Imported firewood?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I am in central Pennsylvania, where firewood really does grow on trees in Penn's Woods. Outside our supermarket yesterday, I noticed a pile of bundles of firewood for sale. For $5.99 there is a bundle of USA grown firewood. For $2 more though, one can obtain Estonian White Birch firewood. I am certainly unaware of anything that makes it special, other than it was cut, split, kiln dried, packaged and transported across an ocean from one continent to another. So I ask myself, why would I pay $2 more for this special imported wood? Do the marshmallows toasted over it taste that much better? Is there some quality in the flame light that guarantees a lucky romantic evening by the fire? If I buy one to try it out, will I be eternally condemned by Greta Thunberg for depleting Estonian forests?

[David Dockstader]

I suppose there may be camping snobs who think anything imported is superior. Glamping, I guess. On the other hand, I think this falls under the category of "a fool and his money are soon parted."

[Roger Feeley]

I've never burnt anything like birch. Where I grew up in Kansas and here in the DC area, it's all oak, ash, and hickory. My gut impression is that birch would burn fast and dirty.
How would birch burn?

[Erik Loza]

I used to chop up the Felder pallets for firewood. Burn pretty clean and decently hot. White Birch, I believe.

erik

[Jon Nuckles]

Birch is often sold as firewood, but I can't imagine it is worth shipping from Estonia. Could it be a species of birch named for Estonia, but grown locally? Sort of like Baltic birch plywood?

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I've never burnt anything like birch. Where I grew up in Kansas and here in the DC area, it's all oak, ash, and hickory. My gut impression is that birch would burn fast and dirty.
How would birch burn?

When I was a kid we heated with wood, and always avoided birch because it was "stringy" when split. Oak, maple, etc. would split cleanly, but birch tended not to. I would assume it burns just fine though.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I've never burnt anything like birch. Where I grew up in Kansas and here in the DC area, it's all oak, ash, and hickory. My gut impression is that birch would burn fast and dirty.
How would birch burn?

Lots of firewood in N. Texas arrives from SE Oklahoma. When the load is delivered, it's traditional for the buyer to ask, "Is it all oak? Cuz' I only want oak." Standard answer from deliveryman, "It's all oak ...when it crosses the Red River.";)

...and pretty sure Oklahoma counts as 'imported'.:)

[Frank Pratt]

I would have a real problem buying something that was shipped half way across the world when the local version was right there, even if they were the same price.

[Jim Koepke]

Some woods burn faster, some slower. This just means the fire has to be tended more or less often.

To me all the different woods warm me quite a few times. They warm me up when it is being cut. They warm me up when packing it, cracking it and stacking it. Finally they all warm me up when they are carried into the house and burnt.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

Around here Almond is viewed as a top quality firewood. Hardwoods are denser and burn slower with more heat per volume. Almond is good since it is not too old when cut. This means no huge pieces to split.
I liver in Modesto and burn a lot of Modesto ash from local street trees.
Bill D

[Timothy Thorpe Allen]

You've heard of Artisanal Firewood, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBb9O-aW4zI

[Stan Calow]

Maybe its cut-offs from wood that was imported for other uses. Heck, most people I know wouldn't even know what Estonia is, let alone think it would be exotic.

[Doug Dawson]

I am in central Pennsylvania, where firewood really does grow on trees in Penn's Woods. Outside our supermarket yesterday, I noticed a pile of bundles of firewood for sale. For $5.99 there is a bundle of USA grown firewood. For $2 more though, one can obtain Estonian White Birch firewood. I am certainly unaware of anything that makes it special, other than it was cut, split, kiln dried, packaged and transported across an ocean from one continent to another. So I ask myself, why would I pay $2 more for this special imported wood? Do the marshmallows toasted over it taste that much better? Is there some quality in the flame light that guarantees a lucky romantic evening by the fire? If I buy one to try it out, will I be eternally condemned by Greta Thunberg for depleting Estonian forests?

Do you have a Geiger counter?

[Mike Cutler]

Hmmmm,,,, sounds an awful like Ricardo Montalban and"Genuine Corinthian Leather". :rolleyes:
Birch, white and grey, burns fast and hot. White and grey birch bark are excellent for starting fires and wood stoves. The wood splits to an almost sanded and scraped finish. It's shiny, where split, when dried and then split.
It works well for getting a stove box back up to temperature after a slow burn through the night. Toss in a layer of 1/4 split birch and put the oak, ash and, hickory on top of it.
I've been heating our house(s) since 1986 with a wood stove in Connecticut. I've probably burned a lot of "Estonian Birch" and never knew it. ;)

[Mel Fulks]

Mike, funny stuff ! Ricardo might have been the only actor to never hear the director yell : "BIGGER !"

[Frederick Skelly]

I wonder if you could buy the firewood and repurpose it for turning tool handles and such?

[Frederick Skelly]

Do you have a Geiger counter?

You think it's imported from Chernoble? Assuming Three Mile Island would be domestic.......

[Doug Dawson]

You think it's imported from Chernoble? Assuming Three Mile Island would be domestic.......

You have to look at the wind patterns at the time, and where that timber would be now, and why they'd want it desperately gone. :^) TMI didn't have such a problem.

