I have heard mixed reviews about eucalyptus firewood. Some people love it and others don’t like it so much. It has a very high BTU and eucalyptus oil is highly flammable. I don’t have any experience burning eucalyptus, but many people claim that it burns long and hot, producing nice coals and low ash. But then there are others who claim that it burns too hot and too fast and doesn’t last long. This may be due to different varieties, or maybe more likely just pure BS. Eucalyptus is a very popular wood for firewood in many parts of the world, so I wouldn’t hesitate to burn it if I had it.
Most varieties of eucalyptus trees come from Australia and a few come from New Guinea, Indonesia and surrounding areas. They have been introduced into many parts of the world including California, where they are often used for firewood. California timber companies have experimented with eucalyptus plantations, but so far there hasn’t been much commercial interest in the wood in the USA, other than for firewood.
Eucalyptus is a hardwood, and one of the fastest growing trees in the world. It has a twisted grain and should be split when green, since it gets tough as it dries. It is also claimed that eucalyptus can take longer to dry than many other types of wood, up to two years. That claim also triggers suspicion in my BS-ometer.
Eucalyptus oil comes from distilling the leaves and has many uses. It can be used as insect repellent, antiseptic, flavouring, fragrance and has medicinal, therapeutic and industrial uses.
If you have any experience burning eucalyptus firewood, please post a comment below.
We use our free standing stove to heat our house even though I have a gas furnace. I had the oppertunity to obtain some Eucalyptus this last summer. The rounds were very large. some over three feet thick. It was also really heavy compaired to other rounds I have moved. It split very easy even if i just used a double bladed ax. I am burning it this winter and it seems to be plenty dry. It lights easly and burns hotter than any wood I have burned in the past. I would give up oak if I could continue to find enough Eucalyptus to burn.
Heres the nuts an bolts of useing Eucalyptus.1) I havn’t come across a hotter burning wood, than Eucalyptus in my many years of useing it for heat. 2) If your considering useing just Euc.,you might want to re-think, it burns too hot. All your fire equipment, ( wood stove, flu, chimney, etc) must be in excellent shape, or there could be problems. 3) One should consider a mixture, when useing Euc. for the best results, and saftey. All in all, in my humble opinion, theres not a better firewood to be found, on the west coast
I have a steel wood stove and was told not to burn euk. when I bought it. I have lots of euk on my property and yes it does burn extremely hot and long. It should age at least 2 years in my opinion. I have pieces ten years old that are still solid and heavy. Still looking for info from someone who has done scientific research on this.
I’ve had great luck with eucalyptus until the latest 1/2 cord from Mt. Palomar here in California. After 18 months drying in arid San Diego, it still won’t light. What a mystery. I have gas jets to start my fireplace. 3 hours with a row of 6″ flames fails to light a single split piece. The result is a somewhat lighter log with a charcoal exterior. Have I slipped into some bizarre alternate reality or can someone explain this?
First, it isn’t easy to start. But once started, to keep eucalyptus burning (unless you want to keep something volatile burning underneath), you need to let the wood settle into a bed of ash. If you try to burn it in open air in a grate, like you can with mesquite, ash or citrus, it will either charcoal out and die, or just go out. But laying in a bed of ash, it will hold a coal and burn long and hot.
I agree that Eucalyptus firewood is ‘hot stuff.’ Coming from Europe and having for many years depended on hardwood fires for heat, I moved to california, near Half Moon Bay, and bought some weird, very heavy, extremely dense chunks of wood from an old farmer. Surprisingly, the wood burned so easily and intensively that it seemed like it was a an artificial Duraflame log! It made a thick, black smoke, almost made me think that they’d been soaked in petrol…
We have always burned eucalyptus in our fireplace here in Montclair, California. Have never had a problem except it is a little too heavy for me sometimes. It does burn extreamly hot, leaves little ash, does not pop or spit, and it burns for quite some time. I have never had trouble starting the fire. I won’t use anything but Eucalyptus in my fireplace.
Hi Folks.
I am an Aussy and have just cut a ton of Euc firewood.
There are lots of varieties and our favourite is river red gum.
Unfortunately they are very slow growing and soon to be protected.
The best red gum is aged for seven years befor burning.
We cut our firewood from dead and fallen trees.
We have to leave some for the creatures that live in the hollows.
Parrots finches, possums and microbats live in some of my deadfalls so they stay in the fields.
We start our internal combustion heater with a handfull of pine needles, two handfulls of kindling and three pieces of gum( eucalypt) about 3inches square.
once that is going nicely, about ten minutes we add a couple of 3 or 4 inch square logs.
