Ash

Got my stove full of it right now.

Kosmonauts said:

Hello,

I have a bunch of green ash that will most likely be ready to burn in a month or two. I have heard a lot of mixed opinions regarding ash and how people love and hate it. I have little experience with ash and the only thing I have noticed is that the MC drops faster than most other hardwoods. I have also heard that if ash sits for to long it gets "spongey."

What's your opinion regarding ash?

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Ash is unique. Good wood for long, steady fires. Easy to split, but I tried to saw a three inch branch by hand the other day and it was the toughest thing I ever tried, much harder than hickory. Takes a long time to season. Kindling temperature seems high -- not good for kindling. Seems less susceptible to bugs and fungus than other wood -- I'm speaking of split logs stacked in my driveway. I believe the ash I've burnt was white ash.

20+ cord in the yard and adding to it all the time. Can't keep up with all the bug damaged wood but I sure am trying. No top cover. Just open air with no leaf litter to be concerned with and so far 3-4 years is no problem stacked 4-5 rows deep

White Ash is pretty good but I like Oak (Red or White) better. Never burned it but I think Green Ash or Black Ash would be shoulder wood, based on the BTU charts.

Love ash, all kinds, it's a no-trouble wood. Thumbs up to other's comments, spot on. Ash is my Old Reliable!

I am going to get NERDY. I don't like ash. I have green ash here. First, my favorite is siberian elm. This is where I get nerdy.... Ash does not give you a bed of coals when it gets burned down, if you fed a stove with s. elm eventually your stove would be full of red hot bed of coals. Why is ash bad? Ash is a low water content tree. When it dries, the weight is similar to it's weight when wet. SO? The burning of wood really depends on the previous water in the tree. Trees give off oxygen and that leaves hydrogen. It is a ratio of hydrogen in the wood and carbon. You get the weight from carbon, to much carbon and not enough hydrogen - not a very good burning wood. The firewood charts are wrong and say the more weight the wood weighs, the more btus in the wood - we know how much rocks weigh but there are no btus in them. S. elm has a lot of moisture in it when alive and when seasoned is very dense, fairly straight grained and a dream to burn. I am burning cotton wood right now and it does not coal up like the elm but it has a lot of heat. Your stove burns it well, I bet it is square...

The book is where you can read more about hydrogen and btus of wood.

Blowingsmokeupyourchimney said:

I am going to get NERDY. I don't like ash. I have green ash here. First, my favorite is siberian elm. This is where I get nerdy.... Ash does not give you a bed of coals when it gets burned down, if you fed a stove with s. elm eventually your stove would be full of red hot bed of coals. Why is ash bad? Ash is a low water content tree. When it dries, the weight is similar to it's weight when wet. SO? The burning of wood really depends on the previous water in the tree. Trees give off oxygen and that leaves hydrogen. It is a ratio of hydrogen in the wood and carbon. You get the weight from carbon, to much carbon and not enough hydrogen - not a very good burning wood. The firewood charts are wrong and say the more weight the wood weighs, the more btus in the wood - we know how much rocks weigh but there are no btus in them. S. elm has a lot of moisture in it when alive and when seasoned is very dense, fairly straight grained and a dream to burn. I am burning cotton wood right now and it does not coal up like the elm but it has a lot of heat. Your stove burns it well, I bet it is square...

The book is where you can read more about hydrogen and btus of wood.
View attachment 172790

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Not saying your wrong. We don't have Siberian Elm here in the northeast. I have noticed there is certainly a lack of coals when burning ash, which is why I like to mix it with black cherry which coals up pretty nice. I have white ash available to me, which has a slightly higher btu value than green ash. I don't think it is fair to say ash is bad, it just may not be as good as an option available to you. Here in the northeast we have lots of oaks. We all know oak is high btu and coals last very long (as you said, high water content wet = good wood when dry), but the oak takes years to season. Meanwhile, in the same area we have lots of ash available which seasons quickly or can even be burned without much seasoning if its all you got, and still put out good btu values. Therefor ash may not be as good as oak, but it doesn't make ash bad. I have uses for even lesser btu woods, they all have their purpose. It's all perspective I guess...

And what is wrong with a square stove?

