Locus burning too hot for CAT stove ?

stokerscot wrote:Seems a shame to burn such high quality wood during the shoulder season. Should find some poplar or basswood to use and save the seasoned locust for colder weather. Do you know that black locust is the wood that rates the highest on the BTU chart per cord. Much more than oak.

Yeh SCT, fire up a few test loads of that TOH (aka sumac ) this spring and save that really good stuf for the winter time. I've got some kept under cover that must be 10 -11 years old and still solid as the day I stacked it

smokeyCityTeacher wrote:Why isnt simply the densest wood the most BTU producing ?

That statement seems to assume that all wood is alike except the more density a species has, the more heat per ft^3. I'm wondering if it could be similar to coal veins yielding different BTU/Lb Influenced by % ash and % volatiles (bit vs. anthracite) among other variables. I never looked that closely when I burned wood for 20 years but I guess volatiles and ash vary the BTU content too and are not necessarily proportional to density.

a wood's density is pretty much proportional to it's BTU; there is the exception of some pine/fir species that produce so much pitch they greatly increase the btu content of the wood. Where you'll get disagreements about hardwood is the density. some sources will claim that white oak, shagbark hickory, osage orange or black locust is the highest without a definitive answer. based on my experience I would argue that the top spot should be between osage orange and black locust, the rest just don't compare.

Berlin wrote:a wood's density is pretty much proportional to it's BTU; there is the exception of some pine/fir species that produce so much pitch they greatly increase the btu content of the wood. Where you'll get disagreements about hardwood is the density. some sources will claim that white oak, shagbark hickory, osage orange or black locust is the highest without a definitive answer. based on my experience I would argue that the top spot should be between osage orange and black locust, the rest just don't compare.

Since Osage isnt local to the east coast - blocus is king eh ?