Smokey, don't eat it & if you let it season for a couple yrs, it should put out some heat--unless you're useing it in the garage & then--who cares--never seen anybody die or get sick from burning it

smokeyCityTeacher wrote:A buddy of mine just gave me two large dumptruck loads of cut and split wood for $40. HE said he cannot sell it to his regular customers cause it is Sumac.
The wood came from a large tree, some of the logs are close to 15" in diameter.
Is this wood poison ? can I burn it ?

I know - i should have asked this BEFORE I bought it. Too late.

OK thanks!

How ya doin? I got curious and did a little research, got this:

Answer
Dry staghorn sumac burns well when dry, but sumac wood is not very dense and does not have as the btu content per pound or per stick that hardwoods or even softwoods do.

Staghorn sumac flowers are sometimes used by apiarists to "smoke" beehives, which helps to eliminate mites and other parasites from the bees.

It is important not to burn poison sumac because the skin irritants can become airborne and enter the lungs, causing severe problems.



Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_stagwood_ ... z17YfHjZgE

Not sure what you got, but if you find you can burn it then you got a great, tremendous deal!!!!

Maybe it's similar to tulip poplar, what the hey, it's btu's!!! Good luck!!!

Dann757 wrote:How ya doin? I got curious and did a little research, got this:
Answer
Dry staghorn sumac burns well when dry, but sumac wood is not very dense and does not have as the btu content per pound or per stick that hardwoods or even softwoods do.
Staghorn sumac flowers are sometimes used by apiarists to "smoke" beehives, which helps to eliminate mites and other parasites from the bees.
It is important not to burn poison sumac because the skin irritants can become airborne and enter the lungs, causing severe problems.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_stagwood_ ... z17YfHjZgE
Not sure what you got, but if you find you can burn it then you got a great, tremendous deal!!!!
Maybe it's similar to tulip poplar, what the hey, it's btu's!!! Good luck!!!

my wood still green - needs to dry out

Good luck with it Smokey, the local sumac I ran across when I lived down that way would more or less smoulder rather than burn. I used it mixed in with other woods & got rid of it, probably got some heat from it. At least you didn`t get burnt too bad.

I was always taught the smoke off of Sumac as terrible to breath. Thats why most people dont use it...borderline poisonous! How true that is i dont know...I have seen it give some funky looking creosote and it is thick like tar....Of course wasn't my wood stove it was an acquaintances so who knows what they were burning along with the sumac

As far as I know there is a difference between the common sumac & whats called poison sumac that will give much of the same misery as poison ivy, if the guy wasn`t scratching like crazy it was most likely common. I`m also fairly sure that the poison sumac doesn`t grow real large.

Are you sure it's sumac? I have never seen one even close to 15" diameter. It's usually a shrub or small tree, like maybe dogwood size. Maybe y'all just grow 'em big north of the Mason-Dixon.

Yep they grow that big & they grow anywhere, if given a small crack they will grow & widen the crack. I`ve seen them growing darn near sideways out of the rocky hillsides.

samhill wrote:As far as I know there is a difference between the common sumac & whats called poison sumac that will give much of the same misery as poison ivy, if the guy wasn`t scratching like crazy it was most likely common. I`m also fairly sure that the poison sumac doesn`t grow real large.

You are correct.

coaledsweat wrote:

samhill wrote:As far as I know there is a difference between the common sumac & whats called poison sumac that will give much of the same misery as poison ivy, if the guy wasn`t scratching like crazy it was most likely common. I`m also fairly sure that the poison sumac doesn`t grow real large.

You are correct.

Ha, Im golden! MY buddy gave me several cords for $40 and its very well cut split and clean!

http://www.poison-sumac.org/

and what you DON'T want: http://www.poison-ivy.org/rash/

Well I'll be damned! So THAT is poison sumac! I have both the staghorn (which I thought was poison) and the poison one. Since my yard has a swamp in it, I can't mow that section. Every month or so I weedwhack the wet area right to the ground ... and every time I have done this, the mist that is kicked up from the weedwhacker burns the hell out of my lungs. I also end up with the tops of my hands swollen, or some itchy rash around my hands. After seeing that pic, I'm almost 100% sure that's the stuff that grows in my swamp when I let it go all summer ( only did it twice since I've lived here --too much work letting everything get so big). I must be weedwhacking little saplings of poison sumac -- that would explain all the issues I have! The wife & I have been trying to figure out what the hell caused that for years. Figured it was just my wacky allergies, which seem to change like New England weather ...

It sounds to me like your friend might have mistaken Ailanthus, or more commonly called the Chinese Tree of Heaven for sumac. It happens a lot. Ailanthus was introduced from China as an ornamental There are male and female trees and the leaves and bark are similar to sumac but the flowers are different. I had a stand of it at my last house and the fire wood isn't half bad. It was easily 50' high, probably higher and alomost 20" dia. The stuff is invasive and grows quickly after the ground is disturbed if there's a tree with viable seeds nearby. The seeds blow around like maple seeds. If it's 15" diameter, I doubt it's staghorn sumac- the stuff with red cone shaped clusters, is more shrub like in size. BTW, some people make a tea out of the staghorn cluster. Poision sumac has white berries, not red cone shaped clusers. Like Smitty said, the poision variety likes wet spots. I can vouch for how nasty the blisters get

Edit - if this is what you have, 2 dump loads for $40 is a STEAL. It's burn temperature is somewhere between black walnut and white ash. I burned quite a few cords of this over the years.