We are using different kinds of woods for our fireplace. However, Hardwood or softwood all kinds of woods are Included these two types of categories.
If you ask me, what's the better wood for the fireplace? The answer will obviously from hardwood and softwood. But the choice will be depends according to the use and effectiveness of your fire stove ignition.
Some terms like wood's hardness, compactness, burning time, thickness, diameter need to keep in mind before choosing a wood.
Wood Character for suitability use.
Every Woods has its definite characteristics. However, the hardwood or softwood both have their unique identifying character.
Many trees exist whose woods are suitable for splitting and the fireplace. You should choose one of them. And many are not ideal for your fireplace.
So in here, we'll explain how you can choose better wood for your fireplace and understand the suitable wood as your requirement. We'll also discuss the wood Benefits, Advantages, Disadvantages And also give you the suggestion of what will be your choice.
Hardwood
A hardwood is that kind of wood has the compact structure of the its body and much more thickness. You can identify a hardwood plant to see their broad-leaves sizes.
Hardwood is very dense for a longtime of ignition. The hardwood will cause a long-lasting fire and also create less smoke. There are lots of hardwood as saying.
One of the common and most popular types of hardwoods are Oaks, Ash, elm, or Maple types trees. These hardwoods are fittest for your fireplace. You will have a warm temperature and long-lasting burning of woods.
Advantage of hardwood
- High dense of hardwood Increase the burning time.
- It will create less smoke and reverts long-lasting fire.
- Gives you a radiant heat for an extended period
- Give you more BTU(British Thermal Units) against the softwood.
- It will Burns slowly and give you decent heat for a long time.
Disadvantage of hardwood
- It will take longer seasoning time to dry out. You can't get the instant burn from it. You have to invest time.
- You have to pay more than softwood.
Soft food
Softwood is mainly evergreen tree that has less diameter of thickness. Softwood is growing fast compared to hardwood. The lightweight softwood will burn faster than hardwood. It will produce heat initially and remain for a moment and burn out quickly.
It can create large flames of fire but not remain like hardwood. The most common Plants of softwood Is called Cedar, red pine and fir, Etc. Most of them are having the needle-like shape of their body.
Advantage of soft food
- Softwood is a lightweight wood for your fire stove.
- It can create a large flame when you spark it on your fireplace. But the fires aren't performed long-lasting.
- It will be seasoned faster than hardwoods. And an excellent choice for kindling.
- Great for Campfire because of the more massive flames and quick burn quality.
- It can also act as the companion support with hardwood.
Disadvantage of soft food
- Softwood creates more smoke compared to hardwood.
- The possibility of heat into the coal is not prominent. That's why it's not suitable for your stove for an extended period.
How can you select the great one for your fireplace?
Before choosing a log for your fireplace, you should consider some factors. If your requirements fulfill your consideration, then you can select them. The requirements are BTU, Time, Availability, and expense. Let's discuss these terms-
BTU ( British Thermal Unit )
BTU is the measurement of heat required for Increasing and determining the temperature during the burning of your wood.
If you want to use a definite log that is most suitable for your fiery stove, then you should choose the high BTU considering wood.
Time
Long-lasting burning for your fireplace is essential. If you want to burn the wood overnight, you should choose hardwood. Because the compactness and the dense formation impact it's burning quality and increasing its time. If you want short-term heat, you can go with the softwood. It will burn first and not create coal that will give you heat continuously.
Affordability
Suppose you are living in a place that is full of hardwood. Then you can choose the hard one. But if there is the availability of softwood, you can also pick it.
But if you take advantage of the wood for an extended period of burning, the hardwood will be super perfect for you. It will take less time, but the burning procedure will be less than the hardwood, and the flaming will be increasing and make a higher smoke.
So you can select your wood according to the availability of your area and make your logs for your fireplace, it's excellent for you.
Expense
Generally, hardwood is much more expensive than softwood. The compactness, growing time, effectiveness, and all the sorts make hardwood expensive.
If you want to experience more and want to get a decent hit for a long time, go with hardwood. If you have other purposes, then you can choose softwood. Besides, you can use softwood and hardwood combined to get heat and flame both.
What is your choice?
Splitting is depends on use of different characteristics of the wood. Like I said before, you have to choose according to BTU's basic requirements, time, availability, and expense. When you consider these factors, you can reasonably select your suitable logs for your fireplace.
Most of the time, hardwood is challenging to split if there have any cracks on the angle of the wood portion. If you use a log splitter, then you can handle the log splitting problem easily.
But softwood is not as tricky as hardwood. Moreover, you can also use the same log splitter, which is used for hardwood. Don't worry about splitting. You just need to take a look and choose the log to make it perfect.
Conclusion:
Whether using hardwood or softwood, both perform well to their sorts of use. You have to put on the right logs to your stove. So, choose your logs and make your fireplace flaming and stay warm.
