Firewood from sawmill waste

[gensetsteve]

We use larch slab wood for kindling production . Shame you are so far away . Slabs mostly 300 mm wide up to 500 are ideal . Can use most of the pines as well 

[Honda]

My neighbor bought an arctic-load of sawmill waste and it seemed to be mostly bark.  

[Steven P]

Does the bark burn I wonder?

 

 

(cannot remember but one thing I read once that - was it weight for weight - bark is quite energy rich -  I could be wrong though, or it might have been specific trees... weight not m3 though)

[daveatdave]

most of my logs have bark on them and it all burns 

[openspaceman]

35 minutes ago, Steven P said:

Does the bark burn I wonder?

 

 

(cannot remember but one thing I read once that - was it weight for weight - bark is quite energy rich -  I could be wrong though, or it might have been specific trees... weight not m3 though)

I think it is much the same as wood though I bet birch bark  is higher because it is oily, the main difference will be much more ash from bark compared with the wood.

[sime42]

6 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

I think it is much the same as wood though I bet birch bark  is higher because it is oily, the main difference will be much more ash from bark compared with the wood.

 

Interesting, why more ash? 

[Steven P]

More embedded stuff in the bark.

[sime42]

Small stuff, rather than big stuff I guess you mean? 

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, sime42 said:

 

Interesting, why more ash? 

It's the chemistry of biomass. The white wood of a short lived tree serves only to support the crown it has about 1% minerals and the rest is cellulose, lignin and hemicellulose, the working parts of the tree like the leaves and bark are more complex and need all the other chemicals to do their job and it is these that need the small amounts of potassium, silicon and other trace minerals that end up in the ash. grasses have high ash content because they do not differentiate into a support system.

 

There was a database (Phyllis) which showed the chemical content of  many plants, I haven't looked for it for a few years.