With the abundance of Cypress wood in your area, you may have been wondering, is Cypress good firewood? You are not alone with this question. Let us take a look at the features of this wood to see whether it is naturally designed as a firewood or not. We will also consider if Cypress wood is safe to burn, and thus avoid some problems should you decide to burn it as firewood.
Is Cypress Safe to Burn?
Cypress wood can be an option for firewood. It offers average dependability as firewood. Just like other types of softwoods, including all conifer varieties, Cypress wood burns pretty fast if well-seasoned. The resins of this wood may produce smoke, which means that most of the energy produced are used in vaporizing moisture.
When used in an indoor fireplace, it may result to the accumulation of a substance called creosote in the flues of chimneys. As such, it is recommended to use Cypress wood in an outdoor place.
Just like other types of softwoods, Cypress wood serve as a reliable wood for kindling. Its logs are easy to split into thin, smaller shanks. The root nubs and the branch of a long-fallen, weathered tree may also be used, provided that you can get a permission for its use. All you need to do is to prepare a tinder nest, which can be made out of dried moss, seasoned pine cones or needles, or even wood shavings and crumpled paper.
Frame it around a loose cypress kindling cone. Ignite and bolster its flame using fanned plate or steady exhalations. As the kindling of the wood finally catches, you can start piling up thicker pieces of other hardwoods, such as hickory or oak.
As with other woods, Cypress wood needs to be seasoned well before using it for firewood if you want to achieve the best results. It is often a good best to cut a tree in early winter or autumn, since the tissues contain naturally less moisture at the start of the colder months.
When preparing wood, arrange the wood logs in a loose structure of stack, perhaps on top of a palette. It is often good to cover them with a heavy-duty tarp that is tied on top, or an open-air wood shed that will protect the pile against precipitation and still allow for airflow.
The overall process of seasoning may be completed in about six months to a year. It could also be longer if the wood was especially wet. Cypress wood that is well-seasoned will have a pale color, broad cracks at the end, slough off bark, and produces a resonant clacking sound as you strike them together.
Does Bald Cypress Make Good Firewood?
Certain species of Native Cypress are quite common in the western part of North America. In the Southeast, however, another tree is more common, the bald Cypress wood. This unique genus, Taxodium, still falls under the same Cypress family. This tree is massive, with buttresses at the base, and is often found in riverine forests, swamps, and other forms of bottomlands.
Bald Cypress wood that is poorly seasoned may be difficult to burn because it tends to be moist, though it produces a unique aroma that is common among Cypresses.
While you may put some effort to season your Bald Cypress and try to use it for firewood, you may notice that it will burn pretty fast, which means that you need to put extra effort to load some more, thus requiring more.
However, with the right techniques in seasoning, you may be able to put your Bald Cypress wood into good use. Just don’t burn them in an indoor environment or else you will have to deal with a dirty chimney. Just like regular Cypress, Bald Cypress is also good for kindling, but still need hard woods to serve as main firewood.
Conclusion
Is Cypress good firewood? The answer to this question has something to do with the type of wood that Cypress is. Cypress is a soft wood, which means that it burns quick, leaves few coal formation, and produces a lot of smoke that easily fills your chimney with soot. This could prove to be dangerous in the long run. This does not mean, however, that Cypress can no longer be used for firewood.
All you need to do is to season it well, and use it in an outdoor fire. It is not recommended to use Cypress for an indoor fireplace.
Other types firewood:
