Typical comment

[billb3]

Youth has a whole life time ahead of it.
Why use it frugally and efficiently ?
Youth has it's physical health and vigor - why use that frugally ?
Youth already knows everything.

When youth loses the first two it suddenly realizes it never had the last.


they'll get there.



At least they're working.


A lot of youth today don't want to know what that is.

 

[VTHC]

Very typical for folks to think that way. I've often thought it might be interesting to have someone like that stay with us for a while just to see what difference there is burning good dry wood vs. freshly cut.

The guy i cut wood with says the same thing about well seasoned wood burning too fast. Every time we go out on his property to cut wood i try to drop some knowledge, but he doesn't want to buy it. I usually don't press the matter too much because i don't want to piss him off, seeing as how he lets me cut free firewood on his land (and use his splitter/tractor/dump truck). We had him and his wife over for dinner a few weeks ago and i gave him a demo of burning with well seasoned wood in our new EPA stove. He was amazed how fast the load got going, how long it lasted when i turned down the primary air all the way, and how much heat was coming from the stove (he was also impressed with the secondary light show).

He still thinks i'm crazy for trying to get a few years ahead in my stacks, and swears that his non-EPA Jotul 8 works better with marginally seasoned wood (standing dead cut/split for a few months). All i can do is keep offering knowledge and advice... hopefully he will use it, but some people don't like to change after they are familiar and comfortable with a certain way of doing something. I chalk it up to being a stubborn Vermonter.

 

[FLINT]

At least they're working.


A lot of youth today don't want to know what that is.

you know, that is a really good point.

its always easier to learn the finer points of wood burning later - but I think establishing a good work ethic has to start pretty early.

good call man

 

[Thistle]

Youth has a whole life time ahead of it.
Why use it frugally and efficiently ?
Youth has it's physical health and vigor - why use that frugally ?
Youth already knows everything.

When youth loses the first two it suddenly realizes it never had the last.


they'll get there.



At least they're working.


A lot of youth today don't want to know what that is.

Precisely. You are so correct. So many dont want to work,they expect either Mommy & Daddy or the Government to support them,into their 30's in some cases.Barring the normal few times of sickness or injury,weather conditions or employer/industry slowdowns,I've worked full time since I was 17.

 

[leaddog]

burning wet wood does work depending on how they are doing it. If they have one of those OWB's and fill it up to the top with dry wood it will burn it fast even if they don't need the heat. If they fill it up to the top with wet wood it will take longer to burn so they get a longer burn. They need x amount of btu's in that 12 to 24 hr time. They don't care that most of it goes up the stack. Now if they had used smaller piles of the dry wood and filled it 2 or 3 times they could have used 1/2 the wood and got the same needed btu's with less smoke. The goal is LONG burn times not how much wood it takes or how much smoke if made. That is the apeal of the OWB's. HUGE fireboxes, Using HUGE roundsand only going out and filling once a day. When I first had mine I found that if I filled it full in Sept it would burn it all and if I filled it full in Jan it would burn it all but I only had to fill it once a day. You sure can go threw a LOT of wood that way. That why OWB's were popular but why they have cause so much problems.
Also back in the old times people were heating (trying to keep the chill off) old uninsulated drafty farm houses. The stoves were run wide open and wet wood would also give a longer burn time. Less btu's but less tending but huge quantity of wood. Around here they went to coal as they would run them continuosly with a stoker and used wood for cooking. Running that crosscut saw was hard so smaller dead trees make easier fuel for cooking. They need small split splits for that.
leaddog

 

[lowroadacres]

@ eatenbylimestone..... I stand corrected. In the context of firewood in my situation I cut in a riparian or riverfront area that covers almost 40 acres in total..... But it is stretched along a river shoreline across a 2 mile length. You are absolutely right in suggesting that a woodlot that is being managed can give up some of it's live trees in a healthy fashion.

In our case we are looking for one thing and one thing only... Firewood that will dry as quickly as possible. When I get closer to retirement when I can make the time to properly assess this woodlot and others nearby I will gladly work to harvest the timber in a an orderly fashion.

 

[wetwood]

I think a lot of it is just the inexperience of youth. My dad always had a wood stove in the living room of both the houses we lived in while I was growing up. He usually burnt fallen dead trees. When I installed my first wood stove I was in my mid 20's. By then I had forgotten most of what my dad taught me about heating with wood. For years I fought creosote build up because of burning 6-12 month un-split logs. Several years and a hydraulic log splitter later I am much better at clean wood burning (if there is such a thing).

