Very old "crate" wood

[muncybob]

I left it too long to stock up on wood for this wood heat season (our first). Recently I stumbled on a Craigs List ad. This guy has a garage loft full of 1X3, 2X4 and larger wood that his dad scrounged over his 93 years. A lot of the wood appears to be old packing crates (no nails or paint or glue) and other types of shipping box materials. All this wood is bone dry and I was thinking besides using for kindling why not burn this stuff along with my less than "seasoned" splits? I would think burning this stuff by itself is a no-no due to it's extreme dry nature.

 

[Nofossil]

Should work fine. You can burn really dry wood, but you want to avoid too much really dry wood in small pieces. It seems that the amount of surface area needs to be limited. Mixing it with greener wood seems like a good plan, though it may take some experimenting to get the mix right.

 

[pybyr]

one thought- separate from/ in addition to suitability for fuel- some old wood is really remarkable stuff-- such as species that you really don't find any more (like American Chestnut)- or, even with species that are still around/ available, the grade or density of the older wood is remarkably different from what's commonly found now. I've occasionally needed to selectively remove a few pieces from my old (roughly 1840) house, and some of the stuff that was just framing or sheathing planks back then is, under the rough finish, beautiful wood- huge pieces, by modern standards, with no visible knots. It'd be hard to go buy "clear" modern wood of that grade. Instead of tossing those pieces in the fire, I've set them aside in the upstairs of my barn to someday, I hope, make them into something (...or my heirs will someday sell them on Craigslist for fuel.... ) I'm not saying not to buy the batch you refer to-- just that you may want to keep an eye as you go through it and set some aside if a few pieces may deserve something other than near-term combustion.

 

[CANUCK GLAZIER]

The wood I burn is all crate lumber ie skids and construction "waste". All the lumber is clean with the exception of the fasteners. I find the mix of the hard woods with the soft to be a very good combination for the boiler.

I don't have a wood lot so collecting wood from the jobsites that I work on is how I prepare for the winter. It is amazing how many BTUs go to the landfill from just one site every week. I don't have any issues with burning very dry dimensional lumber in fact I prefer it over rounds or splits. I know that some jobs have to seperate their waste materials and that some sites actually send their wood to be recycled but I know alot just ends up landfill unless of course I can get my hands on it :coolsmile:

I wouldn't consider my BTU's free due to the fact I have time and some gas money for my truck involved but I do actually feel good about "saving" the wood from landfill and heating my house. There is nothing like a hot shower with my next to free BTU's.

Rob

 

[muncybob]

one thought- separate from/ in addition to suitability for fuel- some old wood is really remarkable stuff-- such as species that you really don't find any more (like American Chestnut)- or, even with species that are still around/ available, the grade or density of the older wood is remarkably different from what's commonly found now. I've occasionally needed to selectively remove a few pieces from my old (roughly 1840) house, and some of the stuff that was just framing or sheathing planks back then is, under the rough finish, beautiful wood- huge pieces, by modern standards, with no visible knots. It'd be hard to go buy "clear" modern wood of that grade. Instead of tossing those pieces in the fire, I've set them aside in the upstairs of my barn to someday, I hope, make them into something (...or my heirs will someday sell them on Craigslist for fuel.... ) I'm not saying not to buy the batch you refer to-- just that you may want to keep an eye as you go through it and set some aside if a few pieces may deserve something other than near-term combustion.

I've been setting aside some select pieces. He has a few old boxes with dovetail joints, etc. that I will keep just as conversation pieces. The nice thing about this lot of wood is that except for the gas to go get it(only a few miles from home)...it's free! His dad seems to have been one of those that learned a lot from the depression era and never let anything of possible value go to waste.

Seems with a little time and effort to cut the longer pieces to size I should have a fair amount of wood to get us started!

 

[Jackpine Savage]

If it burns too hot and you need to 'slow it down' stack it tightly in the firebox with minimal airspaces.

 

[Tony H]

I burned a bunch of old pallets last year and the only thing I ran into was with too many small pieces creating more wood gas that the EKO could handle and got some puffing , a couple of times enough to push open the damper !! Could have burnt the thing up if I hadn't caught it. After I figured it out I put a vise grip on the damper arm so I it could not open and started adding some bigger wood to go along with the pallet wood. With some wood I tied it in bundles like Jackpine said and it helped it burn better . The fires were hot but short so I used some regular wood for overnight burns since I am running without storage