Rich05uk

Thanks Dan, with regards to Cherry, I read its one of the best for camp fires as its low smoke and has a nice sweet smell when burning, however for wood burners it probably isn't great as it has a low to moderate heat output. No idea how true this is though? I was going to get some cherry wood someday and build a pizza oven to use it in, I will one day when I get round to it.

I agree with regards to Oak, unfortunately these were the only logs on offer and all I could get at short notice. That said however I have an excellent Clearview stove which comfortably burns at between 210 - 250 deg c and usually when I place a big bit of oak in there, it will burn at that temperature for hours. I can then open up the air vents and it will burn way above these temperatures if needed or I can even throttle it back at the end of the night to find its still burning in the morning, I've had fires burning continually for days doing this although its not so good for taring up the chimney. So I suppose I quite like Oak if its seasoned well enough. I have had stove in the past though which just refused to get up to temperature and therefore it makes it difficult to burn oak properly.

Yes I suspect the same to be honest. You have a good memory, last year I had a white fungus growing on all my logs, thankfully had no problems burning it though. Normally I would just buy my logs green (and benefit from the cheaper price) and season myself for 3 years. I have 3 large woodstores, each store can hold about 3 - 4 cubic meters if stacked well and provides enough fuel for a year so its easy to rotate through each store once every 3 years. However I was due to move last year so ran my stocks low and eventually only managed to move about a month ago, I've relocated to the south west so needed an urgent supply of logs and have no experience of suppliers down here. I could well buy from the same supplier next year but I will order and pay for green logs for me to season myself which seems the only way to be sure of the MC of the logs these days. My meter cost about £45 and is about 6 years old now but I suspect all moisture meters have a tolerance above or below the actual MC you are measuring and so long as its consistent we can each get to know how our meters work. Over the years I know my meter has been reliable in identifying logs which are dry enough to burn and those which are too wet. It might not be accurate in telling me what the MC % is but the fact it runs off the scale on about half the logs proves to me it is too wet to burn. If it is just the outside that is wet, now that its stored in my wood store, how long do you think it would take for the outside to dry off? Thanks again for your help.

Hi All, sorry for the issues with the photo's, I didn't realise you couldn't see them I've uploaded the photos directly this time so you should be able to see them now if you could please take another quick look. Thanks for your input so far.

Hi, I received a delivery of logs today and when I called to place the order, I was clear that I needed ready to burn hardwood. I was told that I would receive a mixed load of Ash and Oak only which would all be ready to burn. However I'm not convinced these are Ash and Oak? Furthermore, I put my meter on some of these logs both on the end and at the centre of the log and most have a MC of over 30% and many over 45% so I'm not very happy. Not sure what to do now as I know these wont burn very well and yet I've paid for seasoned ready to burn hardwood, feel a bit ripped off to be honest. I'm hoping someone can help identify what species of tree these logs are from? In the first 3 pictures you can see that the log on the left has a slight red colour to it with a lighter colour ring nearest the bark so thought it could be either cherry or cedar? The last 2 pictures are just pictures of the remainder of the delivery in case anyone can spot something useful to help identify what species of logs I have received. Any help much appreciated Thanks all.

I know, it took me by surprise too as they were totally clean on delivery and this happened in less than 2 weeks. I'd say its impacted to some degree about 30% - 40% of the logs. As I say, they got soaked the day they were delivered as it was raining hard, from being loose tipped I stacked them as fast as I could be it still took me a couple of hours to get them all in my wood store. I've been buying logs for over 10 years now and I've never seen this before, even if they have become wet. Very strange. I would normally buy my logs 12 - 18 months before using them and always normally have them delivered in the spring or summer months but last winter I used twice as many logs as I normally would so it cleaned me out, then due to COVID-19 my supplier was unable to deliver until now.

I've attached the photo as an attachment, hopefully you can see it now?

Hi, Sorry I should have said, my supplier has advised that after harvesting trees they are extracted back to their processing site where they are stored outside in a log pile for at least 18 months before they are then processed and split where they are then stored in a barn with plenty of ventilation until they are ready for delivery to a customer. Mine are a mixture of Hard and Soft wood logs and were split in March this year and only delivered to me last week, they had a MC of 25%-30% and there was no signs of this white stuff on them at the time. They were then stacked there and then in my log store which has plenty of ventilation and is located in a sunny spot too. The best way I can describe it is that it looks identical to efflorescence you sometimes see on brickwork. I have been buying my logs from this supplier for almost 10 years now, a delivery of 3 m2 loose tipped every year to last through the winter. I've never seen this white stuff on my logs before and have never had any problems burning them, I actually find them much better than kiln dried logs but that's a personal opinion and I certainly don't want to start a debate about naturally seasoned vs kiln dried. As I say, despite this white stuff being present on the logs, they burn as normal, giving out perfect heat with my stove sitting at 250c to 300c on a slow idle burn. I was just curious as to what it was and if it is safe, I've read that certain types of mould can be at best an irritant and at worst carcinogenic.

Hi all, I had some new logs delivered from my usual supplier recently and have stored them in the same way as I always do in my usual log store and have never had a problem in the past but about a week later, many of them now have a white powder like coating on them that didn't exist when they were delivered. The only thing I am aware of is that it was raining heavily on the day they were delivered so they got soaked, but again it's not the first time I've had logs delivered in the rain and I've never experienced this kind of problem in the past when they've got wet for a brief period so long as they were stacked in a well ventilated store afterwards. Here's a picture of one of the logs. Any Ideas? Is it a problem as they seem to burn perfectly? Cheers, Richard.