burning a large block

This is interesting. If you had a large hardwood block of wood (let's say Red Oak) that was dry would it burn longer - for example in an overnight burn? I would think it would. It would take longer to burn and conversely give off less heat as it was being consumed (which is fine for a night burn).

The limitation? The limitation is getting your block of wood dry. If you were already ahead on firewood why not cut some blocks and set them aside to dry on a longer cycle, say 4 or 5 years for red oak blocks?

So you would have your daytime wood pile and your nighttime wood pile of blocks. I think Wood burners do this informally by setting aside crotches and larger pieces for night burns.

Generally, this is what I will use my 8" rounds that are split in half for.

I usually keep some knarly pieces that wouldn't split any further near my deck rack. When I get a good hot 2-3" full bed of red hot coals, I put 1 in. Feels good to get rid of those. They last a long time, but I don't burn overnight.

I think bigger pieces burn a lot longer but I'm not a fan. My wife is only willing to help stack and burn the wood if it's not too big and heavy. consequently I have a lot of small wood that dries with a quickness outside.

The wood splitter doesn't care how wet or dry the wood is so I split it tiny right away and after a year stacked outside under the trees it's pretty dry.

I've found the same effect can be had using a pile of smaller pieces and controlling the air.

Most stove manufactures don't recommend having split sizes greater than 6" they take forever to dry out.

Depends, again.

Some wood we cut this year is 15% MC right off the saw.

If that's the case then you can throw large chunks in no worries.

Not sure about over nighters as I don't know your stove.

Myself, I wouldn't go through any extra effort to create blocks for burning. Although I'm sure there might be something to your theory as big splits hang out much longer in a stove than small ones.

Totally agree with mass burner.....there's always a place in my stove for the uglies on a bed of coals.

As above, I just leave the big crotches and uglies that won't split any smaller very easily out in the sun for two years instead of just one. Some really nasty ones get noodled down to manageable sizes, but after two years they go in the stove.

I don't worry about large or small...species or specials. If it fits in my stove, I burn it. Some days I am warm, some I am cold. But I burn wood and I am happy.

I depends on your stove and your required running temps. For me the majority of my stuff is 6-8 inches x 4 -5 inches. These burn for a long time with 3inches of coals. The smaller stuff is used for startup.

I typically split up some large pieces for overnight fires . . . seasoning is not a problem due to how far ahead I am. And yes . . . I believe they do burn longer. I also tend to try to split these up so they're in the shape of a square or rectangle to allow stacking in the firebox.

That said, the majority of my wood is not large blocks -- more medium to smaller sized.

I think the heat you get from a fire is related to the surface area exposed. So lots of small splits will give you a hot fast fire (taken to an extreme...think a firebox full of kindling or even grass...very hot).

So a single block of wood will burn slowly, relative to the weight of wood. You can only burn the outside surface, so you have less heat for a longer time.

I don't worry about species either but I do split so I have very large pieces.
This seems to give me a very good, long burn time. Pine, maple, oak, cherry, doesn't matter to me.
Love me some free, scrounged, large pine splits!

ctswf said:

do large thick pieces burn longer overnight?

Click to expand...

Yep. Since I learned that lesson I split larger, and burn longer. I"ll split an 8" round in half, but anything smaller doesn't get split.

Big wood needs to be really dry, though, to keep burning. And it needs company.

If you decide to try this I would recommend attempting one during the daytime first while you can watch what happens. I find that you generally need at least two pieces of wood next to each other to sustain a burn. Placing just one large log or squared up piece of wood on hot coals might light off initially, but after a time the flame will die down and you'll be left with a smoldering log that could stay that way for hours before it burns out. I wouldn't want all that smoke going out my chimney while I slept.

Somewhere in my archives I have a photo of my wood stove which shows a slab of wood the burned for 3 days. It was about 6 inches thick at the middle, split off the side of a big round. It barely fit in the stove door at an angle. I laid it on the floor of the stove and built my fire on top of it. I did have to add wood each day, but that original slab lasted 3 full days.

Burning large blocks can be iffy. I tend to split the soft hardwood and softwoods large enough to fit through the door of the stove, but only add them after I have a nice bed of coals. I've never gotten an overnight burn with the softwoods and never tried doing the block thing with any of the hardwoods.

If I want an overnight burn, I'll take my regular splits, split like a slice of pie, and alternate them until the stove is filled to capacity. This is after I have the stove up to temperature and want an overnight burn.