[Andrew Seemann]

I like paper birch firewood. It has a nice smell to it. It burns well too. I don't see it too often now; I think the crafters are getting it before it ends up as firewood. Ash is getting more common around here due to emerald ash bore. Never heard of Estonian birch firewood before.

[Ole Anderson]

It looks pretty sitting in your firebox waiting for next season.

[Mike Cutler]

I wonder if you could buy the firewood and repurpose it for turning tool handles and such?

Absolutely!
I've made some really nice ash and cherry mallets from time to time. I started on a set of replacement handles for the cocobolo handles in my LN chisels, but never quite finished. I also made the handle for my vise from the wood pile.
Sadly enough, some of the nicest figured woods I have run across, comes in 22" lengths,cut, split, and delivered.:(

[Myk Rian]

[QUOTE=Perry Hilbert Jr;2982306 I am certainly unaware of anything that makes it special, other than it was cut, split, kiln dried, packaged and transported across an ocean from one continent to another.[/QUOTE]
At least one could HOPE it was kiln dried. You never know what bugs live in it.

[Jim Koepke]

Absolutely!
I've made some really nice ash and cherry mallets from time to time. I started on a set of replacement handles for the cocobolo handles in my LN chisels, but never quite finished. I also made the handle for my vise from the wood pile.
Sadly enough, some of the nicest figured woods I have run across, comes in 22" lengths,cut, split, and delivered.:(

The mill ends from a local supplier usually average in the 12" range. Works great in a wood stove.

A lot of my chisel handles and other projects get made out of firewood.

This is a piece of alder saved from the last load:

423745

This was rough cut before it was planed. The pattern in the rough just kind of jumped out at me.

It is thick enough to re-saw to make a small box.

jtk

[Erik Loza]

So, I was at HD the other day and lo and behold. Picked up a few bags for our fire pit.

423865423863423864423866

Erik

[Rod Sheridan]

I used to chop up the Felder pallets for firewood. Burn pretty clean and decently hot. White Birch, I believe.

erik

I use it in our customer seminars, the customers get to make something out of it.........Rod.

[Brian Elfert]

How can it possibly be cheaper to import firewood from Latvia when we have plenty of wood right here in the USA? Is it really that labor intensive to process firewood that they can do it cheap enough overseas to overcome the cost of shipping firewood half way across the world?

[Bert Kemp]

When I lived in NH I logged my own fire wood for 20 years off my own land, cut the trees down hauled the logs out of the woods with an old cat D4, cut, split and pile about 7 cord each year. Rock Maple or Sugar maple, beech, elm, ash and white Birch or paper birch as some call it. It has an awesome smell when burned but not the best for heating. Some Oak the small stuff was cut up for fire wood but most I cut to length and sold to the local sawmill, good money in oak LOL . But even in NH were local firewood is plentiful you would see the stores selling those bundles that were shipped in. Lots of people in NH sell bundles of wood to the tourist that come there for camping. My son in-law sells a good size bundle for 3 bucks.

[Brian Elfert]

When I lived in NH I logged my own fire wood for 20 years off my own land, cut the trees down hauled the logs out of the woods with an old cat D4, cut, split and pile about 7 cord each year. Rock Maple or Sugar maple, beech, elm, ash and white Birch or paper birch as some call it. It has an awesome smell when burned but not the best for heating. Some Oak the small stuff was cut up for fire wood but most I cut to length and sold to the local sawmill, good money in oak LOL . But even in NH were local firewood is plentiful you would see the stores selling those bundles that were shipped in. Lots of people in NH sell bundles of wood to the tourist that come there for camping. My son in-law sells a good size bundle for 3 bucks.

Was the firewood that was shipped in made overseas?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I live about 20 miles down river from TMI. there is a lot of crap recently about clusters of cancer among folks who lived around the plant then. Some say the statistics show no relationship to the power plant incident, others say it does and the gov't of course is covering it up. There is a little village a mile down the road from us and of the five houses, and families there over the last 40 years, there have been 7 childhood cancer cases in those five houses. Their wells are all within 200 ft of each other.

As for the firewood. I purchased a bundle to turn. I have turned one piece so far. Turned it to 1.25 inch round for making a handle. Turned nice, almost as easy as yellow poplar. Certainly much lighter in color and not as dusty as the yellow poplar.

[Peter Kelly]

https://i.imgur.com/y8NtWnW.jpg

I noticed these bundles of firewood for sale at the grocery store here in heavily forested Northern Catskills. WTF?

[Andrew Seemann]

It might be that it is heat treated, and there could be some economics that make it importing it from the Baltics work. Maybe it is waste from lumbering and shipping could be cheaper than expected.

Across the country, there are a lot of regulations and restrictions at both state and federal level on moving non-heat-treated firewood. It looks like emerald ash bore, oak wilt, thousand cankers disease, and dutch elm are some of the main reasons for quarantines along with various local pests. Most of the firewood I see at the gas station, grocery store, etc is heat treated and comes from one of a few local "firewood factories" around here. It could be that it is easier at the distribution level in some places to just buy it in quantity from a wholesaler rather than try to find a local source, kind of like the 2x4s at the lumber yard come from the Pacific Northwest --more than a thousand miles from here-- even though we have lots of trees in MN that could be used.