Once that has started to turn to coals shut off your air intake halfway and it will burn for a couple of hours.
We split them to that size as anything bigger doesn’t burn very well in our heater.
If you are having trouble burning it through then split it into smaller diameters.
Warm rooms
Craig
Hi all,
I live in a cold part of Australia and burn around 5 tons of eucalyptus a year. Overall it is a wonderful wood (bearing in mind there are around 700 varities of Eucalypt, most are great, some not so great, but in my opinion, it takes a long time to season. For me, 18 months is the minimum, two years is okay, but only after about 2.5-3 years does it burn most effectively. I’ve only got an old stove and never had any problems with it burning too hot or anything.
hi…i’m from New Zealand and while the most common firewood here is Pine or Douglas Fir, Eucalptus (known here as Blue Gum) is fairly well known here as well…it also my prefered firewood…burns hot and long
It does take about 18 months to 2 years to fully dry if left to air-dry in a stack…putting it in the greenhouse speeds things up to about a year…and if you cut&split it at the end of winter and let it dry until it feels dry on the cut ends(about a month) and the then soak it in water it dry’s in about 6 months over summer in a greenhouse…learned that from an old forester
i stack it in the outer cages from ISO 1000 liter oil pods that can be picked up with the tractor and sit them in a pond for a week or so then stick it in the greenhouse
1 measure (m2/cord etc) of eucalypt is equal to 2 of Douglas Fir…i know the BTU ratings don’t back that up, but i know how long it takes me get thru a cord of both and blue gum wins hands down.
P.S split it green….or you’d better have a monster log splitter
Happy burning
I have grown up with old eucalyptus groves around my home and i can honestly say that I have never found a greater firewood. its true it burns hot. It is easy to start, bigger thicker pieces need a little longer to Catch but when they do they burn till the next day. I enjoy using wood for BBQ’s and carne Asadas. I’ve recently been using Valley Oak and though it gives the meat that great smoked taste it doesnt beat Eucalyptus.
We just bought a house that had a big, tall eucalyptus on it. We had a very hard freeze about 20 months ago that killed the upper branches (although the tree is coming back nicely). I had the tree topped, and I’ve been burning the deadwood for the few cold nights we’ve had so far.
Some of the best firewood I’ve ever encountered. It lights readily, lasts about 2/3 as long as a comparable oak log, and makes some really nice heat. The smoke is light but has an astringent odor to it.
We have a natural convection heatilator in our fireplace, and the wood sits directly on it since the angular lower pipes preclude the use of a grate. I’ve had no problems getting the fire to start, nor has there been any heavy smoke.
I suspect most of the negatives here are due to lack of curing time. That 20 months was 20 months suspended in the air, with some -very- low (sometimes single-digit) humidity.
I’ve had three logs, two of which were about five inches in diameter and one about four inches in diameter, started at 11:30 PM. When I got up at 6:30 the next morning, the fireplace was still radiating heat, and I was able to rekindle a fire off them.
The logs burn in a fashion different from most, kind of like oak or other hardwoods do – there are purple flames (indicating high heat) and the logs kind of char in place. I’ve been deceived into thinking I still had logs burning when in reality a good stab with the poker caused them to disintegrate into coals 🙂
HTH
I live in San Diego County and have been burning eucalyptus for 15+ years. It burns hot and long. It needs a good bed of coals to keep going, but once you have that, it will burn all nite. Rounds do not burn well, so make sure to split it! I’m always on the prowl for tree trimmers who are bringing down large eucalyptus in Rancho Santa Fe. The rich folks there rarely want the wood and are happy to have you haul it off. The average trimmer doesn’t want it either as it is VERY heavy when wet and he typically doesn’t want to pay big bucks to dump it at the landfill, not to mention having to load it into his dump truck. You want to split it EARLY! Once it dries out, forget about splitting it and like I said, rounds don’t burn well. I usually wait 5-7 days after a fresh cut to split. These couple of days will usually see the rounds developing cracks. I use these cracks as guideposts for where to put my splitter. Yes, I split everything by hand! I use a “grenade” wedge and a 10 lb sledge. It usually splits with 4 or so whacks if the round is free of large branch offshoots. If the round has large branch offshoots, split perpendicular to them and then leave the offshoot part alone, you’ll never split it by hand, ever!
I live in rural North San Diego County, which is avocado country. We are lucky enough to have ample free supply of avocado and eucalyptus wood (mostly blue gum, some lemon scented gum) which I burn in an 80:20 avo:euc ratio. The avo burns fast, and the eucalyptus pretty slowly, so the combo is good. Avo is aromatic, I love the smell, the eucalyptus not so much.
Yes, split the euc when freshly cut and season at least a year in a warm dry climate like ours, longer in humid areas. Cheers!
I burned a lot of eucalyptus for twenty years in the SF Bay Area, almost always started with pine or fir and plenty of small branches. It will burn poorly if not cured at least a year, probably much more. The heart wood is an orangy red and very attractive. It burns slow but hot. I did eventually crack my franklin fireplace. Later I had an epa approved woodstove without problems of any kind.
Regarding the deterioration of the logs: my mother loved big trees and was horrified in perhaps 1955 when a whole stand of huge eucalyptus was cut down across the road to widen it. She asked for a pair of huge logs that we kept in our front yard, for spiritual and certainly not artistic value; one on its side and the other vertical. The vertical one began to rot in the middle in the 80’s and I was still able to split and burn lots of it. The other one lasted well into the 90’s. Much smaller branches were trimmed from the phone lines and we stacked them for years because we infrequently burned a little in a wood shop. Some of that must have been 10 to 15 years old before I got the franklin in 1978.
Lol…. you American dudes are funny.
I live in Australia… the place where eucalyptus are from.
There are heaps of differing species of above… some are sensational fire wood types others less so. Bluegum.. I see people have commented os a great wood… well no here its seen as rubbish… the best mallee roots and various box varieties Iron bark being one… sensational.
My back yard full of stringy bark… rubbish burns hot and quick…. the box varieties are nest… sugar gum very good to.
So when u guys talk EUC… all depends on variety.
no worries… habve a good one
Dale, thank you for the input from Australia. What you say makes a lot of sense that different types of eucalyptus burn differently. It is funny that in America people do compare the different varieties of trees when it comes from our native species. For example, where I live people typically like black oak but don’t like white oak. But this is the first time I have heard anyone address the different types of eucalyptus firewood. Probably because it is not from here. Hard to argue with Australians when it comes to eucalyptus.
i need the time not the info on how good it burns.
Me and the wife favor BLOODWOOD for our firewood, a Gum tree similar to River Red Gum, up the outback of NT in aussie. We also burn River Red Gum and Wattles but we like Bloodwood the best. We prefer Bloodwood over River Red Gum because often the Red Gum is a bit more smoky and more often not as dry as Bloodwood. They are quite similar to each other and give off the same amount of heat – the main difference being River Red Gum only grows along the creekbeds, and Bloodwood grows everywhere on the plains and hills, and is often easier to access and there are thousands of dry old bloodwoods around, standing and fallen down so we have it easy for firewood needs up here, but there are plenty of River Red Gums around as well, just got to go down to the creeks if you want that wood. Love both and use lots of River Red Gums when camping in creeks and so on…Love the good ol aUSSIE hardwoods!
It is true eucalyptus has a high BTU and burns hot and leaves one heck of a bed of coals that continues to put off alot of heat after the initial burn. I mean you really have to watch pouring on the wood or you’ll be baked right out of our house. It is great for fireplaces but would probably nave a wood stove white hot way too hot. It is difficult to split because of the twisted grain and does indeed take a couple of years to cure. I swear by it oh one can actually listen to the oil in the wood hiss as it burns hot like heck just the ticket for fireplaces where you don’t have the stove putting off the heat once it gets good and hot and tend a smaller fire to keep it hot and then all the maintenance for the fluke but with eucalyptus you need a chimney sweep as well but nothing spells love like an open fire!
I VERY STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THE BEST FIREWOOD IS THE ONE STACKED IN YOUR SHED.SECOND BEST WOULD BE FOLLOWING CALTRANS WHEN THEY DO SOME TREE CLEARING ALONG SECONDARY ROADS.
MR 50 TONS AUSSIE,IN NORTH-CAL,WE CALL IT 20-25 PICK-UP LOADS.BLACK OAK IS ONE OF THE LONGEST LASTING IN THE STOVE THROUGH THE NIGHT.I DO LOVE BLUE GUM EUCALYPTUS,NOBODY DARE GATHER DRYED UP ROUNDS OF IT ,BUT I FOUND A WAY,MAULE-AX APPROCHE,I’LL TRADE FOR A POEM.
SWISSIE IN GRINGOLAND
I have burned uck in my fire place for over 20 years and have no problems with it. It does gunk up the chimney faster than oak but is worth it. I give the uke a 6 month cure time and it burns well with little ash. I do advise cutting the uck when it is green as well as split it other wise you are fighting a loosing battle. The saw will throw sparks and the wood does snot split Easley even with a splitter
I crafted a very detailed post but when I attempted to submit, it was rejected as apparently my captcha code was wrong. In any case, I also attached a file originally from the Victorian Department of Primary Industries (southeast Australia, where I live) which includes a list of common Australian firewood species and their various characteristics. Those using non-metric units will need to convert the energy densities. Typical ‘eucalypt’ burnt in the USA is blue gum which I regard as a reasonable compromise in terms of energy density, ‘splitability’, ignitability and remnant coal production. There are species here that have energy density a quarter higher again though, with a considerable increase in splitting difficulty and drying time.