My boys wanted to learn and were much better help from 6th to 10th grades. Now they are adult teenagers and mostly care about their grades, jobs, sports, girls, and hanging with their buddies. They did learn to wear safety equipment and properly operate a chainsaw and splitter. Now they have a hard time finding time to help with the firewood. If they do bring wood up to the house they have a hard time remembering the seasoned stacks from the fresh cut.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I just dont get it, my niece and her husband who know nothing about burning wood had a wood burner installed this year (non epa) and even they know green wood sucks as they had some, so some people who have burned wood for years still think green wood is better? I would kick those people off of my land in a heartbeat and let them freeze their testicles off.

Is that like testing your frosticles?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I have a guy at work how has an old smoke dragon and he cut wood between Thanskgiving and Christmas to burn this year. He says the new stoves like my Fireview may not use much wood but they don't put our enough heat and such. He says the wood burns better when it has just been cut and split. Glad I am not his neighbor getting all the smoke fram that stove.

Now I really wonder why it is that I bought the Fireview. After all, I use only half the wood that I used to. Oh, and btw, we do stay a lot warmer in the house now. Where have we gone wrong in that man's theory?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dennis: I still have numerous oak trees down since the ice storm of 08' so I don't have to take any more trees down for at least 2 -3 more years. I have 3 acres, 95% oak. Some people just don't want to listen about burning seasoned wood. They are the ones that will argue that burning pine produces creosote. I enjoy reading post from you and other experts on this forum and have learned a lot. Stay Warm Jim

Thanks Jim. That must be really nice having all that oak! I have oak envy...

 

[Stump_Branch]

burning something wet does doesnt make sense.

you would try an start a fire with wet newspaper would you?
even though super cedars burn in water your not going to fill the stove first right?
water happends when you want to put a fire out? my guess its what firemen use, seems like they know what they are doing right?
when you bake something arnt you trying to drive water out?
if water wasnt such a polar opposite fo fire, why would they make water proof matches?

sad maybe people think they get longer burn times out of the fuel, and not get the concept of less heat. But thankfully to each his/her own right?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Right on the mark.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Very typical for folks to think that way. I've often thought it might be interesting to have someone like that stay with us for a while just to see what difference there is burning good dry wood vs. freshly cut.

The guy i cut wood with says the same thing about well seasoned wood burning too fast. Every time we go out on his property to cut wood i try to drop some knowledge, but he doesn't want to buy it. I usually don't press the matter too much because i don't want to piss him off, seeing as how he lets me cut free firewood on his land (and use his splitter/tractor/dump truck). We had him and his wife over for dinner a few weeks ago and i gave him a demo of burning with well seasoned wood in our new EPA stove. He was amazed how fast the load got going, how long it lasted when i turned down the primary air all the way, and how much heat was coming from the stove (he was also impressed with the secondary light show).

He still thinks i'm crazy for trying to get a few years ahead in my stacks, and swears that his non-EPA Jotul 8 works better with marginally seasoned wood (standing dead cut/split for a few months). All i can do is keep offering knowledge and advice... hopefully he will use it, but some people don't like to change after they are familiar and comfortable with a certain way of doing something. I chalk it up to being a stubborn Vermonter.

Tell him to go pee on his woodpile and it won't be so dry.

So he was impressed but not convinced. Well, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. There is also not much sense in trying to confuse some with facts when their mind is already made up.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

burning wet wood does work depending on how they are doing it. If they have one of those OWB's and fill it up to the top with dry wood it will burn it fast even if they don't need the heat. If they fill it up to the top with wet wood it will take longer to burn so they get a longer burn. They need x amount of btu's in that 12 to 24 hr time. They don't care that most of it goes up the stack. Now if they had used smaller piles of the dry wood and filled it 2 or 3 times they could have used 1/2 the wood and got the same needed btu's with less smoke. The goal is LONG burn times not how much wood it takes or how much smoke if made. That is the apeal of the OWB's. HUGE fireboxes, Using HUGE roundsand only going out and filling once a day. When I first had mine I found that if I filled it full in Sept it would burn it all and if I filled it full in Jan it would burn it all but I only had to fill it once a day. You sure can go threw a LOT of wood that way. That why OWB's were popular but why they have cause so much problems.
Also back in the old times people were heating (trying to keep the chill off) old uninsulated drafty farm houses. The stoves were run wide open and wet wood would also give a longer burn time. Less btu's but less tending but huge quantity of wood. Around here they went to coal as they would run them continuosly with a stoker and used wood for cooking. Running that crosscut saw was hard so smaller dead trees make easier fuel for cooking. They need small split splits for that.
leaddog

