The Best Firewood Types

Birch

• Birch gives off a lot of heat, but burns fairly quickly. It is ideal for hot, intense outdoor camp fires. Birch is not recommended for slow-burning indoor fires. Birch wood tends to be easier to find and less expensive than many of the other hardwoods, making it a recommended choice for weekend camping trips where a lot of firewood will be burned.

Ash

• Ash is a good all-around firewood. It burns well, even when it is freshly cut or slightly damp. This wood produces good results in both an indoor fireplace, and at an outdoor campfire ash wood burns slow and hot. And if you plan on cooking on your fire, ash wood smoke is known to go well with fish.

Red and White Oak

• Oak makes the absolute best firewood when aged and stored correctly. To reach its full potential as a fire source, oak must be aged in a dry area for two full years. If this is done properly, oak burns slowly and with great heat intensity, making it the king of firewoods.

Hickory

• Hickory is known for its unique taste and smell when burned, but it makes a great firewood as well. When dried, hickory burns slow and hot and with virtually no crackling or popping. Its consistency when burning and it's aromatic smoke make it ideal for cooking fires.

Hard Maple

• Abundant in Canada and the northern United States, maple is another one the best types of firewood. This wood is dense and heavy, which makes it burn slower than the other types of hardwood. Its slow burning properties make hard maple ideal for heating fires and wood stoves, as they need to be refilled less often.