Good and bad woods for firing

[tapir]

What have you used that's been great, and also what's been bad?
I'm assuming that anything that has a lot of resin should be avoided as it will stain the hearth and taint the floor.

My dad just dropped round some sacks of pear and cherry wood that he's chopped down from his garden (my oven isn't even close to a firing but it's an incentive!)

[surfingspider]

fruit tree wood is meant to be about as good as it gets! as long as it is seasoned properly. Generally it is hard wood all the way. No treated wood or pine.

[DuncanM]

I'd save all the fruit wood you can get for smoking (if you are in to it) as it's fantastic to smoke with (not tried pear, but cherry is fantastic).

I mainly use beech and silver birch in my oven only because the former was for sale locally and the latter I chopped down from my parents house.

Although neither are seasoned properly they still burn OK. I have burnt both seasoned before and they are great. Birch has a sligh negative of burning a tad quicker than other woods but it wouldn't ever stop me from using it or buying it.

Although I've never used it I hear that Ash is the numero uno tree for burning.

[rivergirl]

I lost a walnut tree to the wind 4 years ago and have stashed a load of that, we also coppiced the hazelnut last year and we have apple,pear,quince,fig,cherry ( which I am using to smoke with as well) and I keep all the grape cuttings. If ever we move from here I am going to have to bring a stash of wood with me !!!!!

[dougclay]

Hawthorn is still the best for me, it burns slow and very hot and not smoky when dry and according to the poem posted by rivergirl "bakes the sweetest bread". I've just collected some more from the very old hawthorn trees in my garden and harvested more of the upto 5cm diameter ivy that was suffocating the hawthorn. The ivy dries very quickly and is covered in a mat of hairs that make is excellent kindling for getting the fire started.

I got some beech and birch last year and will test the moisture of that in the summer.

I built a wood store out of old pallets and the left over bits make great kindling too
I also knocked up a kindling "cage" to put all the grape cuttings to dry since last november... I'll see how these go in the coming months too...


Here's the cub scout guide to firewood that I posted on the old forum.
www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs315001.pdf

These hardwoods burn well and slowly,
Ash, beech, hawthorn oak and holly.
Softwoods flare up quick and fine,
Birch, fir, hazel, larch and pine.
Elm and willow you'll regret,
Chestnut green and sycamore wet

[rivergirl]

did not give hawthorn a thought !! we have been given access to a neighbours chopped trees, 34 poplar ( not much cop but free and will keep the log burner ticking over ) but we found an old dead hawthorn the wood is as hard as nails we threw a few logs on the burner and it gave off loads of heat, Will stash the rest for cooking thanks for the reminder !!!!!

[DuncanM]

dougclay,

mind to share some photos of your pallet wood store and kindling cage? I'd love to see them

[dougclay]

Apr 25, 2012 18:25:56 GMT DuncanM said:

dougclay,

mind to share some photos of your pallet wood store and kindling cage? I'd love to see them

I don't I actually took any pictures. I'll see what I can do if it stops raining for long enough ;-)

[cec]

These hardwoods burn well and slowly,
Ash, beech, hawthorn oak and holly.
Softwoods flare up quick and fine,
Birch, fir, hazel, larch and pine.
Elm and willow you'll regret,
Chestnut green and sycamore wet

Why is willow bad

[dougclay]

Apr 28, 2012 20:29:51 GMT cec said:

Why is willow bad

According to the Cub Scout pdf linked above...

Willow Poor. Burns slowly with little flame
even when seasoned and is apt to
spark.

[jonnycj]

Got loads of willow for my wfo, seems to burn fine once you get it to the right temperature, but getting it there needs a bit of help from some other random woods.

[cec]

I forgot I asked ( why is willow bad ),
Iv been using it all the time , burns a treat , no sparks , and lot of heat .
What I would say it doesn't seem to last as long as oak ,
Mine is 2 / 3 years seasoned and Iv layed it out to dry fully , all it needs is a bit of soft wood to get it going a bit then I pile it on , works for me

[moorsy]

I have been having a real problem sourcing well seasoned wood in Ireland. Local suppliers have blackthorn and ash in mixed bags and they say it is "seasoned" but it s actually still green and burns poorly with lots of smoke. I was thinking of putting some wood in the oven after a burn to dry some out for the next fire but am worried this might introduce moisture into the oven. Any thoughts?
I also gave a local orchard a call asking if there they had any spare wood. They said sure come on over, I ended up getting a whole apple tree that they had pulled out and left in a corner. It's a bout a year out of the ground and had been in the open so still a bit wet.

[scottme]

Apple wood is said to be good; I've quite a bit of it since the old apple tree in my garden has started to drop its branches, but I want to keep it for a couple of years before I use it as it was very sappy to start with (one of the major branches fell off last September, I think it was the weight of the fruit on it).

TBH most of the time I am using softwood that I get from breaking up old shipping pallets. I'm quite particular about only using ones that have not been painted or obviously otherwise treated, but there are so many of them going begging around the industrial estates nearby that it seems a waste not to collect them and burn them up.

[dougclay]

I also have easy access to Pallets and after building with them use the left over bits for kindling batons. You just have to look out for the "pallet passport" and you know if it's safe...



Lookout for HT which means heat treated and no chemicals, avoid MB which means fumigated with methyl bromide.
The painted ones indicate oak or other heavy duty hard wood.