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Hi there, have been burning horsechestnut all this winter in open fire , admittedly i have mixed my wood with usual ie ash,hazel,oak etc and had good heat.when ihave just used horse chestnut the heat was not as strong.
I wouldnt sell just horse chestnut to my customers but everybody who has had mixed loads say 1/3 of the load horse chestnut has been very happy with my wood so far.
I know what you mean about premium wood is hard to come across.Around where i am most people want the wood unless is poplar, willow or horse chestnut.
Good luck

A lot of people get very fussy about the type of wood but to be honest so long as its dry IT ALL BURNS. Horse cestnut does spit badly but on a stove it dont matter. I burn a mixture of all the wood that comes back to the yard and thats what my customers get, no complaints yet and lots of repeat orders.

As an experiment I ran my rayburn on pure leylandii for a few days, it worked fine, stayed in all night no probs. I think a mixture is best though especially if you can recognise the species, then you can decide what sort of fire you want when re-fuelling, bright, slow etc.

We had some Sweet Chestnut a few winters ago, bugger to split, albeit this one was full of knots. Burnt well with a gentle sweet smell, do not remember it being particularly hot though.

We felled a horse Chestnut end of autumn and a gent took all the wood away to burn on his open fire, says it burns fine and he likes it, he is not particular with wood.

if its dry it burns. its still a hardwood so i will sell it mixed up. i think you can get a bit log elitist, dry conifer makes good kindlering.

Horse chestnut.the timber is largely used for packing boxes,moulding patterns for castings,cutting boards,munufacture of brushes,and other common uses. but this was in 1894.

The best use for a large Horse Chestnut butt is to put it in a gate way to keep out pikies,imo.

Sweet Chestnut as fire wood, yea this one kept me warm.
Unfortunately it was stolen, and as they could not sell it or show it off as the police reported it countrywide, it probably ended up as fire wood. note the ring shake (happy accident Silk slip dress) which makes chestnut troublesome to work when grown too big, beautiful fast grain though.

Wow thats a great piece of work Roger.

Thank you Bowline, I appreciate your complimentary words.

Without an audience the tree falls silently in the forest.

Back onto firewood now. If sculpture is your thing visit thread "The Sculpture Garden"

Punctuated to perfection.

Sadly misspelt and presented incorrectly 7/10.

Aeculus hippocastanum.
Castanea sativa.

:wave: