woodrascal
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Everything posted by woodrascal
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Well said Tom - don't burn green wood, whatever anyone tells you...
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Dry softwood also usually produces a much better flame picture in a decent stove than a lot of hardwoods. I reckon that a lot of the first time stove punters out there are buying stoves for visual effect as much as for heating! A nice dry chunk of oak throws out a lot of heat, but there's many people out there (all potential wood fuel customers)who would prefer to sit in front of a hypnotic, swirly flame fire produced by some softwood... In fairness to stove manufacturers, Clearview Stoves boss, Jonathan, spent some considerable time at a trade show showing me just how good one of his Vision 500's looked when loaded with decent dry softwood logs.
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Arbgirl - unseasoned hardwood would also tar up your chimney. Have you got a stove or an open fire? If you have an open fire in an unlined cob chimney your wood won't produce a lot of heat to the room. As has been mentioned by others, if you burn dry softwood in a decent stove, nice and hot with plenty of air, you shouldn't get many problems. (though a stove would most probably work better with a lined chimney)
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8kw log burner advice please
woodrascal replied to Stephen Blair's topic in Log burning stoves and fireplaces
Another thing to bear in mind Stephen, is what type of log burner is it? A rubbish 8 kw Chinese stove will use a lot more fuel and produce a lot less heat than a 'decent' 8kw stove from the likes of Clearview, Charnwood, Morso, etc. -
Over 40 years of woodburning and I've never used a firelighter either.
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What stove have you got Dean?
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Some of the best UK built stoves are made from steel - Clearview and Charnwood immediately spring to mind. We often burn very dry Pop in our Charnwood and because the seals are good and the stove is very controllable, never have any problem with overfiring the stove.
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How much was the load and where did you get it from?
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As has been said many times before on here, as long as it's bone dry, I'll burn almost anything... For example, tonight we've got an Esse Cooker burning dry Spruce and Oak, and 2 stoves burning a mix of some very dry Larch, Beech, Sycamore, Ash and Leylandi. They all burn slightly differently with different heat outputs, but they all make for a great fire. The flame picture from the conifers when added to a stoves hot firebox is the business!
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Overall it's Beech for me too, though Hawthorn is fantastic stuff but nasty to work with!
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Thanks Gary. Oh, Germans no problem: - "Zo - ow metch fer ze oaken vood int zer pikiture, mein Herr?"
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Have you got a contact for these Garry?
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How much do you charge for that load? Is that a lovely old Fordson Power Major?
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Once it's properly dry Willow burns well. We burn quite a bit in enclosed stoves, so we have no problem if it does spit. It's another one of those firewood 'myths'. My brother was given a 5 cubes trailer load by a neighbouring dealer, all cut and split and delivered, because none of his customers would touch it and he wanted space in his yard!
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Seriously Woodpicker, you need to get a new meter...
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Spot on Steve. Wet wood is wet wood, wether it's ash or not. Freshly felled Ash, if you're lucky is over 30% MC. If you sell someone 'fit for burning' Beech or Oak at over 30% MC you could get in trouble. Dry Ash is a good firewood, but give me dry 'virtually anything' rather than wet Ash, anyday
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I'm on my 3rd Maplins moisture meter. The first two packed up but in fairness they relaced them without any problem. The pins fail easily so keep the spares safe! If you sell people wet wood that's advertised as dry, your customer has every right to complain.
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We've had quite a few bags of these over the years. They're pretty good. it's best to break them in two as they expand like mad when they burn. I'd prefer some good dry Beech anyday, but they do chuck out some serious heat. They work really well in our Esse Cooker.
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Yeah, the key is to get plenty of air circulation around the logs. It's no good having high temps in the tunnel if the water being driven out of the logs has no where to go. Warm temps and a moist environment is a great way to grow fungi on your firewood:001_smile: I built a small experimental solar kiln (that held about 2 cubes) I didn't arrange to get enough air through it. The logs at the top of the kiln were pretty dry (down from 40% to 20% in around a month) whereas the stuff lower down, away from a decent airflow were still very damp and had mushrooms growing on them!
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We have 4 stoves for many years and the only time we've ever had filthy glass like that was when trying to burn unseasoned green wood. Hunter stoves are designed to be used as a closed appliance. It's no wonder you have to refuel it so often when using softwood. Most of the heat from the fuel (and the room) is going straight up the chimney. If your using decent dry wood, in a reasonable stove, with a proper flue system, it will produce much more heat from the same amount of fuel with its doors closed than with them open - even with softwood. If your dog sat that near to one of our stoves it would have been fried in around 3 minutes...
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Thanks Mick. Is your stove glass always that dirty and why do run it with the doors open?
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What stove have you got Mick?
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You're right there detritus:001_smile: Having said that, there appears to be some stupid beliefs amongst some firewood dealers as well...
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All right then - hands up everyone who's selling 3 month split logs as 'dry'? You may get away with ash - but oak, beech, sycamore, hawthorn...?
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What? As a farmers boy I know what a Potato is... I asked why you shouldn't put wood ash on potatoes/tatties/spuds?