Ah, the OWB thing. I recall the first time I heard about them and one of the first things I heard was that you could burn green wood in them. Then I kept hearing the same thing over and over. Every one that has one has told me the same thing. Finally one did admit that he does burn more than he used to. Okay, how much more? He says not quite double the amount he used to burn but, he says, with his tractor and being able to haul up full logs and not mess with the tops he gets along just fine with less work. Okay....

Yes, I'll never forget the first house I ever owned. There is no carpenter like an old carpenter, right? Not so! I could hardly believe some of the things we found when remodeling. Also the insulation was nothing but single sheets of either thin pieces of cardboard or single sheets of newspaper. No wonder it was so drafty!

For the wood stove we did not cut small dead trees but live ones. Just the small stuff for the wood stove though which mean a lot of the tops went to the cook stove. We also used pine which worked great. Then there were the corn cobs...

 

[firefighterjake]

burning something wet does doesnt make sense.

you would try an start a fire with wet newspaper would you?
even though super cedars burn in water your not going to fill the stove first right?
water happends when you want to put a fire out? my guess its what firemen use, seems like they know what they are doing right?
when you bake something arnt you trying to drive water out?
if water wasnt such a polar opposite fo fire, why would they make water proof matches?

sad maybe people think they get longer burn times out of the fuel, and not get the concept of less heat. But thankfully to each his/her own right?

Well said . . . and good points to make to the uneducated masses.

 

[VTHC]

So he was impressed but not convinced. Well, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. There is also not much sense in trying to confuse some with facts when their mind is already made up.

I think i am slowly changing his mind. I keep chipping away at his preconceived notion about wood burning with more facts (many picked up here). He has been stubborn as long as i've known him (30+ years), so i just have to have patience and persistence...

 

[firefighterjake]

burning wet wood does work depending on how they are doing it. If they have one of those OWB's and fill it up to the top with dry wood it will burn it fast even if they don't need the heat. If they fill it up to the top with wet wood it will take longer to burn so they get a longer burn. They need x amount of btu's in that 12 to 24 hr time. They don't care that most of it goes up the stack. Now if they had used smaller piles of the dry wood and filled it 2 or 3 times they could have used 1/2 the wood and got the same needed btu's with less smoke. The goal is LONG burn times not how much wood it takes or how much smoke if made. That is the apeal of the OWB's. HUGE fireboxes, Using HUGE roundsand only going out and filling once a day. When I first had mine I found that if I filled it full in Sept it would burn it all and if I filled it full in Jan it would burn it all but I only had to fill it once a day. You sure can go threw a LOT of wood that way. That why OWB's were popular but why they have cause so much problems.
Also back in the old times people were heating (trying to keep the chill off) old uninsulated drafty farm houses. The stoves were run wide open and wet wood would also give a longer burn time. Less btu's but less tending but huge quantity of wood. Around here they went to coal as they would run them continuosly with a stoker and used wood for cooking. Running that crosscut saw was hard so smaller dead trees make easier fuel for cooking. They need small split splits for that.
leaddog

Ah, the OWB thing. I recall the first time I heard about them and one of the first things I heard was that you could burn green wood in them. Then I kept hearing the same thing over and over. Every one that has one has told me the same thing. Finally one did admit that he does burn more than he used to. Okay, how much more? He says not quite double the amount he used to burn but, he says, with his tractor and being able to haul up full logs and not mess with the tops he gets along just fine with less work. Okay....

Yes, I'll never forget the first house I ever owned. There is no carpenter like an old carpenter, right? Not so! I could hardly believe some of the things we found when remodeling. Also the insulation was nothing but single sheets of either thin pieces of cardboard or single sheets of newspaper. No wonder it was so drafty!

For the wood stove we did not cut small dead trees but live ones. Just the small stuff for the wood stove though which mean a lot of the tops went to the cook stove. We also used pine which worked great. Then there were the corn cobs...

