aesmith

Thanks for all the comments. Some of the stumps are in places where I simply don't want a full size ash, either too near the house or because I'm planting beech which I hope will replace the Ash in due course. I might have a try at managing the coppicing in one or more places. I need to have a proper look at how they're doing so far.

One of our local producers has a fairly detailed pitch on the benefits of softwood, with some interesting information .. https://www.firewoodbylfs.co.uk/about-firewood

Hi, A number of Ash trees were felled on our ground some years before we moved here. I have no idea why, other maybe that a couple would have been uncomfortably close to the house. Now pretty much all the stumps are regrowing in some cases quite vigorously. In many cases I'd be quite happy for this to develop into a new Ash tree, and I'm not sure whether I should be doing anything with these trees or should just leave them to develop however they turn out. Is there any benefit in thinning out the smaller stems for example, or reducing down to just one? I have a concern that the main mass of the stump is essentially dead, and whether that could mean that the new stems are weakened where they join it. Thanks, Tony S

That document has figures for the UK, and if you look at Aberdeen for example they vary between 15.5% and a maximum of 18.4%

I've seen these figures published in other forms, but this document gives estimates for moisture content (EMC) at a number of locations on a month by month basis. The figures for Scotland suggest it shouldn't be rising even as far as 20%. Our own firewood certainly doesn't but I accept we do have a particularly effective store with shelter, airflow and a south facing wall. http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base_images/zp/equilibrium_moisture_content.pdf

I think that one's cast iron, pretty much the same as the replacement I've just fitted. I've not seen stainless offered, the only alternative to cast iron seems to be these Hardox Replacement Baffle I might try making a replacement next time if I can be bothered. I don't really like metalwork, but I know someone with a plasma cutter so could maybe get him to do the cutting. I think it would need to be 6mm steel, and I wouldn't be able bend it so the angle would have to be a welded join.

Just fitted the replacement, I didn't appreciate how far the old one had deteriorated! From the inside it looked a bit as if it had been hit with an antitank gun or something, bulging up as well as split. However once removed it started falling apart in my hands, bits breaking away around the split then breaking in half just from lying it down to take the photos. The iron is all fractured almost like dry rot. I don't think we've been running it too hot, but I did wonder if the use of larger bits of wood was a factor. With our wood mostly split from larger stuff nowadays there's a temptation maybe to leave it too large, putting the fuel nearer the baffle.

Hi, We have a Morso Squirrel 1410 in our living room, used almost every evening during the heating season. In 2013 I replaced the baffle as it was cracked and a bit distorted. I've no idea how old it or the stove was at that time, a few other things needed to be done like door and glass seals. However now I've found that the new baffle has failed already, so that's only four and a half years old. Any ideas as to what could cause early failure? I assume they should last longer than that, and in fact we didn't have this issue with the 1430 that we used in our last house. Apart from the stove being a different variant, we're burning more logs nowadays mostly ash but some sycamore. In the last place most of our firewood was bits of pallet and similar softwood joinery offcuts. So I'm not sure if the baffle was just a poor example (bad luck) or it's something we're doing. One thing I did notice is that people are offering welded steel baffles as a supposedly superior alternative to cast iron.

Round here softwood is almost half price, £40.00 per cu.m collected vs £77.00 for hardwood. Mostly we use stuff from our own trees but I think we may need a top up, so at those prices guess which I'm going to go for.

Good stuff. We have a Morso 1410 in one of the living rooms, and had a Morso 1430 in our last house. Both great stoves, I think I prefer the basic 1410 and we're considering getting another one for the other room to replace what's there. Our stove(s) definitely work better with several smaller logs, rather than fewer big ones. All our wood is hand split, and I just use a normal felling axe rather than a special splitting one. You need a decent chopping block as well.

Ask the stove supplier for a local recommendation. I've been told that wet wood is by far the commonest cause of problems with new stoves, so the supplier has every incentive to steer you towards a decent supplier. At the same time, get your wood store sorted out so that you can take a delivery of a couple of cubes to stack ready for next year. I'd consider kiln dried only as a stop gap. FYI our 4kW stove is used pretty much every evening in winter and on cold days the rest of the year, and we use a bit less than 2 cu m per year.