Blowingsmokeupyourchimney said:

I am going to get NERDY. I don't like ash. I have green ash here. First, my favorite is siberian elm. This is where I get nerdy.... Ash does not give you a bed of coals when it gets burned down, if you fed a stove with s. elm eventually your stove would be full of red hot bed of coals. Why is ash bad? Ash is a low water content tree. When it dries, the weight is similar to it's weight when wet. SO? The burning of wood really depends on the previous water in the tree. Trees give off oxygen and that leaves hydrogen. It is a ratio of hydrogen in the wood and carbon. You get the weight from carbon, to much carbon and not enough hydrogen - not a very good burning wood. The firewood charts are wrong and say the more weight the wood weighs, the more btus in the wood - we know how much rocks weigh but there are no btus in them. S. elm has a lot of moisture in it when alive and when seasoned is very dense, fairly straight grained and a dream to burn. I am burning cotton wood right now and it does not coal up like the elm but it has a lot of heat. Your stove burns it well, I bet it is square...

The book is where you can read more about hydrogen and btus of wood.
View attachment 172790

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LOL! Ok...I'll stop burning ash wood then.

Jay106n said:

Not saying your wrong. We don't have Siberian Elm here in the northeast. I have noticed there is certainly a lack of coals when burning ash, which is why I like to mix it with black cherry which coals up pretty nice. I have white ash available to me, which has a slightly higher btu value than green ash. I don't think it is fair to say ash is bad, it just may not be as good as an option available to you. Here in the northeast we have lots of oaks. We all know oak is high btu and coals last very long (as you said, high water content wet = good wood when dry), but the oak takes years to season. Meanwhile, in the same area we have lots of ash available which seasons quickly or can even be burned without much seasoning if its all you got, and still put out good btu values. Therefor ash may not be as good as oak, but it doesn't make ash bad. I have uses for even lesser btu woods, they all have their purpose.

And what is wrong with a square stove?

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In northeast South Dakota, we don't have any forest. So, most of what we have to burn is planted by people (some by birds and wind) and it was mostly planned during the dust bowl days. That being said, we have a lot of American Elm, Siberian Elm, Cottonwood and Green Ash. With the age of the tree belts/shelter belts/tree claims, we have a lot of dead standing trees. Amercian Elm gets punky from the dutch elm disease and for that reason does not dry out at all worth a darn. Because of the types of trees (elm, cottonwood) the bark falls off when dead and I love burning the bark in my stove.

Square stoves.... um... How many other devices do you know of that are heated over 1000 degrees F are square? Even water heaters are round, internal combustion chambers (engines). And to mention how something expands with heat, my brother has a Timber Line stove and the very back of the stove has cracked a few times because of thermal expansion and my dad's (and mine that I don't use any more) wood furnace has sides that are very warped from over firing and simply trying to get heat out of. And what are the flue temps on some of the square stoves? My old one and my family members stoves average 500-600 F and over. That is a lot of heat going out the chimney. Boxes are easy to make and are easy to put a flat door on to look at the fire but....

Stinkpickle said:

LOL! Ok...I'll stop burning ash wood then.

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I burn it but will sell it and keep the sib. elm and burn it! I do like burning russian olive. We do have a bit of honey locust, maple, boxelder (a type of maple), pines/spruce, also. Just not a whole lot of black walnut or oak.

I too am a big fan of ash. My neighbor cut down a massive one 2 years ago. I took the day off just to haul rounds back across the street. I burned half of it last year and held the other half for this year. The extra year seems to have been worth it.
A previous post mentioned that ash seems to leave a lot of ash, and while I agree, it is nothing like black walnut. That stuff would be pouring out the front of my stove on every reload.
There is a ton of ash available in the northeast because of the Emerald Ash Borer, a small green bug that leaves a hole in the shape of a D as it bores into the tree.
I'm also a big fan because I don't have a huge lot with room to store racks of oak for a hundred years before it is ready. I have to make due with "quick" drying ash, cherry, beech, maple and black walnut.

Flame On said:

I too am a big fan of ash. My neighbor cut down a massive one 2 years ago. I took the day off just to haul rounds back across the street. I burned half of it last year and held the other half for this year. The extra year seems to have been worth it.
A previous post mentioned that ash seems to leave a lot of ash, and while I agree, it is nothing like black walnut. That stuff would be pouring out the front of my stove on every reload.
There is a ton of ash available in the northeast because of the Emerald Ash Borer, a small green bug that leaves a hole in the shape of a D as it bores into the tree.
I'm also a big fan because I don't have a huge lot with room to store racks of oak for a hundred years before it is ready. I have to make due with "quick" drying ash, cherry, beech, maple and black walnut.

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Me too!