By Daniel Watkins, Noble Chimney Sweepers.
Every fall someone asks us which firewood is best, and the honest answer has two halves. Moisture content decides whether a fire is clean or filthy. Species decides how much heat you get out of the same armload, how long the coals hold, and how often you get up to reload. Both matter, but they are not the same question, and mixing them up is why so much firewood advice sounds contradictory. This is what species actually changes in a Frankfort fireplace or wood stove, and what it does not.
Heat is stored in the wood, not in the name on the invoice
A piece of firewood is mostly cellulose and lignin, and denser species simply pack more of it into the same volume. That is the whole mechanism. A full cord of dense oak holds far more combustible mass than a full cord of pine cut from the same woodlot, so it releases more total heat and burns longer. Species names are just a shorthand for density.
That means the practical comparison is per cord, not per piece. One split of pine and one split of oak of the same size do not deliver the same heat, and no burning technique closes that gap. What technique does change is how cleanly either one burns, which is a separate lever we will come back to.
The dense group: oak, hickory, hard maple, beech, locust
These are the species that earn the reputation. They carry the most heat per cord, they build a deep bed of coals, and a stove loaded with them will still have live coals in the morning. The tradeoff is drying time. Red oak in particular is slow, and a year in the stack is often not enough in northern Illinois humidity. Two seasons is a realistic target for oak split and stacked properly. Buying oak in September and burning it in November is the single most common reason a season goes badly.
The middle group: ash, birch, cherry, soft maple, elm
Ash is the species most Illinois burners end up loving, partly because emerald ash borer left so much standing dead ash across the region, and partly because ash splits straight and dries faster than oak. It gives up some heat per cord against oak and gains a season of drying time. Cherry burns clean and smells good but coals poorly. Birch lights easily and burns fast, and the bark sheds a lot of fine ash. Elm is the outlier here: decent heat, miserable to split by hand because the grain is interlocked, so it is worth taking only if you have a splitter.
The light group: pine, spruce, fir, poplar, cottonwood
Softwoods and light hardwoods carry less heat per cord and burn through quickly. They also dry much faster, often in a single summer, and they light readily. That makes them genuinely useful as kindling and as shoulder-season wood in October and April when you want a short evening fire and not a furnace. Poplar and cottonwood are the weakest of the group and tend to be bulky for the heat returned.
The softwood creosote myth, corrected
The belief that pine causes creosote and hardwood does not is the most durable piece of misinformation in this trade, and it is backwards in an important way. Creosote is condensed smoke. It forms when unburned combustion gases hit flue walls that are cool enough to condense them. The two things that drive that are wet fuel and a cool, slow, starved fire. Neither of those is a property of species.
Where the myth comes from is real enough. Softwood is often sold or gathered green because it dries fast enough that people get careless, and resinous pine burned wet produces a lot of visible smoke in a hurry. Burn dry pine hot with the air open and it leaves very little behind. Burn wet oak damped down overnight and it will glaze a flue faster than pine ever did. Dry wood and an honest fire matter more than the label. If you want the deeper version of that, our guide to seasonal chimney maintenance you can do yourself covers the moisture meter reading to aim for and how to run a fire so it stays in the clean range.
The one legitimate softwood caution is sap and pitch on the hands and the hearth, and the fact that pine pops and throws sparks more readily. That is a screen and a hearth question, not a chimney safety question.
Reading a firewood delivery before you pay for it
A full cord is a stacked pile measuring four feet by four feet by eight feet, or 128 cubic feet. A face cord or rick is four feet high by eight feet long by whatever the split length happens to be, so a sixteen inch face cord is roughly a third of a cord. Sellers use both terms and the difference is enormous, so always convert to full cords before comparing anything.
When the load arrives, stack it and look at the ends of the splits. Dry wood shows checking cracks radiating from the center, weighs noticeably less than it looks like it should, and two pieces knocked together ring rather than thud. Bark that slips off easily is a good sign. Green wood hisses at the split end when it burns and leaves the glass sooted within minutes. A meter reading on a freshly split face is the only way to be certain, and you want twenty percent or under.
