jlightning said:
I have been learning or better yet relearning alot about burning wood since joining this forum. I was always told that burning evergreens or elm is a no-no? I currently have some pine that is layed over in my back woods along w/ some elm and wouldn't mind using if it wont mess up my stove or build up too much creosote. Do you need to season evergreens or elm longer then other types of woods? Also after reading about seasoning wood properly it seems like alot of members of this forum have wood moisture meters...are they worth the $$? Any good cheap meters ones out there? I have also heard that splitting elm is no fun...is there a trick to make it any easier?
I sure hope I can burn elm and pine since I burned a bit this weekend . . . along with some poplar, maple and white birch. As long as you season the wood it doesn't really matter what wood you burn in terms of creosote . . . the key being you have to have seasoned wood AND run the woodstove at the proper temps (too hot = risk of a chimney fire and too cool = risk of creosote being produced.)
Pine and other evergreens do have two negatives . . . they are often full of sticky pitch and they do tend to burn hot and fast . . . which means they are well suited as kindling or for shoulder season fires when you only need one or two fires during the day to warm things up.
Elm is not a problem in terms of creosote . . . well no more so than any other tree species providing you season it . . . the issue here is American elm is infamous for being a challenge to split with an ax, splitting maul, etc. That said, I have burned plenty of elm and have found that standing dead elm (especially if it has been standing dead for some time and is at the point of losing the bark) actually can split up relatively easy . . . and in any case it burns quite well.
I figure about a year or so of seasoning most wood species -- the exception being oak -- but in practice most of my wood doesn't get burned until Year 3 at which point it is pretty well seasoned. Because of my practices I have never felt compelled to buy a moisture meter, but I could see how this would be handy for folks who might not be a few years ahead on their wood supply.
As for tricks on splitting elm . . . as mentioned . . . standing dead elm without the bark generally splits up easier . . . other than that my one other tip is that a hydraulic splitter works wonders on most anything.