firewoodman

more intrest is good in our industry from the professionals, but what we need is intrest from the public to understand, not just from the species point of view but also as mr ed says about coppice. where i live we have a huge beech woodland which used to be coppice worked for the smelting industry. The woodland is now owend by the local council who will only do remedial and emergency work on it, but even when this takes place the public are up in arms as the natural balance of the ecoligy is being upset. educate educate educate!!! especially me with my spelling

i have a very basic drying kiln at my yard which is made from a 20ft container and fired by a domestic wood stove with a back boiler. the wood used to fire this is mainly softwood with off cuts of hardwood (the knotty and rotten stuff or wood with metal in it). i find dry pine and spruce burn the hottest, the water over boils. for the past few years i have burnt softwood at home and last year burnt hardwood and softwood side by side in the stove to see the difference in burn time. Not much in it, i have never had a problem with the softwood tarring up the chimney and the glass only goes black if i shut all the dampers, overnight reducing air supply so causing the charcoaling process. best way to clear the glass is to burn the fire in the stove hot and hard with dry wood for atleast 20 mins, this will burn off all the carbon on the glass and also whatever is up the flue and chimney. i always give this info to my customers. i will be burning softwood at home this year again. this year i am planning on selling 100 cubic meters of softwood which will be a 50% increase on last year and have already sold 30 cube already to new customers requesting it and have repeat orders from last year coming in. i do not push softwood, i let my customers decide for themselves.

thanks steve, nice to have some support. the thing that really p's me off is all the BRITISH woodfuel advice web sites sway the public away from other woods. but don't care what wood is used for woodchip boilers. its all being burnt for heat, aren't they supposed to be helping the forest, woodland and wood industry. what wood do they burn in other countries where there is a lack of hardwood? and as for those rhymes......... they just rhyme!!

a customer once told me the best wood to burn is the dryest you can find, the second best wood to burn is the wood you get for free. in my experience its not softwood that soots up your chimney, but the burning of wet wood. something to do with the moisure, combustable and non-combustable gasses condensing on a colder surface. i am in agreement though, it doesn't matter what the wood is you burn as long as it is dry here's a question though. if every customer of every firewood supplier was to only ask for and only accept the alleged top hardwoods for fuel, how long could our forestry sustain the demand without clear felling as demand for wood fuel is drastically increasing? should we educate on species or on sustainability? do a poll on that one!!!

why dont you guys have a sponsored link on google. you control the budget and the advertising area and can pause the add if on hols or too busy. only drawback is you have to set it up yourself. it works well for me and yell and other cold calling web rep companies hate it as they cant compete

first of all well done for getting out there to earn some money. as for sales do the following get your timing right. although i advertise all year round the best time to advertise is when people need the wood. sales are always good from sept onwards, so start in august. find a free ad site- usually paint a sign on the side of a road if you can with FIREWOOD and your number. (the council may ask you to take it down though) then find papers to advertise in but shop around for the best price and try to haggle the cost down. i started with a weekly ad in the yellofree ads, just a basic ad. could not keep up with demand in the first year Dont worry about it being poplar, just dont tell them, after all you are only 15. just decide on a price you want to sell it for by doing research in your area but make sure you make a profit on it for all your work. people who buy firewood usully know what they want , but are always swayed by price, best advice i can give is stick to your guns on price, there will always be another customer and the wood does not go off or have a sell by date. it can only get dryier. never let anyone tell you it cant be sold or done and accept any challenges and you will do ok. i wish you all the best of luck.