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

[nepia]

It is cyanide - prussic acid - but not in concentrations to worry about in everyday life.  I love the smell of chipped laurel and it's never given me a headache or made me feel dizzy thankfully.

Great firewood too.

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, nepia said:

I love the smell of chipped laurel and it's never given me a headache or made me feel dizzy thankfully.

Me too

 

However I wouldn't risk doing anything in the back of a container of chipped laurel leaves, if it could reach lethal doses the symptoms would be too late to do anything in the absence of amyl nitrite (freely available at rainbow shops) to use as an antidote.

 

As to headaches; back in the day when we would dust rabbit warrens with cymag the other fellows said they could smell burnt almonds, I couldn't. Thus I was especially cautious and permanently worried, this is what probably gave me a headache rather than an accidental whiff.

[Steve Bullman]

1 hour ago, Gimlet said:

Never noticed it to be honest. But it usually gets burned through the night or during the day when I'm not there. 

A marzipan smell sounds suspiciously like cyanide...

Can't say I recall any particularly strong smell when I've been sawing it up though. But then I only do very small amounts compared with you blokes. 

Haven't got any laurel at the moment but plenty of really big, old blackthorn.

That’s because it is cyanide

[Guest Gimlet]

Best not to make tea from laurel leaves then.?

[Rob_the_Sparky]

How can you smell the laurel when it is on the burner?

 

TBH I'm much with the earlier statement, if it is seasoned it is good.  Maybe because I'm burning arisings so I burn what I get.  Some woods are better for slow burn, some for getting quick heat.  I have also learned (only been doing it a few years) that it is better to split some woods into larger chunks and some into smaller bits.  I.e. the lighter softwoods just don;t last long enough in small chunks and also can burn very hot if you put several on at once, solution is to leave it in big chunks.  These last longer and don't burn so hot.  Do the same with a dense wood though and it could the fire too much, with these it is better to put on two smaller chunks than one big one.

 

Sorry for not doing it by species, I generally don;t know so judge it by density generally.  The load of Cherry I got last year was nice and Laurel is good but I rarely get decent diameter wood.

[Conner]

Any wood is good wood if it's free. Love hawthorn and Ash but poplar, lime, sycamore, beach, pine, anything really as long as seasoned Is great, free heat[emoji16]

[Woodlover]

9 hours ago, Conner said:

Any wood is good wood if it's free

I agree , when it is free I never moan about it but as soon as I buy it I start moaning to myself about the moisture the value for money ,the heat it produces ect

[richardwale]

If could only burn one species for the rest of my days, it would be hornbeam

[silky fox]

Hawthorn.I love watching it burn right down to embers...kicks out such a terrific heat[emoji7][emoji91]

[se7enthdevil]

offcuts of a wood called azobe are the dogs wotsits...

 

native trees though would be yew and eucalyptus.