Soft wood

[matelot]

3 hours ago, Highlandcrofter said:

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

It's hard dealing with people that don't know what they're talking about...

 

Imho, we should be burning a lot more softwood. I'd rather burn Sitka Spruce than hardwood that's been shipped in from the Baltics.

[Lucan]

6 hours 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.

 

can that be right?

 

6 hours ago, openspaceman said:

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.

 

I imagine the difference could just be due to the different geographical focus. The FAO is a global institution so they will most likely be basing the data from birch forests from regions such as northern Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, etc. These regions have far shorter growing seasons (longer and colder winters) which becomes very apparent in birch. Having burnt birch from UK and N Sweden I can easily believe the differences stated.

[richardwale]

10 hours ago, Highlandcrofter said:

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

A little knowledge is very dangerous!

Its very annoying. In my opinion it's all caused at the source, which I'm afraid to say is the stove sellers! Some know what they are talking about when it comes to burning timber, but to say softwood is dangerous to burn is ludicrous. 

 

[defender tipper]

we burn all softwood here on our stove, have no call for it on the firewood sales side of things

however i do know a guy that sells 200/300m3 per winter which accounts for about 30% of his total sales,he prices it right around 30% less than hard, and makes a good job of not letting it get to light/dry nice logs!... i love the stuff.

Just cant seem to get customers interested,i guess with some proper effort of education and tempting deals may get them on it, as above some of the coldest countries in the world heat there homes year in year out with the stuff.....pine tonight for us and conifer tomorrow.....Nice!

[dig-dug-dan]

1 hour ago, defender tipper said:

we burn all softwood here on our stove, have no call for it on the firewood sales side of things

however i do know a guy that sells 200/300m3 per winter which accounts for about 30% of his total sales,he prices it right around 30% less than hard, and makes a good job of not letting it get to light/dry nice logs!... i love the stuff.

Just cant seem to get customers interested,i guess with some proper effort of education and tempting deals may get them on it, as above some of the coldest countries in the world heat there homes year in year out with the stuff.....pine tonight for us and conifer tomorrow.....Nice!

Why sell at a cheaper rate? Its the same amount of effort and time to process it!

 

I am burming old fence and gate posts. All softwood, some oak. some have been a fence post for 20 years. Well seasoned.

[david wood]

dont sell but do the firewood for an estate, 

 

cant beat lawsons for autumn and spring its seriously quick heat , oak is nice mixed in for depth of winter but needs some softwood for base.

 

birch seems to tar up quick and god it rots fast left in length so i give to guy who is a hardwood snob

 

never understand folks who wont burn softwood, i think its great mixed in so you get best of all worlds every pile into house, in fact for the house i have just started to rent out i have specified into lease deal when they leave sheds must be loaded with a 50/50 mix. wouldnt have any other way. 

[Woodworks]

8 hours ago, dig-dug-dan said:

Why sell at a cheaper rate? Its the same amount of effort and time to process it!

 

 

Because no one would buy it if priced the same if sold by volume due to it's lower calorific value. It's not the same amount of time to process either. Plantation softwood tends to be gun barrel straight and a dream to put through a processor. 

[dig-dug-dan]

23 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Because no one would buy it if priced the same if sold by volume due to it's lower calorific value. It's not the same amount of time to process either. Plantation softwood tends to be gun barrel straight and a dream to put through a processor. 

Fair enough, but the stuff i deal with always seems to be awkward and knotty and just as time consuming!

[Woodworks]

7 minutes ago, dig-dug-dan said:

Fair enough, but the stuff i deal with always seems to be awkward and knotty and just as time consuming!

Yes what you get from doing tree work may be a different matter. 

[Steven P]

Good reading all of this, normally U give up after a page or 2.

 

A couple of things, I got this pair of book:s

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Norwegian-Wood-Activity-Book-and-The-Log-Book-2-Books-Collection-Set-NEW-Pack-UK/152409566633?hash=item237c516da9:g:RiYAAOSw241YiD1H

the log book had all tables and so on with weights, moisture content, and energy from different types of wood (my brother has it now). I'd agree, 1kg of wood has the same energy as 1kg of wood (with the same moisture contents), just one piece will be bigger than the other piece.

 

Second comment - price - if your selling wood then you have to make a profit to pay for someones time to process the wood, should you pay a lesser rate if your employee is splitting softwoods for a day? So the costs are going to be similar - but I want to have a warm home and for me its all about how much heat do I get for my ££, so I am more likely to go for 'hardwood' when buying it. However for the last 2 years I have had a source of free wood, today I picked up some leylandi, some beach and some birch, it will all burn - I don't care which hard, or soft, but my wallet will