Knowing how your products work and where they come from will get you the best value from your premium firewood. When it comes to premium softwood for indoor and outdoor burning, tamarack is a fantastic option to consider. This blog is the second of a series that will cover different types of firewood available in the local market, the features and benefits of each type of wood and how to utilize wood products effectively. With this knowledge, we hope that firewood users will become more knowledgeable about the products they are purchasing and ensure that they have the best firewood experience possible. Let’s dive right into the second part of this series covering Tamarack Firewood.
Tamarack Tree Sources
In Alberta, Larch and Tamarack trees are considered to be pretty synonymous. Both species are evergreens from the same genus and have similar growing and burning characteristics. The tamarack/larch trees are more dense when compared to spruce, pine or poplar trees. They are slightly more sensitive to environmental factors and do not take root as effectively as alternative evergreen trees. These sensitivities make tamarack/larch more scarce than spruce or pine evergreens.
With that being said, there is still relatively large access to tamarack wood across North America. The wood has a thick bark with a red tinge, and the wood grain also has a darker wood grain where some read is present. The easiest way to distinguish Tamarack is to see if the grain inside has two different colours because pine or spruce will be one consistent shade. Larch trees are famous for their fall colours because their needles change colours in the fall season. Overall, the Tamarack/larch trees are beautiful trees that make premium softwood for indoor and outdoor burning. This is a great quality firewood after processing and drying.
Tamarack Firewood Characteristics
When using Tamarack/Larch as firewood, you will notice right away that this softwood is significantly heavier than woods like spruce or pine. The wood grain is significantly more dense, which means you have a lot more wood fibres packed tightly into each piece of wood. Due to the wood density, the wood will burn about 1.5X as long as alternative softwoods. This same density will allow less popping and crackling, making your fires safer for kids and children. As for the wood itself, it lets off a pleasant aroma, burns exceptionally hot and releases a moderate amount of smoke. At Timber Ridge Firewood, we love Tamarack for outdoor burning, and it makes for great camping or recreational firewood.
Tamarack Firewood Utilization
Tamarack Firewood is suitable premium softwood for both indoor and outdoor burning. When using outdoors or indoors, you will want to get a good base fire going or use kindling the ignite the wood grain. Since the wood has a higher density, some people find it more challenging to light than lower quality softwood. Still, if you have excellent and dry Tamarack, you will not have any significant challenges getting a beautiful fire going. This firewood is safe to use around children or animals as it does pop less frequently than alternative types of softwood. For indoor burning, it is suitable for both fireplaces and wood stoves. You will notice that you get good heat and burn time to supplement your heating or any spatial heating needs. Tamarack is great to have on hand for your firewood burning experience as a type of firewood.
Our Tamarack Firewood
Timber Ridge Firewood takes our time sorting through the wood to ensure that each type of wood is speciated with accuracy. Our Tamarack firewood comes from forests across Alberta and is sourced ethically with sustainability in mind under the forestry regulations. We process our firewood to 15-16″ lengths and do our best in our processing so that you have a mid-sized piece that will not need to be re-split for utilization. Firewood sizing varies according to individual preference, and we try our best to accommodate our client’s burning needs and preferences. If you have particular sizing requests, you can always request that ahead of time for any firewood order. We believe in the quality of our firewood and hope you give our Tamarack a try to see if it meets your firewood burning experience expectations.
Purchasing With Timber Ridge Firewood
At Timber Ridge Firewood, we guarantee our products for quality, dryness and the quantity you receive. We believe in providing a product and service the promises premium quality, fine attention to detail and amazing customer service. We work hard to build relationships with our clients and want our products and accessories to create the best firewood experience possible for all of our clients.