Here’s the link, anyway…. http://www.flaminhot.com.au/wp-content/themes/Diana/docs/Firewood%20Properties.pdf
My place at 7000 ft in AZ is Ponderosa Pine country. I haul Euc from Phoenix 130 miles away. First, the splitting. The really big rounds I borrowed a 30 ton splitter — anything smaller no go. Some of the smaller rounds the Monster maul worked. One year in low humidity, 7000 ft AZ works. I burn it in a Quadrafire stove, starting it with a handful of pine needles and a walnut size lump of fire starter. When my neighbors hired a chimney sweep to drive 50 miles from Payson, I joined in. He said there was nothing to clean out in my chimney. So, I swear by Euc.
I live in the wheatbelt an hour east of Perth, in Western Australia. l am also extremely
lucky enough to have White Gum aka Wandoo, fallen in last years storms. This is the best timber I have ever burned. With a bed of coals lights quickly, yet lasts along time too. Shut it down at night and solid coals are there in the morning. Give them a tap and put on more and it’s away again. While I’m here, a guy from Maine once said you Aussies need to learn how to sharpen chainsaws, clearly he has never cut any of our timber, that’s grown here, it is known to be amongst the densest timber on the planet. Just be cautious, it drops the biggest widow makers…without warning. And I believe there are several hundred varieties of gum trees, euc’s, I imagine some of our best went to your west coast.
Split it green and let it dry out before using it. Split eucalyptus burns, rounds can get a char on the outside and won’t burn well if at all, so split a branch in two rather than leave it as a round.
Red gum is good as are any of the box trees, Mallee roots are great but they have to dig out great swathes of them and they are so important to the semi-arid environment they come from. Mountain Ash burns fast and hot(I used it to get the red Gum and Ironbark going) but it can burn through a baffle plate if you use it exclusively. I found that messy to fix!
Winter fires in a slow combustion heater need to have a soot remover tossed into the firebox when you have the coals toward the end of the season. The product helps rid the flue of deposits which are combustible and create scary chimney fires.
If you use it all the time in a slow combustion stove then use the soot remover at least twice a year, your flue will send you a Christmas card.
The leaves, twigs and small branches go okay as kindling to get a nice blaze going for the larger pieces. If you store them in gunny sacks they are easy to get at when you load up the kindling bucket.
Enjoy using our native tree, I sort of like the smell of a eucalyptus fire
Good luck and burning from a Land Down Under
We utilize eucalyptus in our cooker/smoker for our catering company. We are located in Punta Gorda Florida. We cater the entire State; henceforth our name – WeCaterFlorida.com We are looking for a supplier for eucalyptus. If anyone out there can help us please let us know. Our contact information is on our site. By the way, the eucalyptus offers an excellent aroma and flavor to our food that is very unique and enjoyable.
It’s great to hear from all of you in Australia, the real experts when it comes to Eucalyptus.
I live in the Redwood country of far NW California. About 30 years ago, after a bit of research, I planted Eucalyptus trees for future firewood production on my land. Ditto to everything all have said above about it being a good fuel wood. Can’t understand the need for fire in San Diego to one above post. If you want a cosmetic fire dont burn this… too hot. Amazing thing is the growth rate. these trees must be close to 100 feet high and the trunk at the base takes two men to put a bear hug on it. Can’t bring myself to cut them though. Couple years back big wind brought one down that had gotten some root rot. Cord and a half out of a 27 year old tree… nice wood. ditto to splitting it green. As a young man I once tried to hand split some old rounds. It was like hitting a solid mass of dense rubber… barely could make small indentions in it.
I was hoping someone had a comment about whether it’s ok to burn it with the bark on. I usually remove bark if I can, but my euc has some bark loose and some still pretty tight, and I know I want to split it all while it’s green. The bark might come free from the split pieces later when they dry, but I don’t really know.
I just got a bunch free from someone who had several trees cut down. The tree crew only cut it small enough to move to accessible areas, probably with 2 guys on the heaver chunks. I couldn’t even lift a lot of the 3′ logs if they were more than about 14″ diameter, and none of the bigger rounds were worth ruining what’s left of my back. I snagged several loads of the ones I could lift, and cut eveything to about 15″.