Mixed loads are normal and fine. Many burners deliberately keep two stacks: a light stack for quick evening fires and a dense stack for the cold snaps. If you are setting up storage this season, we covered stack placement, ground clearance and covering separately, because how the pile sits determines whether any species dries at all.
Matching the species to how you actually burn
An open masonry fireplace used a few evenings a month does not need premium oak. Most of the heat goes up the flue regardless, and a lighter species that lights fast and burns bright is a better match for the way the appliance gets used. A wood stove or an insert used as a real heat source is where density pays, because overnight burns depend on a coal bed and only the dense group builds one.
The same logic applies in reverse. Loading a small stove with hickory and then choking the air down to keep the room from overheating is exactly the scenario that glazes a liner. Matching wood to load size lets you burn hot and short instead of smoldering long, which is always the cleaner path.
What species cannot fix
Species will not correct a draft problem, a flue sized wrong for the opening, a blocked cap, or a liner that has already been damaged. If the fireplace smoked with oak it will smoke with ash. Those are structural and venting issues, and the only way to know which one you have is to look. The standard we work to, NFPA 211, calls for an annual inspection of every chimney for soundness, freedom from deposits and correct clearances, regardless of what you burn. It also requires a Level 2 inspection with a recorded camera scan of the flue interior after a chimney fire or any other operating malfunction, and whenever the fuel, the appliance or the liner changes. Switching from occasional fires to heating full time with a stove is exactly that kind of change.
Noble Chimney Sweepers is owner operated, certified, bonded and insured, and I have been doing this work for 14 years. We give you the price up front before anything starts, and what we charge is published on our chimney and vent service pricing page so there are no surprises at the door. If the flue has not been looked at since last season, book a chimney sweeping and cleaning visit before the first cold week fills the schedule. Call (708) 432-5747, 7 days a week, 7 AM to 7 PM.
Frequently asked questions
Is oak really the best firewood?
Oak carries the most heat per cord of the species common around Frankfort and builds the best coal bed, so for a stove used as a heat source it is hard to beat. It is also the slowest to dry, often needing two seasons. If your wood is only a year old, well dried ash will outperform under seasoned oak every time.
Does burning pine really cause creosote?
No, not by itself. Creosote forms when smoke condenses on a cool flue, which is driven by wet fuel and slow starved fires rather than by species. Dry pine burned hot with the air open leaves very little deposit. Wet oak damped down overnight leaves a great deal.
How long does firewood need to season in northern Illinois?
Plan on one full summer for ash, birch, cherry and softwoods, and two summers for oak and other dense species. Splitting before stacking cuts that time substantially because moisture leaves through the split face far faster than through bark.
What is the difference between a cord and a face cord?
A full cord is a stacked 128 cubic feet, four by four by eight feet. A face cord is four feet tall and eight feet long but only as deep as the split length, so a sixteen inch face cord is about one third of a full cord. Convert everything to full cords before comparing sellers.
Can I burn a mix of hardwood and softwood in the same fire?
Yes. Many burners start with softwood or kindling to establish heat quickly and then load dense hardwood once the flue is warm and drafting. That is a good sequence, because a hot flue early in the burn is what keeps smoke from condensing.
How can I tell if the wood I was delivered is dry?
Look for checking cracks on the split ends, listen for a ring rather than a thud when two pieces are knocked together, and notice whether the load feels lighter than it looks. A moisture meter on a freshly split face is definitive, and the target is twenty percent or lower.
Does burning better wood mean I can skip the annual sweep?
No. Dry, dense wood burned hot reduces how fast deposits build, but it does not stop them, and an inspection checks far more than deposits: liner condition, the cap, the crown, clearances and blockages from animals or debris. NFPA 211 sets the interval at once a year.
Is wood that has been stacked outside for years still good to burn?
Often it is not. Wood left uncovered or sitting on soil reabsorbs moisture and eventually punks out, going soft and light and losing most of its heat value. Punky wood burns poorly and smokes. Wood stacked off the ground with the top third covered can hold for several years in good condition.
Published October 18, 2026