What type of wood is hard to burn?

Answer 1

Softwoods such as spruce, pine and fir will ignite easily and will give off considerable heat, but will also burn up very quickly and will throw lots of sparks from the sap entrapped in the wood. If you are burning these woods indoors in an open fireplace, you will need a fine mesh screen or barrier to prevent sparks being thrown onto the flooring. Outdoors, around the campfire, you will need to wear old clothes, or sit back a long distance from the fire.

Hardwoods such as ash , birch and maple are more difficult to ignite but will burn more politely and for a much longer time, giving off a comfortable heat with usually no sparking at all. You will normally use a small amount of softwood as kindling to ignite the hardwood, and then continue to stoke the fire with hardwood thereafter.

You might want to avoid certain woods as follows:

Hickory - very dense and burns long and evenly but makes everybody and everything smell like bacon for about a week. Great in an airtight stove or if you like bacon a lot.

Oak - quite dense and burns beautifully but smells musty.

Cedar - Dont burn it. Very low density and fast burning but oozes a tarry substance called creosote that solidifies in the chimney and will eventually catch fire, possibly burning down the house. In the open firepit it is equally disgusting as it drips black tar over everything.