What wood are y'all burning?

werdnareklaw

hethmar wrote: »

If anyone has some spare land ash does grow quickly.

I have 23 acres but the Ash saplings planted about 12 years ago are only some 10 feet high with not much meat on 'em We are 450' above sea level so that slows things down a bit!

alleycat`

werdnareklaw wrote: »

I have 23 acres but the Ash saplings planted about 12 years ago are only some 10 feet high with not much meat on 'em We are 450' above sea level so that slows things down a bit!

I'm not jealous of that at all...

Rik242

Pallets from deliveries to work, great for kindling or if we need to put a bit of extra heat for the stove, as we try and do as much cooking as poss on top of the stove. The other wood we use is found out and about, dried upstairs at work, and its all free.Put in our second MF stopve the other week as we saved so much on the one I fitted in our kitchen a couple of years ago. 2 x 5KW stoves make for a very warm house!

werdnareklaw

alleycat` wrote: »

I'm not jealous of that at all...

To be accurate, I let 20 acres to a local farmer but the remaining three acres are all mine to grow trees on

RHYSDAD

I have a about a ton of seasoned oak (cost me two cases of Budeweiser), a Hilux load of Ash, Poplar and Beech. This cost me fifty quid and was an order I'd made earlier in the year. The Ash and Beech are fine but I'm not keen on the poplar. I also took a load of seasoned Hornbeam and cherry today. It was a Ford ranger load, in 3' lengths and cost me £30 diesel money. I have about 3 ton almost now but it isn't really cold enough to justify roaring the burner away!!!! Typical!!!

kar999

Mixed load of seasoned hard and soft wood... all sorts from Pine to Oak and birch. There is a few bits with unusual bark, marks in the shape of cloves, which I asked a mate to identify (he's studying for an agricultural degree). He reckons it's White Poplar and i can confirm the post above that it is useless.. burns badly and no heat! Fortunately there is only a few logs of it in the load.

Also got some Damson from our orchard. The trees tend to spilt when they get older especially when there is a bumper crop like a couple of years ago.

tony6403

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

are these the ones you make out of paper?

Even though we have wood for free, pallets, old furniture etc.... it will be interesting to find out what people think about those paper brickette making things

The paper brickettes are not worth the effort. The procedure is time consuming and messy. When the things are finally dry they are not at all dense , burn away very quickly and have disappointing output.
Found that newspapers - and cardboard ( never any glossy stuff ) can however be made into a good heat source by using a different method.
A strong vice , cordless drill driver and screws are needed .
Fold the newspapers in a concertina way and compress them in the vice to a thickness of about 70mm , drive one screw through the middle ( the screw holds because of the tight compression) and you have an instantly useable "log" which really will burn for a couple of hours. There is increased ash.
I mix them 50/50 with my wood.
So much better than the brickettes.

grahamc2003

tony6403 wrote: »

The paper brickettes are not worth the effort. The procedure is time consuming and messy. When the things are finally dry they are not at all dense , burn away very quickly and have disappointing output.
Found that newspapers - and cardboard ( never any glossy stuff ) can however be made into a good heat source by using a different method.
A strong vice , cordless drill driver and screws are needed .
Fold the newspapers in a concertina way and compress them in the vice to a thickness of about 70mm , drive one screw through the middle ( the screw holds because of the tight compression) and you have an instantly useable "log" which really will burn for a couple of hours. There is increased ash.
I mix them 50/50 with my wood.
So much better than the brickettes.

I burn any and every type of wood, plus any type of paper and cardboard. Never understood about the messing around for paper 'brickettes' - basically you (not personally) are adding water to a very dry fuel, and then taking months to get rid of the water added, and never getting it as dry as it started.

Newspapers are easy - I separate about 10 double pages, roll it up as tight as I can, bend a 90degree bend in it to hold it together, then put in the stove over a log (i also use this to light the stove in the first place, layed on loosly crumpled newspaper, before smallish logs go on).

Glossy mags/travel brochures get the same treatment but using less pages at once, and only going in a really hot stove so they burn completely (if not hot, it just leaves black unburnt charred residue, and loits of it). The key is to get the stove hot before putting diffucly to burn things in, and leave plenty of room for the air/gasses to mix - don't choke the airflow through the stove.