I briefly considered purchasing an OWB . . . but then seeing all the wood that my Dad was processing . . . heck, he was even scrounging pallets from area businesses to get by . . . well that just seemed like a whole lot of of extra work to me . . . add in the smoldering nature of some of these set ups that seem to create huge smoke clouds that just hang there in the area . . . and well . . . it was a no-brainer to me at that point. I am quite happy with my smaller, efficient unit which may require a little more feeding than once a day . . . but I do not have to go out in the cold and snow . . . I do not deal with massive amounts of wood . . . I do not deal with the caked up chimney and burn tubes that I saw with my father's set up . . . and my house is just as warm as his house was in the winter.

 

[woodsmaster]

A few days ago I cut some standing white ash that has been dead for two or three years. the outer wood measered 18% moisture and the core wood measured 26% moisture. It don't burn as well or put out near the heat as the dead ash I cut 1 year ago even thow the moisture meter says its good. It take longer to get the sove up to temp and just dont take off well. I'll use it
for my stove and save the good stuff for my gasser.

 

[mydogspot]

I totally thought that way, in terms of "throw the wood into the fire and wait til it burns up" mentality. My brother in law, owner of the wood stove in question, was always yammering about "the outside temp is too warm to start a fire" and "you have to have the draft closed/open/don't start the blower/don't open the door/open the door!", while I would think "just throw some newspaper on there to get it going, throw in some logs, you got fire". Now I'm all paranoid about overfiring their wood stove.

 

[Kenster]

A few days ago I cut some standing white ash that has been dead for two or three years. the outer wood measered 18% moisture and the core wood measured 26% moisture. It don't burn as well or put out near the heat as the dead ash I cut 1 year ago even thow the moisture meter says its good. It take longer to get the sove up to temp and just dont take off well.

The moisture meter is NOT saying it is good. 26% is too wet. Your 'outer measure' of 18% doesn't count. The outside of a round or split might only be that dry a 1/4 inch in. The only measurement that means anything is taken from the inside face of a piece that has just been split.

Standing dead trees, no matter how long they have been dead, are rarely going to burn well until they have been split for several months, up to two years for wood like oak and hickory. Wood doesn't start to season until it is split. Get that ash all split and stacked and you should be good to go next winter.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A few days ago I cut some standing white ash that has been dead for two or three years. the outer wood measered 18% moisture and the core wood measured 26% moisture. It don't burn as well or put out near the heat as the dead ash I cut 1 year ago even thow the moisture meter says its good. It take longer to get the sove up to temp and just dont take off well. I'll use it
for my stove and save the good stuff for my gasser.

This is an excellent testament for those who seem to think if they cut dead standing trees that the wood is ready to burn right then. Sorry, it usually is not.

btw woodsmaster, we are burning dead ash that we split and stacked in April of 2009. It is good, but certainly not as good as that 6-8 year old wood we had been burning.

 

[woodsmaster]

A few days ago I cut some standing white ash that has been dead for two or three years. the outer wood measered 18% moisture and the core wood measured 26% moisture. It don't burn as well or put out near the heat as the dead ash I cut 1 year ago even thow the moisture meter says its good. It take longer to get the sove up to temp and just dont take off well.

The moisture meter is NOT saying it is good. 26% is too wet. Your 'outer measure' of 18% doesn't count. The outside of a round or split might only be that dry a 1/4 inch in. The only measurement that means anything is taken from the inside face of a piece that has just been split.

Standing dead trees, no matter how long they have been dead, are rarely going to burn well until they have been split for several months, up to two years for wood like oak and hickory. Wood doesn't start to season until it is split. Get that ash all split and stacked and you should be good to go next winter.

Only the heart wood is 26% the small core in the middle.

 

[woodsmaster]

When I split it I split around the heart and throw the hert wood section in another pile. I will mix the new with the old and save the heart wood for a year or two. I just don't want
to run out of wood. I will have to get my but in gear and get ahead. I spent all my time building a shop and installing a gassifier boiler instead of cutting wood. think I have enough old wood
but want to be sure not to run out.

 

[firecracker_77]

I hear that the wood I buy is seasoned. Truth is, it's probably seasoned less than 1 year by the time I burn it. So, I'm probably guilty as I don't invest in a moisture reader and buy my wood for burning that year.

 

[cptoneleg]

I hear that the wood I buy is seasoned. Truth is, it's probably seasoned less than 1 year by the time I burn it. So, I'm probably guilty as I don't invest in a moisture reader and buy my wood for burning that year.

Holy Cow Mother Of Who knows what if you would have had your wood c/s/s/ when this post was started it would have been good Today,..