Interesting book

[david123]

Just bought " British native trees" their past and present uses by Piers Warren. I bought it because it is also includes a guide to wood burning in the home.. Only 83 pages but none the less, a worthwhile purchase. It has an interesting chapter on seasoning and splitting logs for the wood burner. Just chopped down a Cotoneaster tree and and have harvested the logs and split them according to that particular chapter. There seems to be lot of opinions on how long to season logs for and that chapter seems to clear up the confusion.

 

[blackrodd]

Having not heard of a "Cottoneaster" before. I Googled it and found it was thought to be very poisonous in times past.
But as you can imagine, I am now delighted to inform you that was a "Load of old cobblers"
http://www.thepoisongarden.co.uk/blog/blog251011.htm

Regards Rodders

 

[NazNomad]

The Blackbirds love the berries on my Cotoneaster. :-D

 

[david123]

Hi Rodders and Naz

Nice tree/bush but it grows up to 20 meters high. We reduced it by half 9 months ago and it was back up amongst the telephone wires again. So I chopped it down, more trouble than it was worth.

I now have a nice pile of split logs for the wood burner when they are dry.

 

[custard]

I'm familiar with the air drying recommendations for furniture wood, but what drying time did it recommend for the purposes of wood burning fires?

 

[david123]

Hi custard
Well seasoned fire wood should be 20 to 25% moisture content. According to the book logs should be cut in the winter any logs over 6 inches in diameter should be split and kept in a well ventilate store and used the next winter or better still a couple of years.

Hope that helps

 

[bugbear]

Just chopped down a Cotoneaster tree and and have harvested the logs and split them according to that particular chapter. There seems to be lot of opinions on how long to season logs for and that chapter seems to clear up the confusion.

I'm not sure that firewood is the best use for that tree;

cotoneaster-t79087.html?hilit=cotoneaster

BugBear

 

[custard]

Hi custard
Well seasoned fire wood should be 20 to 25% moisture content. According to the book logs should be cut in the winter any logs over 6 inches in diameter should be split and kept in a well ventilate store and used the next winter or better still a couple of years.

Hope that helps

Top man, thanks Dave.

My moisture meter is one of the "non invasive" types, so to check firewood I'll have to plane a flat on it, none the less I think I'll try that on the odd sample because the difference in heat and general "burnability" between the kilned hardwood off-cuts from my workshop and the split hardwood logs from log store is pretty dramatic.

 

[david123]

You are welcome
15 to 20% more energy out it on dry logs, and a lot less ash.

Bugbear I burned a couple of the logs that the previous owner had left and they seemed OK. Time will tell, they are freebies anyway.

Cheers

 

[bugbear]

Bugbear I burned a couple of the logs that the previous owner had left and they seemed OK. Time will tell, they are freebies anyway.

Cheers

I didn't mean they wouldn't burn; I meant that a woodworker might have a use for dark coloured, very hard wood!

Definitely chisel handle/knife scale worthy IMHO.

Try sawing and planing a piece up and see what you think.

BugBear

 

[heimlaga]

Hi custard
Well seasoned fire wood should be 20 to 25% moisture content. According to the book logs should be cut in the winter any logs over 6 inches in diameter should be split and kept in a well ventilate store and used the next winter or better still a couple of years.

Hope that helps

That is exactly how tradition dictates in Finland and Sweden.

However one shouldn't leave the woodstack for too long. After more than 8 or 10 years of drying the wood looses enegy content significantly. I have read somewhere that certain smaller molecules just evaporates and they happen to be very flammable and clean burning. However if the old firewood is free one can always compensate the energy loss by burning more of it.

 

[Zeddedhed]

On the subject of firewood, from someone who burns about 4 tons every year, the way I deal with mine is as follows:
Logging is done over the winter. Logs are about 12" long and are always split unless less than 4" across. If you peel a strip of bark away it'l help with drying.
Split logs are stacked on pallets (off the ground) in rough cords, and the top layer always has the bark facing up.
After two years these burn beautifully. I don't bother trying to keep the rain off - the upper facing bark helps with that.
We have an indoor log store that holds about three or four barrowloads and they dry out quick enough to burn.
I've found that the key thing is air circulation. Rain won't stop them drying out.

 

[porker]

My wife bought me this book at Xmas as I am a bit obsessed with firewood and haven't paid for any over the two years I got into burning http://www.amazon.co.uk/Norwegian-W...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1452887959&sr=1-1
Interestingly I was reading a bit this evening and they claim the old firewood losing energy is largely a myth if stored dry. Some volatiles are lost but this has a very small effect.

 

[custard]

After more than 8 or 10 years of drying the wood looses enegy content significantly. I have read somewhere that certain smaller molecules just evaporates

Is that advice specific to Birch? I think I once heard that you can distill an oil from Birch which can be used in oil lamps...or is that complete nonsense!