Seasoned ash - black dust in bark

[DocMustard]

Evening all, question for you. I've been processing a few cubic metres of 12 month seasoned ash recently and one trunk has the bark in an unusual condition. The bark is quite crumbly and when knocked off with an axe there is a black soot-like powder between it and the edge of the wood. The wood itselfappears fine, typical whitish appearance and is reading under 15% humidity with the Stihl meter, so is burning pretty well.

 

I'm keeping this separate from the other processed wood and only bringing in a few logs of it at a time to put straight into the stove, in case it is some kind of mould or other spore that I don't want in my other wood nor in the house. 

 

Has anyone experienced this with ash and do I need to be concerned at all? Is bringing a few logs in at a time the best approach?

 

Thanks for any advice/anecdotes.

[Stubby]

1 hour ago, DocMustard said:

Evening all, question for you. I've been processing a few cubic metres of 12 month seasoned ash recently and one trunk has the bark in an unusual condition. The bark is quite crumbly and when knocked off with an axe there is a black soot-like powder between it and the edge of the wood. The wood itselfappears fine, typical whitish appearance and is reading under 15% humidity with the Stihl meter, so is burning pretty well.

 

I'm keeping this separate from the other processed wood and only bringing in a few logs of it at a time to put straight into the stove, in case it is some kind of mould or other spore that I don't want in my other wood nor in the house. 

 

Has anyone experienced this with ash and do I need to be concerned at all? Is bringing a few logs in at a time the best approach?

 

Thanks for any advice/anecdotes.

Any holes from borer beetles ?

[DocMustard]

Hi Stubby, no grub or beetle holes that I could see in the affected trunk. One other which is a bit greener (not processed it, it was in the same store) has lots of holes in the bark like lead shot marks, I have assumed that particular truck section has had some form of woodworm or boring insect in the bark. That won't get processed for months yet, I guess if it displays the same characteristics when I process it then it may suggest the same cause. I've fetched 6 logs in so far this evening and it's burnt great, so I'm not worried about any effect on the wood heat output, I'm a naturally inquisitive person so am interested in the phenomenon and its cause.