Splitting Logs

greenbee

The willow has dried out OK, but some of it was so wet (the water table and the garden here alternate as to which is highest) that it was like trying to split a sponge! It was fine after a couple of months. The conifer is burning beautifully 6 years on - and is a lot less spitty and sappy than I expected (I've been burning it for 5 years), probably because it was out in the rain so long as we processed the mountain of wood. I've heard some explanations that say getting the wood wet can help drive the sap out. All my ash, birch and fruit wood is down now (other than the new stuff I've planted). I've just got the one goat willow to go. 

Apodemus

Greenbee, with all these species available, is it even worth trying to burn the willow?  Even once its dry, I've never found it to be much use as a firewood. 

Not quite as bad, though, as whatever it was that was mixed in with a load we got a couple of years ago.  The logs looked great and split easily but even after a couple of extra years' drying, they just don't want to burn.  They just char and slowly smoulder away.  They are great if you want the fire to keep burning overnight but need to be mixed in with something faster burning if you want any heat out of them.  Never managed to work out what they were - silver/grey bark and I thought they were beech at first, but the wood is whiter, much more brittle and beech would have burned well.

Davesnave

I find willow OK. I dry everything for 2 years and it plays its part. Still on my own logs at present and not due to switch to the paid-for stuff till February.

The slow, smouldering wood might be poplar. I have a huge stack of that and it does split easily; in fact I can smash a 40cm thick round in half with one blow of the maul, which looks most impressive! An acquaintance took some and dried it out by his wood burner for a month. He reports that it burns just fine, but he isn't what I'd call the most practical of people, so I'm not trusting his definition of 'fine.' In 2 years I'll either agree with him, or, if not, we'll have the biggest wildlife log pile this side of Hatherleigh!

silverwhistle

Yep, sounds like poplar and I've a load too, but my 'fine' too when seasoned.:-)  Willow likewise: my neighbour had a _very_ big one, and when it came down I just rolled the rounds a few metres to my back gate. Free wood is always good, especially if sourced within 50-100 metres. Had some obscure ornamental wood off the back of a council pick-up outside my house this last autumn when they were doing safety work: I have no shame about asking!

Apodemus

Thanks all, for the suggestion that my mystery wood was poplar - that makes a lot of sense.

That batch of firewood was included in an otherwise unremarkable load of birch and pine but I think it came from trees which had been felled as part of the scheme to dual the A9 south of Aviemore.  A lot of these trees had been planted in the 70's as part of the environmental remediation of the previous phase of road construction and it would be quite likely that poplars were planted as part of this.  Locally, I would have expected any poplars to be aspen, which is reputed to burn quite well, but I see that black poplar is known for its resistance to fire and given that the source was part of an environmental scheme it is quite possible that this otherwise locally rare species has turned up in my woodpile.

greenbee

It's worth burning the willow because a. it burns well and b. I had to pay to have it cut down and I'm not then paying for it to be taken away and then having to pay for logs that may or may not be any good. 

danthemoneysavingman

Splitting axe.