Is Spruce Good Firewood?

Most often used in the paper industry all over the world, spruce trees are dull of long, tangled fibers that make for an excellent paper. They are a fast-growing tree, keeping up with the paper industry demand. But how does it do as firewood?

Spruce is a fast-burning softwood with poor characteristics. While some softwoods can make good firewood, spruce does not. It is very high in resin creating a fire that pops and spits a lot of sparks. While that could manageable, depending on the variety, spruce also has a low heat output value of 14-17 million BTUs per cord.

What Are The Varieties Of Spruce?

Spruce is the name for any tree that falls into the Pinaceae family, rather than one particular tree.

As such, there are several species of spruce that are very common in North America, but they do not differ much when it comes to burning qualities.

A few of those more notable species include:

• Black spruce
• Red spruce
• Sitka spruce
• White spruce
• Engelmann spruce

What Are The Physical Characteristics Of Spruce

Name	Spruce
Heat per cord (Million BTUs)	14 – 17.1
Weight dry (lbs per cord)	2033 – 2475
Weight green (lbs per cord)	2720 – 3315
Seasoning time	12 months
Resin/ Sap Content	High
Splitting Difficulty	Moderate
Smoke	Moderate
Smell	Neutral
Coal Production	Poor
Creosote Build-up	Little

Is it Easy to Split?

if you can find a piece of spruce that does not have many knots, then it will make for easy splitting. However, spruce is known for growing with lots of knots woven into its grain. Similar to fir logs, this can make for a difficult split if you are using a maul.

It is best to go for pieces of spruce that are further down the trunk. They will typically be less knotty.

You will also want to wear protective gear when splitting spruce as it’s known to split apart, flying wood chippings everywhere.

How Much Resin Content Does it Have?

Though not as bad as its softwood relative pine, spruce does have a high sap content and can become very sticky.

This means that you will have to ensure that your spruce has seasoned properly before you burn it to avoid excess sparks and smoke.

It is best to chop spruce in the winter when its sap content will be frozen and at its lowest. Similar to other conifer-type firewoods like pine, avoid cutting a spruce tree down in summer unless you want to get sap everywhere.

What Does Spruce Smell Like?

The smell of spruce is one sure way to ensure that it is seasoned. Spruce should not smell like much of anything if it has been seasoned for long enough.

However, some people think that it smells awful when freshly cut, so you might want to wear a mask to avoid the smell while splitting.

Heat Output And Efficiency Of Spruce

Though there are only a handful of spruce firewood varieties you should concern yourself with, they do not differ much when it comes to heat output.

Engelmann spruce is the worst performing spruce wood, only able to generate 14 million BTUs per cord while burning. Most pine woods burn hotter than Engelmann spruce and it is poor firewood even by softwood standards.

As for black, red, Sitka, and white silk spruce – they are all capable of generating 17.1 BTUs when burnt. This is still a moderate enough heat for softwood but still makes for a poor heat source considering its fire characteristics.

Fire Characteristics Of Spruce

The high sap content of spruce means that it will pop and sparks a considerable amount through its entire burn. You will certainly want to use a fire screen for this wood.

Luckily, spruce wood is a quick-burning wood due to its extremely light density. It will not burn about as fast as most pines do, but neither will it last longer than a few hours.

Spruce will also produce a lot of unusable ash while it burns with next to no coaling qualities. This is partly the reason why it burns up so quickly.

Does Spruce Burn Clean?

Typical to softwood with high resin content, spruce produces a fair amount of nasty smoke as it starts to burn. The amount of smoke will dial down a little once the fire starts going, but not notably.

And as we discussed earlier, because of the resin content, it also tends to pop and spit sparks more often than not.

Is It Okay To Burn Spruce In A Fireplace?    

If you plan on burning a few logs of spruce every so often, then providing that you have recently had any creosote built-up cleared out of your chimney, it is more than okay to burn in a closed fireplace.

Though if your fireplace is long overdue for a thorough clean, then you will want to avoid burning spruce in it.

The number of sparks that its sap creates could ignite built-up creosote and so is just not worth the risk of burning in a fireplace.

How Expensive Is Spruce Firewood?

 Spruce is often not sold in the united states, it is more commonly used in Canada, where a price for a cord of spruce reaches up to 410 dollars. (According to smartfirewood.ca)

How Long To Season Spruce?

As long as you cut spruce in the winter when it has a lower sap content, it will dry very quickly. Its light density wood will not take a lot to fully dry and so could be used the same season you cut it.

Your best bet is to season spruce for a while longer if possible no matter when you cut it. This will ensure that it does not smoke terribly when burnt.

As an upside, spruce is not quick to rot due to its resin content, so you can leave it in a dry storage place for as long as you want to.

Pros And Cons Of Spruce Firewood

Pros:

• Fast drying
• Moderate splitting
• Neutral smell

Cons:

• Quick to burn
• Low heating value
• Poor coals
• Excessive sparks

How Does Spruce Compare To Other Firewood?

The average spruce is worse firewood than many pines. It does not burn as long nor as hot yet still has a high sap content and is difficult to manually process because of that.

Even for softwood, spruce should not be your first choice. Poplar and cedar will be better fire starters than spruce and often provide a warmer fire for the short while that they burn.

Frequently asked questions

Is Spruce An Indoor Or Outdoor Wood? 

Spruce is suitable to use in a closed environment because of its popping nature, however, it can be also used for campfires if all the safety measures are followed.

Is Spruce Good For Kindling?

Spruce is considered to be a great kindling material because of its soft nature. Furthermore, due to its straight grain pattern, once it’s already split, it is easy to cut fine, thin slices of the log to use as a firestarter.

Conclusion

As firewood, spruce has very low characteristics to compete with any other type of wood, even in its own class. However, spruce makes a good kindling because of its light nature. Of course, if you are in a pinch, spruce can be used in a log burner for heating purposes as then the flying sparks would not be that big of an issue.