There are doubtless plenty of people supplying perfectly good air dried wood. But if they've had a bad experience with another source, how do you get them to give your stuff a try? Just as an aside, do any of you promote via stove dealers? When we had friends in that business they reckoned that wet firewood was the number on cause of problems. If that's still the case I would think dealers would be happy to hand out contact details for decent suppliers.

From my viewpoint as a customer and also some insight as a retailer, the pressure for Kiln Dried comes after experience with no quite properly dry air dried wood. Some customers want the stuff ready to burn on the day the purchase, they can't or can't be bothered buying in advance and letting the stuff dry properly in their storage. If people have found that buying wood that's called "dry" or "seasoned" is not in fact ready for use, then switch to kiln dried, what is going to get them to switch back?

Speaking of history, were Drag Saws ever used in the UK?

I was in the same boat and went for a second hand Stihl 180, around 10 years old but still runs fine. Parts are cheap and readily available which is a big advantage of going with one of the big names.

Hi, I've just been checking a couple of sample nets, to be sold retail. I wanted to get an idea of what a reasonable m/c expectation would be from a supplier. I was thinking that a typical customer who picks up a couple of nets at a filling station or garden centre is going to want to be able to use them straight away, so should be at or below 20%. Is that a reasonable expectation? The sample that I checked, first log out of the bag read something like 28% on a freshly split surface (Ash by the way). To me that's too wet. It didn't feel dry either, compared to our home use firewood. On the other hand our stock is carefully stacked under cover for a couple of years and I don't have to pay for either the wood or the labour, so that may not be a fair comparison with someone turning out netted logs as a business? Cheers, Tony S

That's right in principle, although depending on storage it might be rising to more like 15-18%. The link on the first page gave typical final moisture contents for different regions of the UK. The figure for Aberdeen more or less matches our own home-use wood that's stored under cover for a couple of years before use. If that's correct then I guess the idea for kiln dried would be just a touch below final air dry figures. As an example I tested a sample of kiln dried from Latvia, the reading near the outside was around 13-15%, but if I measured right in the centre it was too low to register on my meter. To my mind that shows they dried it more than necessary.

We just got a sample net from a potential supplier, originating in Latvia. A 30L net containing mixed kiln dried hardwood. It's certainly dry! With my cheap meter it reads 14% on the end or side grain, but the piece I split was too dry to get a reading from the inside. Of course this begs the question why dry so much, when it's just going to pick up moisture in storage and/or transport.

Since this process actually remove s energy from the source biomass, the increased energy per ton must be just because it's become lighter as well. Or have I missed something?

Sawdust waste would actually be less from the shorter logs, 9 cuts for 10 logs is less than 11 cuts for 12 logs.

That looks too good to give away, is it not worth your while processing?

By the way, this calculator shows what I was referring to earlier - even at near to 100% RH wood will dry down to around 30% if there's enough airflow. What it doesn't say is how quickly that will happen. There may be some data on that for people drying for timber, although they'll normally have the end-grain sealed and specifically don't want to dry too fast. Wood Equilibrium Moisture Content Table And Calculator

A lot of manufacturers quote water collection at unrealistic temp/RH combinations, I've seen some where they quote at 80%/30Deg C.

Some real figures are given here Cheapest Dehumidifier to Run: The Guide - MeacoMeaco They don't account for latent heat though, so that actual heat added to the space will be greater than the energy consumption. Data from Calorex (http://www.calorex.com/ee_pdf/Dehumidifiers_v4.pdf) gives some examples, suggesting around 50% more. However I still feel that initial drying without heat is the way to go, even air at near to 100% RH will still dry wood to round about 30% if there's enough airflow. So what I'd do is stuff it into the kiln only after doing that first drying, and use the kiln to get it down to whatever you're aiming for, using the dehumidifier. What sort of dehumidifier is it?

The bricks in our Rayburn cracked within a very short time. The dealer helped us get a free set from Rayburn, he reckoned if they'd ever got damp in storage that might have shortened their life. How are your new firebricks lasting?