I split by hand, partly for the exercise, using an axe for easier stuff and a mall for tougher wood. Even though my euc was still green, the mall just bounced off the center part of a round, but when I started near the edge, the splitting went pretty well and I just worked my way around taking off corners until it was all split. I split fairly small to reduce drying time. The shorter end rounds split OK with the axe, again working the edges rather than trying to split a round in half.
But hey, thanks for all the good tips everyone, especially all you Aussies! I’m looking forward to burning it next winter.
I like near London in the UK, got some free euc a couple of years ago from a very tall tree with wide diameter. It has sat underneath some leylandi trees, so well sheltered, and I would say is dry enough to use now.
However, we cut it to short lengths the other week and now I am having a heck of a job trying to split it. Cut to fairly short lengths as I only have a 5kw stove, but the grain seems to twist. I’m using a pretty heavy maul splitting axe which makes light work of 90cm diam. sycamore, but cant get through the 20cm eucalyptus (and I still have thicker to get through after that).
Probably should’ve split it before it dried, as the advice suggests split while green. Now I know! Seems everyone agrees its good for burning, once split though, so I look forward to that, if I have any back muscles left to carry them inside!
Over the years we’ve purchased many kinds of wood for our wood stove, but we like just a few. Our favorites are Oak and cedar, with a little pine to get the fire going.
Last fall we purchased a cord of eucalyptus along with a cord of oak. Eucalyptus burns well and heats the entire home, but it puts out a smell I don’t care for. We like oak because it heats our home very well. Cedar is nice because of the wonderful smell it puts out, however it does burn faster than oak.
The type of wood that I feel is the best (in order)
1. Oak (heats our home well)
2. Manzanita (heats our home well)
3. Cedar (because of it’s great smell)
4. Pine (good to get the fire going)
Great info from all. I live in San Francisco and we burn Euc quite often, (open fireplace). Lots of those trees in G.G. Park (probably Blue Gums?) and the gardeners cut up the fallen branches into nicely sized logs. I split ’em when they’re wet, (by hand, with a maul) and try to dry them at least a year. I learned the hard way about splitting them dry!! LOL I take off the bark, but after reading a previous comment I may keep it around for fire starting purposes. I usually have a mixed wood fire, but when that Euc is in there, it’s hard to stand in front of the fireplace! Helps to heat a two story, 1800sq ft home. Again, thanks to all posters for your valuable information!
In response to a post a couple up, you can burn eucalypt with the bark on but it has a little more ash in it. If I can get the bark off relatively easily, I will, if not, I don’t worry too much about it.
Greg from UK, blue gum is normally a tall, straight tree and as others have noted, if you want to split even a small round, you need to split around the rings rather than straight across. Blue gum has a quite pale wood and unless it was a really dodgy one the grain doesn’t twist a whole lot. If you have an irregular grain, I wonder whether you might have a red gum on your hands (the colour of the wood is a giveaway and other than blue gum, red gum is one planted outside Aus). The grain can be much more variable and more challenging to split. I’d still go around the edges, look for areas that are more regular and bang a wedge into cracks on the surface where it is drying out. Sometimes though, you’ll need to dust of your chainsaw and cut half way then you’ve got a chance to split from there. The energy density of the two is much the same but red gum burns down to virtually nothing while blue gum has a bit more ash in it.
Best eucalyptus for fire wood is Sugar Gum, burns hot and slow and leaves a fine ash behind which is easily used in garden beds, red gum burns to quick and pops a lot.
I live in Aus and cut 3 ton of firewood annually. Mainly yellow box and red stringy bark. Totally agree with everyone to split timber while green. If you’re having trouble splitting seasoned timber, use a chainsaw to place a 3inch cut into the log for your log splitter. Once you get a start work the edges of the log. Works most of the time, others just will not split and I follow through with the chainsaw.
Been burning nothing but euc since 1972 in Berkeley California and Richmond California. This year I tried out blue gum that had been cut six months ago vs more like a year ago. All of it is easy to light and burns for hours in our late model airless woodstove; paradoxically the six months old split pieces are a bit better. I wonder if they still have some oil in them . Btw we are just coming off a four or five years drought which has changed what those trees are like inside
It seems to be one of the most available woods at firewood supplies around L.A. / OC. So not much choice for us. I’ve had the hardest time lighting supposedly seasoned eucalyptus and an even harder time with the Red gum eucalyptus. I can spend 1/2 hour keeping the fire lit under the logs using kindling and then the logs do not catch. But once going the embers are red hot and keeps the fire going no matter what but that is 2 hours into the fire. I’ve complained about the wood not lighting and the women that run the firewood businesses can go ballistic saying “what an insult”. Well if your wood lights in the rain, why are we having so much trouble?
