Soft wood

[Bloom]

22 hours ago, flatyre said:

How well does Eucalyptus burn and is it hard or soft wood? Have loads of it in the shed but made the mistake of not splitting it immediately, like concrete

I really like it for burning. Gets going like a softwood, spits a fair amount, but good heat like a hardwood. Other parts of the world view it as premium firewood. Just need to get it split quick and let it dry for a long time.

[Gary Prentice]

9 hours ago, Highlandcrofter said:

have a look at this http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4441e.pdf 
i had a discussion with a stove seller who tells all his customers never to burn softwood, which really got my goat as where we are there is no hardwood and i only supply kiln dried softwood

Table 5 of that document claims that birch has an oven dry density of 610 kg/cubic metre, compared with oak at 650.

 

can that be right?

[Gary Prentice]

22 minutes ago, Bloom said:

, but good heat like a hardwood. 

Eucalyptus is a hardwood. (a dicot angiosperm tree)

[nepia]

9 hours ago, Highlandcrofter said:

i had a discussion with a stove seller who tells all his customers never to burn softwood, which really got my goat as where we are there is no hardwood and i only supply kiln dried softwood

That's... unfortunate!  I wonder what he recommends as a source of 'good' firewood seeing as there's none apparently available locally!

 

Latvia?!

[Bloom]

8 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

Eucalyptus is a hardwood. (a dicot angiosperm tree)

I'm aware of that. 

 

I was comparing it's burning qualities. 

[Gary Prentice]

2 minutes ago, Bloom said:

I'm aware of that. 

 

I was comparing it's burning qualities. 

Sorry, I didn't read it like that. 

[Bloom]

9 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

Sorry, I didn't read it like that. 

No worries. Just meant, if you didn't know what the wood was and placed it on the fire, you'd think it was some sort of conifer the way it lights up and sparks. It's actually my favourite wood to burn. Gets going quick, burns hot and I've tons of it round my house. I wish I could sell it, but the public are idiots, educated by uneducated stove sellers.

[openspaceman]

42 minutes ago, Gary Prentice said:

Table 5 of that document claims that birch has an oven dry density of 610 kg/cubic metre, compared with oak at 650.

It differs from the FC blue book which suggests 530 and 560, the difference could easily be in the tyloses and tannins in the heartwood of the oak.

 

Birch is also stronger than oak in most cases and modes but of course its use is limited by its perishability.

 

[Gary Prentice]

I would have thought that birch was a lot less dense than the figures prove.

 

every days a school day 

[Highlandcrofter]

2 hours ago, matelot said:

Maybe a free bag of softwood for this stove seller would be a good investment for you? It might make him reconsider the advice he gives...

lol, you would have thought so but that's what brought it on, I dropped of some leaflets and a couple of bags of wood, he picked up the bags and that's when he went off on the whole hardwood has twice the energy content and softwood is the only wood which creates creosote