When we looked to buy our house 16 years ago, there was a HUGE sickly oak leaning over the road, close to the property line and no way did I want that liability, so ensuring that it was on the other side of the property line was key to our offer on the house. Well, that tree lasted much longer than I expected, but one night it finally did drop a "limb" on the power line. That limb was at least 24" diameter and there were bigger ones still left up there. The utility company dropped most of the remaining tree and just dumped the wood behind. I offered to clean up, and share the wood, since my neighbor was just out of surgery. That wood was a mixture of punky wood and ant-infested wood, and very little was solid oak. I took about a cord of the irregular shaped stuff. Fast forward two and a half years, I just broke into that stash and what a delight! The wood still measured 19-20%mc, but it may be the best wood I've ever burned. I think the slight rottenness helps the burning, I can turn the air all the way down and the wood stays burning as slowly as I wanted. A few night ago, I put a 6" log onto a large bed of coals at 11pm, and came down at 6:15am to flames still buring, clear glass and a warm kitchen. That wasn't a huge anomaly, this has been teh best "turn-down" wood I;ev ever had, and having an oversized insert, that's a bonus.
Anybody else see great performance from slightly rotten wood?
TE
Anybody else see great performance from slightly rotten wood?
TE