# What kind of wood burns like POPCORN?



## mnowaczyk (Jan 8, 2010)

I tossed in a light wide and thin interior split, and it went off like popcorn.  I was taking my time putting the screen on (trying to get these coals roaring again), and every couple seconds I had to stop to clean up the coals that were shooting out everywhere.

Just wondering if this was due to the dryness or species of the wood.


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## adrpga498 (Jan 8, 2010)

I have had some pretty lively sparks with Mulberry.


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## RiverLogger (Jan 8, 2010)

Cedar pops alot too.


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## struggle (Jan 8, 2010)

add cotton wood to that as well. Very light in color.


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## BrotherBart (Jan 8, 2010)

Wood from the Redenbacher tree.  :coolgrin:


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 9, 2010)

Thems termite turds exploding.


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## quads (Jan 9, 2010)

Sometimes every kind of wood I burn will pop.  Bear in mind that I don't burn a lot of different kinds of wood, but out of the few, white oak and red pine pops quite a bit.  Black oak and choke cherry not very often.


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## NH_Wood (Jan 9, 2010)

white ash? pops right away in  my fireplace


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## BucksCoBernie (Jan 9, 2010)

mulberry puts on a nice display....sometimes it looks like a sparkler was tossed in there with the splits.


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## fossil (Jan 9, 2010)

The bark of Western Larch (Tamarack) does that when you toss a split onto nice hot coals.  Smells good, too.  Rick


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## tfdchief (Jan 9, 2010)

Hedge goes nuts sometimes.


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## philaphire (Jan 9, 2010)

Black Locust always seem to burn like the 4th of July for me!


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## begreen (Jan 9, 2010)

Locust sparks, sometimes spectacularly. But for pops, cherry and sometimes fir seem to be really good at getting sap pockets that explode unexpectedly.


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## smokinj (Jan 9, 2010)

just a guess but light color poping like pop corn on a lite bed of coals very dry ash


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## JoeyD (Jan 9, 2010)

It must be POPlar? :lol:  :roll:  :long: 


Sorry.


Maybe a picture will help.


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## heatwise (Jan 9, 2010)

a few years back i aquired some large locust logs that were tarped for several years. it all split so easy and still had some weight to it, if i was reloading the stove i had to open with caution. i have never had wood that sparked when i opened the door or popped like that batch of wood did.


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## North of 60 (Jan 9, 2010)

Sounds like you had pine in there to me.  I hope not though, because if it was,  your gonna have to replace your chimney now.


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## Battenkiller (Jan 9, 2010)

north of 60 said:
			
		

> Sounds like you had pine in there to me.  I hope not though, because if it was,  your gonna have to replace your chimney now.




Ha, ha!


True, I've heard that even walking past your stove with a piece of pine in your hand can melt your chimney to the ground.


I'm surprised to see cherry mentioned as a "pop-prone" wood.  Cherry is some of the quietest wood I burn, burns almost like natural gas for me.  Sap pockets will explode in any wood.

White ash and oak seem to pop pretty good, locust and hickory send out showers of sparks when fresh air hits a sleeping coal bed, but not usually when I first put it in.


To tell the truth, I never paid that much attention to it.  All wood pops to some degree depending on how hot you get it and how fast you get it there.  I usually like to mix my wood when I load the stove, so it's kinda hard to tell which one is doing the popping.


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## Chief Ryan (Jan 9, 2010)

Locust pop a lot when down to coals. I find it doesn't pop much when first put in. Ive burned ceder scraps and they pop like mad.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 9, 2010)

NH_Wood said:
			
		

> white ash? pops right away in  my fireplace



We burn a lot of white ash but don't get the popping......unless we put in some that has not been seasoned well. Then it does pop. We are burning 4 year old ash right now and we just do not get any popping at all, but do get lots of heat.


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## golfandwoodnut (Jan 9, 2010)

I'll bet I know what it was. You said it was light wood, that sure is not Locust. It was its relative Sassafras, nothing pops and throughs sparks like Sassafras and it is as light as a feather.


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## albertj03 (Jan 10, 2010)

I burned some poplar last year that popped so loud that I could hear it from upstairs. First time I heard it I thought the glass had busted out of the stove door.


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## Constrictor (Jan 10, 2010)

Sassafrass does fireworks for me.


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## mnowaczyk (Jan 10, 2010)

I'm guessing sasafrass or poplar, which we have a lot of around here.  THANKS!  Fun!


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## zzr7ky (Jan 11, 2010)

Hi - 

Sassafras goes up like a fat Sparler when i open the stove door.  It's so light I only take it if it's in the way to get to a more useful tree.  It's pretty interesting in the smoker though.  My sons like to smoke cheese in the winter with Sassafras.

ATB, 
Mike


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## derecskey (Jan 11, 2010)

golfandwoodnut said:
			
		

> I'll bet I know what it was. You said it was light wood, that sure is not Locust. It was its relative Sassafras, nothing pops and throughs sparks like Sassafras and it is as light as a feather.



+100

Sassafras all the way.


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## derecskey (Jan 11, 2010)

BTW, sassafras is like pine.  Some people wont' even touch it, but I like to mix it in to get the fire roaring or to burn down coals.  Gets hot fast.


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## Gunks (Jan 11, 2010)

Pine (bone dry 2 x 4s) pops like firework.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 11, 2010)

DelBurner said:
			
		

> I tossed in a light wide and thin interior split, and it went off like popcorn.  I was taking my time putting the screen on (trying to get these coals roaring again), and every couple seconds I had to stop to clean up the coals that were shooting out everywhere.
> 
> Just wondering if this was due to the dryness or species of the wood.



As you can see from the many replies here, this wood could be many, many different species.

I believe you'll find that generally wood that tends to pop like this and give you a free 4th of July display in your firebox typically is a softwood . . . this may be due to the resin found in these species. Wood that I burn that often snaps, crackles and pops (better than Rice Krispies) often is eastern white cedar, spruce and pine . . . but as others have mentioned there are many other wood species that will do the same thing.


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## polaris (Jan 11, 2010)

Black Walnut gets going pretty good as well, especially when first put on a hot bed of coals.
Joe


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