# Sources Of Free Wood For Smoking Meat



## BBQSoCal (Jan 22, 2018)

I don't live in the country like many of you do.  I don't have access to as many trees as many of you out in the country.  I live in the greater Los Angeles area and we do have lots of trees but not as many as where many of you live.  

Okay so I got some free wood recently.  Was driving to Home Depot and saw some tree cutters taking down a tree. I was hoping it was an oak tree because we have lots of oak in So Cal but it turned out it was a maple tree.  Yes a maple tree in the Southwest.  I know it's possible but we are more known for oak than maple.  So the guy cutting the tree said it was maple and I took his word for it because after all he was from a tree cutting service so he should know.  They were kind and said I could have some wood.  Most of it was in his truck bed with the big wood panels to keep it in.  One guy jumped up in there to get me some and cut them into sections of about 3 feet.  I tipped him $8 for him and his friend working with him.  I later did research into how to determine if the tree was maple and there are pictures of leaves to determine if they are maple and what species.  So I go back the next day and found a couple of leaves by the now decapitated tree. It's barely a stump now.  The leaves that I found look closest to a Silver Maple.  Slight difference in the leaf pattern but the closest I can tell.  My understanding this type of wood is not as good as Sugar Maple but will do. Also this should be a tree from St. Louis and east of St. Louis but possibly someone just planted one here.  By the way I  think if I had to buy so much wood it would have cost about $40 bucks around here from a wood yard, so I scored good.  I know if it is Silver Maple then it's not so strong and probably better with fish and maybe chicken than pork or beef. Or if I use it for pork or beef then burn a lot of it because it's not that potent or add some oak or hickory to it. 

Point of the story is that I hope to find more tree cutting services cutting down trees in yards and ask for handouts.   Some tree services cut the wood and sell to customers at their yard or sell to firewood places so maybe some won't give me any but some will as I was able to that day.  I sometimes see fallen trees where I go hiking and maybe I can take some of that wood and often it's oak being So Cal.  

I did cut down an apple tree at home that was dying and saved some wood.  Some of it had termites so I put it in the yard waste can and the trash guy took it away but some was still good.  I cut down a pistachio tree that was not producing nuts and I smoked with that.  At my friend's house he had a peach tree that was dying out and I cut it down and kept the wood and it worked out great.   Just had to let it season and dry out.

So I think there are sources of free wood that can be had, you just have to look for it.  Yes even in the city there are.  

Do any of you search for free wood?


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## keithu (Feb 19, 2018)

I'm in Oregon. We're famous for trees but not a lot of hard wood here! I have some apple and hazelnut wood from my back yard, and I can scavenge oak from some family acreage. Last year we got a bunch of free cottonwood from a neighbor, which we only use in our backyard fire pit. Free wood that is suitable for cooking is unfortunately rare.


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## SonnyE (Mar 3, 2018)

I don't collect anymore. But the 4" stringers in Pallets is often Oak, which works for smoking.
Sometimes most of the wood used in pallets is Oak.
I usually cut around the nails, and saved the nail free wood.

I recently changed from using a Bradley smoke generator, adapted to an old Brinkman Smoke N Grill, to my first ever store bought smoker, an MES 30. Then finally got an AMNPS and my modification to shift completely to Pellets and sawdust.
But I've focused on Pellets in the AMNPS as my fuel.
The Bradley was good. But they priced their gold plated pucks off my market.
So you might want to consider going to hardwood pellet fuel.
Often found at Walmart, Lowe's, and Home Depot.
I bought a bag of Pit Master Competition Blend last night at one of our Lowe's, for $16.88, 40 pounds. Thought I try a blend. Most so called straight run pellets are blends anyway.
Ross77 posted the breakdown as 50% Maple, 25% Hickory, and 25% Cherry.

Maple is a good smoking wood. Ever had Maple smoked bacon? Yum!


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## gmc2003 (Mar 4, 2018)

Silver maple will be fine for smoking. It's not as hard as the sugar maple, so it will probably burn quicker. If you have sensitive taste buds you could probably taste the difference in flavor, but most people won't. Enjoy the freebee. 

Chris


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## bluewhisper (Mar 4, 2018)

I'm still smoking with maple that my neighbor had removed in 2016. My supply is starting to run low so I have my eye out for another source.

Some people have discouraged smoking with wood from pallets because you don't know what kind of substances they may have been exposed to.


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## SonnyE (Mar 4, 2018)

bluewhisper said:


> I'm still smoking with maple that my neighbor had removed in 2016. My supply is starting to run low so I have my eye out for another source.
> 
> Some people have discouraged smoking with wood from pallets because you don't know what kind of substances they may have been exposed to.



Valid point. But then, those same people are breathing air they don't know what is in it as well... ;)


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