I brought home some 2-3` rounds of tan oak and sugar gum eucalyptus. They both sat out back to season for 6 years. When I went out to split in the fall, the oak was rotten to dust and the eucalyptus was in perfect shape. My dad burned eucalyptus for around 20 years. 3-4 cords per year. He decided to sweep the flue on the stove and literally nothing came out. Besides being difficult to split it is the number one firewood to burn. I’m in northern California and we always could find a fallen euc after a good wind storm.
I burn eucalyptus almost exclusively. I have done so for over forty years now. I have both a fireplace and a freestanding woodstove (recently upgraded this season). I use pine or some other fast hot wood for kindling. Dtart a few smaller pieces of euc on that. I have a drafty old 2400 sw ft ranch house. The eucalyptus keeps my place toasty even when temps are single digits and winds are over fifty mph.
Once it is dry keep it dry. It will readily absorb water if it is rained on.
Coals? Oh yes. Great bed of coals. Not uncommon to have coals 16 hours after the last time I put wood in the stove.
Better than oak in my opinion for heating.
Eucalyptus really does need to be split when green, or you will have a hell of a go splitting it by hand. We have mainly peppermint and white gum on our property and cut this into 300mm rounds as this is lighter to carry, easier to split and reduces drying time to around 12 months here in Tasmania any way. To light I just cross hash 5 pieces with a few fire lighters under neath, that easy.
Hi! I live in central California …. we burn eucalyptus every year …. house gets sooooo hot we have to open the front door…. question !! We have a “Country” fireplace insert ….
How often should we clean our fire place ? We currently clean every single summer….. but I’ve been reading that it’s a really dirty burning wood and nearly impossible to clean your chimney ….
can anyone give me some good advice? Very concerned about having a chimney fire ….
thank you!
Debbie
With the difficulty of splitting Aussie gum when it dries out we tend to cut shorter blocks than in the US . I cut my blocks around 12 to 14 inches not 16 to 24 inch like the US does.
For enclosed fires and boilers shorter block works fine and it’s way easier to split . Open fires are not that common in Australian . Split the gum green if you can and if you have left it to season and get hard then recut the blocks in half .
I am splitting 2 – 3 year old stringy bark , spotted gum , yellow box , satanay (Lilli Pilli ) and some red gum and some of it is very hard going . When it splits it just explodes off the hydraulic splitter so I have to bungee cord each larger piece to make it safer .
I got sick with cancer just after I collected that timber and had no chance to split it so it sat there for upto 3 years but I’m better now and getting it done very slowly .
One thing I notice is that some people stack their wood direct on the ground this is not good for the bottom layer of wood as it will pick up contamination from the ground and smell in the fire . Lay some old pavers , bricks or sheet of black plastic down as a bottom layer and stack on that . If you have nothing else use the bark of the blocks and logs as a bottom layer .
There are many different species of eucalyptus (gum) trees growing here in Southern California. The best I’ve found for firewood is “swamp mahogany” (eucalyptus Rustica). Splits easily when green, is very dense and has a huge amount of heat output. The only other woods comparable are Madrone and Live Oak, both of which are in short supply. The tree is distinguishable by heavily rutted dark brown/black bark and bright yellow cambium. When dry and hit with a hammer it rings like metal! Great firewood.
My neighbor cut down their eucalyptus tree a couple years ago, I snagged it and took it back with me. They were about 3 feet long and 1.5 feet and I was crazy to think I’d be able to manage them on my own. Finally a few days ago after letting them dry out, I took my chain saw and cut them in half to be more manageable and split about half of it. Im STILL sore. I have the other half to do still and its incredibly hard to split. But theres definitely something about splitting your own wood and watching it burn. Its awesome.
I live in Concord, Ca. in a 1,600 sq. ft. Ranch style home.
I installed an EPA rated Lopi Revere insert with full stainless steel liner 4 years ago.
I rely on Craigslist for downed trees and have burned Doug Fir, Live Oak, Almond, Pacific Madrone & Eucalyptus woods.
Euc is by far my favorite firewood.
I don’t use the Gas heater at all, burn about 1 1/2 cords of wood each year and start burning in the end of October through early April.
My neighbor Harry the “Woodfather” has a most excellent wood splitter and we process about 5 cords a year for us and a few others.
I have found Euc dries quicker than all other woods once it has been split and stacked where sun and air can move through it. I start it with some pitch wood from Pine we get or other small kindling and once it gets a good bed of coals under it, it burns hot and completely.
It has been as low as 23 degrees I. The winter and if I load the stove full and get it roaring before bed and shit it down, we stay warm all night and I have wood and a good bed of coals left to get the next load going the next morning.
Now “warmth” is a relative term so I will say we stay between 68 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit all winter long with that 1 1/2 cords.
I love the entire ritual of cutting, splitting, stacking and burning wood.
I can afford to run the heater or even to have firewood delivered to my house.
But I will keep cutting my own until the Lord makes it so I can’t.
Besides, my Cats love the warmth of the wood stove and stay in their bed on the Hearth almost all day and nite.
MB
I’m in the UK. Had to cut down a fairly big one last weekend as it has been sickening for a year or so and was clearly now dead. I split it a week after cutting with a 4.5-lb splitting maul. This is harder than most woods (not as bad as seasoned beech, which is the very worst) due to the twisted grain – when it splits, you get a helical surface, not a flat surface as with other wood. if you slice it into rounds no more than 4″ thick, it will split quite easily unless it is a branched piece with two hearts in the grain. These are very, very tough.
I dry out wood in the conservatory during summer, where it gets up to about 50 deg C on sunny days with the door closed (when I’m out at work). The wood is as good as kiln-dried by next winter.
I have burnt bit of windfall eucalyptus in the past and it’s worked very well in the stove.
This is a very interesting and long running discussion.
I’m from western Australia.
The species of eucalyptus is highly important.
Some are rubbish after being well seasoned for for 5 years in a dry storage location.
Others are just awesome stored outside and well dried after a year.
It probably comes down to volatile oil content and density, and if it is a wet and cold climate eucalyptus or an arid, low rainfall species.
In my humble opinion, you cannot beat Western Australian Jarrah ( E. Marginata ) as a readily available commercially supplied firewood .
Dry seasoned around 2 years.
Mega hot, slow burning and amazing to cook on its coals.
Well seasoned River Gum ( E. Camelodensis ) is found all over the country east to west and north to south. Also an excellent timber, if well seasoned. Up to 3 years storage required as high water content by its nature. ( sucks up water for times of drought, hence the camel reference in its nomenclature.
The classic and most sort after firewood still has to be the classic ‘ Mallee root. ( E. Mallet and sub species. )
Found in arid, wheatbelt to arid locations throughout Western Australia, especially in sand and clay soils, they are the dead root tuber just above and just below the surface with the root bases still attached.
They basically look like a giant double G prickle and are hard to store and stack.
However, the wood, when well seasoned and sitting in dry soil for 5 plus years, is an incredible heat source. It will burn to a yellow white flame of intense heat under ideal conditions.
It has been used as a fuel source for steam locomotives instead of coal in times past.
A paddock full of mallee roots is now becoming a thing of rarity.
I have a reliable but diminishing source around 220 km east of Perth,
So factor in a $100 odd fuel bill on cost of timber plus a weekend off to go collect.
It’s the eucalyptus equivalent of gold.
This weekend just gone, I did a firewood trip for winter supply to my block in the inner wheat belt, around 130km east of Perth.
I have trimmed back all the well dried, standing timber in a copse of Mallet, specifically Brown mallet. ( E. Astringens)
This is similar to a mallee species minus the root ball.
It is massively dense and hard, dark grey seasoned outside and terracotta to purple inside.
Even whittling a point on a stick of it to toast a marshmallow is difficult with a sharp quality knife.
I sharpened my quality 16″ chain 3 times cutting approx 3/4 ton of 50 – 150mm diameter dry branches into 30 cm lengths.
Suffice to say, I am currently in front of a modified beer keg with flue and dampers, and the majority of it is cherry red, and I have no hair left on my lower legs…..
It is amazing.
Try them all.
Get a proper species name and correct seasoning times and we will all know.
Suffice to say, my kindling to get the mallet up and cranking was still good old fashioned radiata or pinaster pine.
Best stuff for kindling and available world wide by the comments prior.
This is a very worthwhile topic of research and conversation and I have enjoyed reading this entire thread from 2012 until today.
Stay warm and relaxed .
My wife like the smell of eucalyptus in our fire pit, so when we went up to the mountains for a camp out I brought a few bundles with me. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence bet we noticed two things that were very different. First no one got bit by mosquitoes whenever a log of eucalyptus was on the fire and second we noticed two bears that turned away from our campsite after putting their noses in the air to get a whiff. Usually we have to scare them away. Is it possible that the smoke and smell of burning eucalyptus firewood is an insect and bear repellent?
