What is the best type of wood you have used with your stove?

[openspaceman]

25 minutes ago, The avantgardener said:

he pays the cutters more per tonne If they ‘strike it’ after it has been cut to length, running the saw vertically down the entire length to open it up to drying, it certainly works.

Stripe not strike. It means the moisture can get out otherwise the wood rots inside the bark, it really applies  when the wood cannot be immediately extracted. I would imagine it is unnecessary with  mechanically harvested wood as the feed rollers do an adequate job.

[openspaceman]

3 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

Do you happen to know how deep they make the cut? I tried this method once without much success, but I only skimmed the surface.

It has to cut all the way through the bark to white wood, we used a striping tool made from a hoop of bandsaw blade, one stripe up to 3" diameter and two for 6" IIRC, a chainsaw cut too deep.. It was foist on us by the toff that owned the turnery business when he cocked up the extraction, I did it for one load, ruined a pair of work boots (no steel toecaps required then) and bought a County to do all future extraction. I also started selling to an opposing turnery works just to spread the risk.

 

I wouldn't dream of doing it with a low value product but at the time turnery paid 50% more than pulp and firewood was a very limited market.

[the village idiot]

3 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

It has to cut all the way through the bark to white wood, we used a striping tool made from a hoop of bandsaw blade, one stripe up to 3" diameter and two for 6" IIRC, a chainsaw cut too deep.. It was foist on us by the toff that owned the turnery business when he cocked up the extraction, I did it for one load, ruined a pair of work boots (no steel toecaps required then) and bought a County to do all future extraction. I also started selling to an opposing turnery works just to spread the risk.

 

I wouldn't dream of doing it with a low value product but at the time turnery paid 50% more than pulp and firewood was a very limited market.

It would be very quick to do with a chainsaw and 'too deep' presumably wouldn't matter for firewood.

 

I have an issue with Birch going soft in the round (5 mtr lengths), extracted after 3 months down, and then in the stack for two months.

[openspaceman]

7 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

It would be very quick to do with a chainsaw and 'too deep' presumably wouldn't matter for firewood.

 

I have an issue with Birch going soft in the round (5 mtr lengths), extracted after 3 months down, and then in the stack for two months.

I've posted about why birch gets wetter as it rots in the round before. As our poles were to be turned on a lathe in the round any deeper affected the product.

 

The point I would make is the effort of making the stripes would be better put into converting it to firewood straight away. Birch is amazingly good firewood as it splits easily, dries fast and burns well plus because the bark is oily it lights up very quickly.

 

If I stoke too many bits on my stove the bark will overcome the supply of combustion air and it can produce black smoke like if someone’s thrown an oily rag on the fire.

 

I've lost the thread where someone was asking about putting big or small pieces on the fire, if they are dry it probably makes little difference but I have noticed if I put on a big lump that was too awkward to split it produces a wispy white smoke for a while, whereas adding a small cleft log while the fire is flaming doesn't. I put this down to a couple of things

[neiln]

I agree, fabulous firewood, I really enjoyed the cube or so I got.  It was a dream to split generally, stacked bark up it keeps itself dry, and it burns really nicely.

[038AV]

Ash straight from the ground.

beech if it’s seasoned is a good all rounder for me but my favourite is Mature hawthorn That seasoned a bit.

 

least favourite is willow

[Witterings]

47 minutes ago, 038AV said:

least favourite is willow

 

Funny I should read this as I picked up some freebie willow and whilst it's not been seasoned I thought I'd try a bit to see if it burns as there's a load more I can go and get ..... It's on the burner as I read / am typing this and everyhing else in there's burning nicely and the willow's just sitting there taking up space .... don't think I'll bother picking up the rest.

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Witterings said:

 

whilst it's not been seasoned

What do you expect ?

[Dan Maynard]

Willow is famously high moisture content when green, hence why it likes to grow near water. Dry it out, burns fine. I live near a brook, lot of willow round us, burnt loads over the years.

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Dan Maynard said:

Willow is famously high moisture content when green, hence why it likes to grow near water. Dry it out, burns fine. I live near a brook, lot of willow round us, burnt loads over the years.

The above .