Boys, I wrote up an article recently and in it I used a few nuggets that I have in a book I'm working on. Figured I'd use one of them here. Many of you know this already but many others don't. I was recently at an event and saw guys step over good deadfall woods like cedar and oak with armloads of resinous, spitting pine. They spent the evening choking on smoke and complaining how it followed them around the firepit stinging their eyes. Their tin was blacker than a lawyer's hat and even if they had a good cook amongst them, the resin would undo any good flavor he could put in the pan. When I got up in the pre-dawn, to stoke my coals and start the day, I looked over and saw a group of cold, tired men trying to re light some fresh sticks with matches and typing paper. It was forgivable if they were all new to this, but I had a sinking feeling that they weren't so I sat down to write a few words on it.
Although there are times where you have a limited fuel selection and must settle for whatever is on hand, you should still know the difference between the good and poor burning woods. The advantage of knowing this is to know which woods heat best and and are ideal to last a long cold night adequately. A clean burning wood with good coals is better to cook on and prevents irritating your lungs and eyes. Resinous woods also make a mess of your cooking kit and spoils the taste of your food. When picking up your deadfall or filling your homestead's woodpile, consider these guidelines.
I generally prefer hardwood (broadleaf) over softwoods (conifers) but sometimes broadleaf trees such as the willow are the worst kind of wood to forage. Generally, you want a wood with a slow burn speed, that generates a good heat output, burns clean, and leaves lasting coals. The best woods for this are Ash, Beech, Apple, Cherry, Cedar, or Hawthorne. Some woods that are considered good to medium would include Oak, Maple, or Birch. These woods still burn well and will serve you just fine in cooking a meal or keeping warm.
In fact, there are many other fine woods to use and many more decent woods in-between but there are also poor woods that should only be used as a last resort. Poor woods are either too difficult to keep lit, or burn too fast, smoke, spit, spark too much, and heat insufficiently in addition to not producing a good coal bed. Examples of poor firewood are Chestnut, Fir, Holly, Poplar, Spruce, or Willow. It’s also important to note that this kind of wood’s ash does not contain enough lye to make soap, clean cooking implements well, or fortify Indian meal. (Stick to using good burning hardwood ash for this.)
There are other things here to go over like the best way to start a fire and keeping your tin out of the flames but why waste all that opportunity in just one discussion.
Stay warm out there...