Cedar Firewood Information

Cedar firewood is an ideal species to use for kindling. However, cedar also has many other valuable uses including shingles, fence posts and various other wood products.

Identification Features

There are many different species of cedar, but they are all conifers and all are valuable as kindling.

The foliage, depending on the species, is usually scale-like with strong odor of.....you guessed it- Cedar!

The bark is a good characteristic to identify this tree as it is furrowed and has a shredded appearance with long narrow vertical strips.

Heating Value and Processing Ease

Cedar heats very fast and hot but does not burn for long. For that reason, I prefer to use cedar as my primary source of kindling.

In lumberjack competitions, there is an event known as the water boil. A competitor is given a match, a hatchet, a coffee can with soapy water at the bottom, and a piece of firewood. The object is to get a fire going and make the soapy water boil over the top of the coffee can as fast as possible(winning times are usually under 3 minutes). Cedar is always used for this event because of how fast it burns.

Cedar splits very easily. Without dealing with any knots, it can be split effectively with a hatchet.


In my opinion, cedar is one of the best kindling species out there. It does the job very well and even smells good as an added bonus.

Be aware that cedar does have oil in the wood that causes it to burn faster, but also makes it pop. For that reason, make sure that you have a guard in front of your fireplace when burning this wood.

If you have cedar available, use it as kindling. If you don't have any, don't fret, there are plenty of other species that will be serviceable options for kindling.

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