Choosing the Right Wood for Open Fires and Stoves

Why the wood you choose makes all the difference

There is something deeply satisfying about a fire built from logs you have seasoned yourself, stacked against a stone wall, split on a frosty morning. But the pleasure of a rural fire depends enormously on what you feed it. Choose well and you get a steady, glowing heart to the room, a gentle scent of woodsmoke, and a chimney that stays reasonably clean. Choose badly and you get a sulky fire that hisses, smokes, spits embers onto the rug and coats your flue in tar.

British hardwoods are among the finest firewood in the world, and much of it comes from hedgerows, windfall and the odd tree taken down in a neighbour's garden. The trick is knowing which species does what. Here is a practical guide to matching the wood to your fire, whether you have an open hearth or a wood-burning stove.

The golden rule: dry wood, always

Before species matters, moisture does. Freshly felled timber can be half water by weight. Burn it and most of your fire's energy goes into boiling that water away as steam, which cools the fire, creates creosote in the flue and produces the acrid, eye-stinging smoke that gives woodburning a bad name.

Aim for logs with a moisture content below 20 per cent, ideally 15 to 18 per cent. You can buy a small moisture meter for the price of a couple of bags of logs, and it is the single best investment a woodburner can make. Split a log, push the pins into the fresh inner face, and read the result. Seasoned hardwood takes 18 months to two years to reach that point; softwood can be ready in a year.

The best British hardwoods for a steady fire

Dense hardwoods burn slowly, throw out strong heat and leave good embers that keep the fire alive overnight. These are the ones to seek out:

• Ash — the traditional favourite, and rightly so. It lights readily even when not perfectly dry, burns with a bright, steady flame and leaves fine white ash. An old saying claims that ash, wet or dry, will warm a king's slippers.
• Oak — the heavyweight. Very dense, very hot, very long-lasting, and superb in a stove for an overnight burn. It needs a full two years to season and is slow to light, so pair it with ash or birch kindling.
• Beech — clean, dense and reliable, with a good flame and little ash. It holds its shape well and splits easily when green.
• Hawthorn — the overlooked hero of the hedgerow. Extremely hot, slow-burning and excellent in a stove, though it is fiddly to split and often only available in small quantities.
• Elm — hard to split because of its interlocking grain, but once dry it burns slowly and steadily with a lovely flame.
• Sycamore and field maple — lighter than oak but perfectly respectable, burning steadily with a modest flame.

Softwoods, kindling and quick flames

Pine, spruce, larch and fir have a poor reputation, largely undeserved if the wood is dry. They are resinous, so they light fast, burn hot and bright, and are ideal for kindling or for taking the chill off a room on a spring evening. The drawbacks are real, though: they burn quickly, spit sparks that can mark a hearth rug, and produce more creosote than hardwoods if the flue runs cool.

Birch sits somewhere in between and is wonderful for getting a fire going, thanks to its oily bark. It burns brightly and gives decent heat, but it seasons fast and rots even faster if left lying in the wet.

Do avoid willow, poplar and horse chestnut as your main fuel. They are full of water, give little heat and can be smoky. Never burn treated timber, painted offcuts, plywood, MDF, driftwood or old pallets — the fumes are unpleasant at best and genuinely harmful at worst, and salt-laden driftwood will corrode a stove.

Woods for aroma and atmosphere

If you have an open fire, scent matters as much as heat. Apple and cherry are the connoisseur's choice: sweet, fruity and gently perfumed, and the same woods you would use in a smoker. Hawthorn has a pleasant, almost spicy note, and birch gives a clean, resinous fragrance. Ash is subtle and unassuming, which suits a small room.

Softwoods, by contrast, smell of turpentine when they burn, so keep them for kindling rather than an evening's main fire.

Storing, stacking and burning well

Good firewood is made, not bought. Stack split logs in a criss-cross pattern so air moves through the pile, raise them off the ground on pallets or rails, and cover the top only, leaving the sides open to the wind. A south-facing wall is ideal. Keep the store away from the house itself, both to avoid damp and to discourage insects.

• Split logs to a size that suits your fire — roughly 8 to 12 cm across for a stove, larger for an open grate.
• Bring a few days' worth indoors to finish drying, but never store large quantities inside.
• In smoke control areas, you must burn authorised smokeless fuel or wood that meets the ready-to-burn standard. Check with your local council before stocking up.
• Buy by volume, inspect a split log before committing, and ask how long it has been seasoned.

Get these basics right and a British hardwood fire becomes one of the quiet pleasures of country life: steady, fragrant and thoroughly worth the wait.