And before anyone goes all "Nanny State! Nanny State!" these are plagues of trees, and states (and the feds) are trying to protect the economic assets of the forests the best they can. As woodworkers, we should support trying to protect our primary raw material. I'm not saying we should go buy imported firewood, especially if there is locally-sourced, legal firewood wood available.

Below is a link to a map giving the restrictions by state. Pretty much every state I clicked on had some kind of law on firewood movement.

https://www.dontmovefirewood.org/map/

[Eric Danstrom]

Across the country, there are a lot of regulations and restrictions at both state and federal level on moving non-heat-treated firewood. It looks like emerald ash bore, oak wilt, thousand cankers disease, and dutch elm are some of the main reasons for quarantines along with various local pests.
Yep, when I moved out here from the midwest the local urban woke crowd didn't know about this. They started loading firewood into my truck. I stopped them and explained about not moving firewood more than 30 miles. I promised them there'd be firewood for sale by the folks near the National Forest, get yer dollar bills ready. Sure enough about five miles from the camp ground there was bundled wood and a jar for the bills on the roadside by a driveway.

[Bert Kemp]

I don't really know but it wasn't local firewood, all the wood was redish in color nothing like that locally

Oh all my own wood I personally heat treated in my Big Moe all nigher Wood-stove :rolleyes::D

[Malcolm McLeod]

... these are plagues of trees, and states (and the feds) are trying to protect the economic assets of the forests the best they can. As woodworkers, we should support trying to protect our primary raw material. ...

^+1
Our modern mobility is a double-edged sword. Giggle up "zebra mussels" when you're bored; forget kilns, they're spread by folks too lazy to drain their boat.

...Anybody up for a quick trip too China?:(:confused::(

[Wade Lippman]

Many have white birch in their fireplaces in the off season for decoration. Other than that, I can't imagine.

Absolute best firewood is black locust. Not much to look at, but burns like coal.

[mike stenson]

Many have white birch in their fireplaces in the off season for decoration. Other than that, I can't imagine.

Absolute best firewood is black locust. Not much to look at, but burns like coal.

I prefer mesquite, pretty similar in that regard, but multitasks in my grill and grows locally ;) Pecan is another one I like for the same reasons. I'm not sure why we're shipping firewood across the world and back.

[Jim Koepke]

I prefer mesquite, pretty similar in that regard, but multitasks in my grill and grows locally ;) Pecan is another one I like for the same reasons. I'm not sure why we're shipping firewood across the world and back.

One of the things missed about moving from California is the availability of mesquite for the BBQ.

The reason "we're shipping firewood across the world and back" is because it makes money. It doesn't need to make sense. If it makes money the corporations involved only care about how much money it can make.

jtk

[Bill Dufour]

From time to time the USDA? bans moving firewood across county lines. They are trying to contain bugs. California still does some fruit quarantines at the borders for the same reason.
Bil lD

[Andrew Seemann]

From time to time the USDA? bans moving firewood across county lines. They are trying to contain bugs. California still does some fruit quarantines at the borders for the same reason.
Bil lD

My parents talk about driving into California around the late 60s/early 70s and everyone being stopped at the California border and everyone's car getting searched for banned fruit entering the state. They said it was more thorough than going through customs.

[mike stenson]

My parents talk about driving into California around the late 60s/early 70s and everyone being stopped at the California border and everyone's car getting searched for banned fruit entering the state. They said it was more thorough than going through customs.
It was that way until after 2001

[Dan Jansen]

Birch is often sold as firewood, but I can't imagine it is worth shipping from Estonia. Could it be a species of birch named for Estonia, but grown locally? Sort of like Baltic birch plywood?

I wonder if we are shipping items to Estonia and the shipping containers would come back empty otherwise. In other words, shipping is probably free to almost free and the labor rate is significantly lower. It must be enough that it works economically for them.

[Jim Koepke]

My parents talk about driving into California around the late 60s/early 70s and everyone being stopped at the California border and everyone's car getting searched for banned fruit entering the state. They said it was more thorough than going through customs.

In the 70s there was with Mediterranean Fruit Flies. There were even check points inside the state for travelers into some agricultural counties.

My last time driving into California was about 7 years ago. My recollection is they still had check points at the border even though they are not in operation during some parts of the year.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

It was that way until after 2001

The checkpoints still exist today. I was really worried about an open trailer with a working chest freezer full of food (no fruits or vegetables) attracting attention. I don't recall stopping at the inspection check point to be a big deal.

[mike stenson]

The checkpoints still exist today. I was really worried about an open trailer with a working chest freezer full of food (no fruits or vegetables) attracting attention. I don't recall stopping at the inspection check point to be a big deal.

They're still there, not often open and even that it depends on the road. The AZ border on 8 is a border patrol checkpoint most of the time, the last few times I drove through them and the one on 10 isn't open nearly as often. The only time it was a pain was going from Truckee to Vegas and taking the back roads, but that was probably '97 and that was mostly having the same conversation over and over again.