My neighbor grows fast growing variety of Eucalyptus and uses it for fuel. We are downwind of his house and are plagued by its pungent smell. His chimney belches out white smoke which tends to quickly drift downward and end up in our yard, on the washing and in our house if we leave the windows open. He’s a talented guy who feels he knows best on most subjects and I’m not looking forward to the discussion which must inevitably come about!
I’ve burnted red iron bark eucalyptus and can testify it burns long, hot, and very little ask compared to the oak I normally burn. I don’t like junk wood to reduce maintenance, so I’ve only burnt olive, cedar, among the above mentioned. I did try a load of english walnut and they were the complete opposite…ashy and low heat. Only good thing about the walnut was the fragrance of the raw wood.
I have a stack of “regular” paper thing bark type eucalyptus, but it’s been sitting in the rain…and has lots of hole like beetles or termites, so I’m just a little cautious…
Just got some eucalyptus delivered but I’m wondering if it is seasoned? They swear it is but it seams wet and is very deep pink inside? I have mostly burned Oak back East. I’m burning in an old house with a heatalator in the fireplace. Wondering if it’s safe to try and burn this wood?
I live in Perth Australia, and we just purchased a property with an fireplace and some large trees. We just had a 30+m eucalypt cut down as it was a bit close to the house and had a wicked lean. I’m not sure of the exact variant. But I believe it is a white gum. I asked the tree crew to leave the wood for firewood and just mulch the leaves and small limbs. They left me all the rounds, cut to about 350mm lengths and some of the larger limbs. Some of the rounds as much as 1500mm in diameter.
We don’t get that cold here in Perth, and our lounge room is only small. The fireplace is open now, but I will be installing a built-in before burning the wood. Still got some time to sort that out while it dires. When I was young, our family had fireplace, and we burnt Jarrah. But it’s been many years since I’ve had a fire, and I’m exited to burn stuff again haha.
I’ve just spent the last few days breaking the rounds down to quarters, (so I can move them) and stacking it to dry. Even a few days after dropping the tree, it’s a nightmare to split. The only way I can get it apart is to get half way through with the chain saw, then use wedges and a sledge hammer to drive it open.
I’ve only broken the large rounds down into quarters, because that’s the largest I can move by myself. I estimate there is approximately 6 to 8 tons here. It’s bloody hard work.
My chainsaw is an electric m18 milwaukee. It gets though the wood well, with frequent sharpening, and lots and lots of battery charging. I’m averaging about 1 full round (4 x radius cuts) per 12ah battery, and about 1/2 a round (2 x per 9ah battery. So it’s bloody hard on the batteries. And the bar is far short for the size I’m cutting. I’m having to manouver the logs, and come in from all sides to get through it.
After reading the comments, I’m wondering if I should split it all down properly now. As i can’t imagine it getting any harder to split.
I haven’t had a chance to read all your lovely experiences. In 1976 we bought approximately 164 acres of Blue Gun Eucalyptus trees, not necessarily for the wood. There’s different stories for the wood, one story was they planted eucalyptus forests up and down the California Coast for the trains, cause the engines ran on the wood, we also heard someone planted the wrong type of wood to make firewood, there’s another story but I don’t remember it. We started cutting, splitting using a log splitter when I was a teenager in the eighties, we got $120 a cord, $65 for a half cord, Dad wouldn’t split anything under 6in diameter, he called those overnight logs. We heard minimum 2 years for the wood to be cured. You want to cut it when it’s wet because it latter gives a nice shag affect that makes it burn better. I burns hotter then say pine that’s basically your kindling, it’s hard wood which just basically means it’s density is heavier than other woods. It will burn if you have really hot coals, also consider splitting wood that hasn’t aged down further, the smaller the pieces, the faster it will dry. Wet wood will burn, just depends on the temperature, just look at all the forest fires. We are now trying to conserve all our Eucalyptus Trees that are alive and just cutting up bone dry Eucalyptus from dead trees. We have a lot of dead trees from the drought years just sticking up in the air, I’ve seen three fall, wind or sometimes they just decide to comes down and you have to be careful, they call them widow makers for that reason. My Dad doesn’t really like them because they grow too tall, 200 ft and too wide, we have some 6 ft diameter, they’re just too huge and they kill everything near it because the oil in them makes the sandy soil too acidic but wood is a necessity out here and up in Nevada where my parents now live, wood for heating is becoming scarce there and when you’re freezing, your happy to have the stuff available to burn. We usually end up driving the eight hours up there to drop off more wood for them. We thought we’d be done with the wood business but the money is so good, $300 to $600 for a cord now, but the sellers are more aggressive, when we started we were the only game in town, and newcomers get possessive, because it brings in a lot of money and they want all the business, so if you are a seller now, you have to be careful regarding some of them.