Bitternut hickory firewood: BTU, weight and seasoning

Heat per cord

Bitternut hickory is a hardwood. At 20% moisture, a full cord holds about 26.8 million BTU of heat (28.3 gigajoules). Wetter wood gives less, because part of the heat goes into boiling off the water.

That ranks bitternut hickory 243rd of the 558 species in our tables, from the hottest down.

Weight and density

A full cord of seasoned bitternut hickory (20% moisture) weighs about 4,360 lb (1,980 kg). Freshly cut, the same cord weighs about 5,230 lb (2,370 kg): the difference is water you don't want to burn.

Its specific gravity, a measure of density, is 0.74. Denser wood packs more heat into each cord.

Seasoning time

Split and stacked off the ground, bitternut hickory needs at least 11 months to dry to about 20% moisture.

Wood dries faster once it is split and stacked with air around it. A moisture meter on a fresh split face tells you when it is ready.

How it burns

• Ash: low
• Coals: very high
• Burn time: very long

We rate bitternut hickory 6 out of 10 as firewood: a good choice.

Similar firewood

Other species to compare with bitternut hickory:

• Mockernut hickory: 29.7 million BTU per cord
• Nutmeg hickory: 24.6 million BTU per cord
• Pignut hickory: 30.5 million BTU per cord
• Shagbark hickory: 29.2 million BTU per cord

Where these numbers come from

The heat and weight figures come from our firewood tables, worked out the same way for every species at 20% moisture. See how we calculate them.

Questions