Cherry wood and....??

[Dfw245]

I'd love to get my hands on some Osage orange wood and burn that. That'll heat things up good lol. That and maybe some ash, since it's soo easy to burn it. Find some trees to cut up and split n stack and I'll be in business. My first year in a house, so I'm still getting used to wood being a hobby and not a simple run to home Depot lol

 

[stoveliker]

You note that you go through your wood quickly. That is because fireplaces are notoriously inefficient for heating (and notoriously good for ambiance). Most of the heat goes up the chimney with the massive amounts of air. All that air from your home has to be replaced. So it leaks in from other places, cooling down the house.

An insert would help a lot with heating.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I'd love to get my hands on some Osage orange wood and burn that. That'll heat things up good lol. That and maybe some ash, since it's soo easy to burn it. Find some trees to cut up and split n stack and I'll be in business. My first year in a house, so I'm still getting used to wood being a hobby and not a simple run to home Depot lol

I used to dream about getting hold of Osage Orange as well. It was really only after I moved to Texas Hill Country that I realized our Live Oak (Quercus Fusiformis) had just as many or more BTU’s, and our land is covered with it. I don’t know whether you have much in your area of Texas (probably Quercus Virginiana if you do, which is what more people recognize as Live Oak), but it’s good wood. It’s very tough to split, though. Usually we are just using branch trimmings that don’t need splitting, but we have some in our barn that are so large that they need splitting. We’ve failed so far with the sledge and wedge attempts. I think my husband will have to “noodle” them (basically use a chainsaw instead of a splitter to cut through the rounds). Even our unsplit pieces do dry in our Texas summers, but we give them priority in our kiln to make sure.

Hearth.com is a great community, and it’s definitely a good place to come to learn about wood burning. Fireplaces aren’t too popular around here because they aren’t very efficient. Even with a woodstove or wood insert real heating takes a lot of wood. Do you know if your fireplace is a full masonry fireplace or if it is a prefabricated firebox framed in? (I know you haven’t talked about getting an insert, but the subject will come up if you hang out here, so it’s probably good to establish that basic fact at the outset.)

What kind of weather are you having at the moment? We’re below freezing with a nice layer of ice over everything. We’re supposed to be in the teens the next couple of nights. I brought in some extra loads of firewood yesterday so that we wouldn’t have to traverse our slippery deck and stone walkways today.

 

[Dfw245]

Insert. I need to figure out what that is lol Live oak almost as good as Osage huh? I've had some live oak...or at least...what the guy said was live oak. It burned slower than the post oak but I couldn't tell much difference. I will definitely have to get some And try it out. And I'm not too sure about the build of the fireplace. I know that the walls of it move a little. And yes it's snowing here. Supposed to have 2in of snow and half inch of ice. Fridays low will be 6°. Right now it's low 20s. Teens alot of the week. We definitely had to grab more wood but it's right on our back porch.

 

[Dfw245]

Really interested in this ash wood and osge and perhaps this live oak too lol just can't find anyone that splits and stacks ahead of time. Craigslist is full of people splitting as needed not ahead of time.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Really interested in this ash wood and osge and perhaps this live oak too lol just can't find anyone that splits and stacks ahead of time. Craigslist is full of people splitting as needed not ahead of time.

What most people on this forum do who buy wood is buy it a year or two ahead and let it season. You might be able to find better deals when the weather warms up a bit, and then you’ll be ahead of the game come next February.

When folks are in a bind with a new stove and wet wood, it’s often recommended that they try to source pallet wood for burning or buy some sort of pure compressed wood product such as

(broken link removed)

I don’t know how either of those does in an open fireplace as I have no experience there.

I would imagine that if the walls of the fireplace move a bit that it’s not masonry but rather a prefab. It’s much harder to put an insert in a prefab as a lot of manufacturers/models don’t allow for it, and I think something may be changing in terms of regulation to say that inserts won’t be certified for them either.

Stay safe and warm up there today.

 

[Poindexter]

Can't help the OP with wood ID. Way out of my climate zone.

For smoking, fresh cut green wood will/can/ does work if you have an adequately hot bed of coals to set the green wood on. I am moving towards cooking on glowing red coals instead of smoking chunks. Both flavors are good, I find drier wood as glowing coals gives a more delicate flavor that lets me run a gentler hand with the spice rack.

Caution for the folks striking hatchets with hammers, tempered metal v- tempered metal can result in high velocity sharp fragments. If you can, better to wear safety glasses or strike the hatchet/froe with a hardwood club or glut. Or a softwood club or a softwood glut. I broke the ribs off the spinal cord of a whole hog once with hammer versus hatchet as part of the prep work pre cook, a split of hickory to drive the hatchet is a much safer (and tastier) choice. I have a piece of white oak roughly 2x2x24 inches for running my froe.

 

[Dfw245]

What most people on this forum do who buy wood is buy it a year or two ahead and let it season. You might be able to find better deals when the weather warms up a bit, and then you’ll be ahead of the game come next February.

When folks are in a bind with a new stove and wet wood, it’s often recommended that they try to source pallet wood for burning or buy some sort of pure compressed wood product such as

(broken link removed)

I don’t know how either of those does in an open fireplace as I have no experience there.

I would imagine that if the walls of the fireplace move a bit that it’s not masonry but rather a prefab. It’s much harder to put an insert in a prefab as a lot of manufacturers/models don’t allow for it, and I think something may be changing in terms of regulation to say that inserts won’t be certified for them either.

Stay safe and warm up there today.

Would like to mention that there are some strange circles carved into the walls of the brick inside the fireplace. Like something is supposed to go there. That's not an insert is it? Definitely stayed warm. It was incredibly cold. Hope you guys are good as well. Looks like I'll have to be on the lookout during the year for some wood. For a cheaper price potentially.

Can't help the OP with wood ID. Way out of my climate zone.

For smoking, fresh cut green wood will/can/ does work if you have an adequately hot bed of coals to set the green wood on. I am moving towards cooking on glowing red coals instead of smoking chunks. Both flavors are good, I find drier wood as glowing coals gives a more delicate flavor that lets me run a gentler hand with the spice rack.

Caution for the folks striking hatchets with hammers, tempered metal v- tempered metal can result in high velocity sharp fragments. If you can, better to wear safety glasses or strike the hatchet/froe with a hardwood club or glut. Or a softwood club or a softwood glut. I broke the ribs off the spinal cord of a whole hog once with hammer versus hatchet as part of the prep work pre cook, a split of hickory to drive the hatchet is a much safer (and tastier) choice. I have a piece of white oak roughly 2x2x24 inches for running my froe.

The issue for burning green wood comes from the creosote that comes from it, not really the green wood not burning. Also, my stick burner isn't HUGE per se, so whole logs isn't really a possibility. I use essentially glorified chunks. Just a bit bigger. But yes the drier wood tastes so much better. And here in tx we use A LOT of oak. Post and pecan really. Has enough flavor that it imparts. I just mix it with cherry. Hopefully my stacks of cherry will be ready before the summer.