Sparking wood

For me it's definately shagbark hickory. Love the heat from it, but could do w/out the sparks.

tfdchief said:

Thistle said:

tfdchief said:

I have had oak, hickory, mulberry, locust and hedge all put on the sparkler show sometimes. For many years I burned nothing but hedge (Osage orange) and cussed it every time I reloaded. It was always one or two years seasoned. Then, this year I got in to some old end stacks of that hedge that I had just always left because it doesn't ever go bad and therefore I didn't have to re-stack ends. This year I decided to burn some of it as the ends were starting to get a little wobbly (at least 15 years old) To my amazement, it didn't do the sparkler show. I guess if you season it long enough the resins in the wood that I suspect do that, finally dry out enough. I know no one is going to season anything 15 years (except maybe Dennis ;-P ) to keep the sparking down, but just thought I would share.

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Regarding the extreme decay resistance & durability of hedge,that you're already aware of: I can show you some hedge posts my Granddad set in the '30's.He's been gone almost 40 yrs & his 160 acre farm changed owners at least twice since then.Every year or so around Memorial Day at reunion I go down some of those narrow 2 lane blacktop & gravel roads in NW MO,one goes right past the old place.I've heard stories that there probably still sound fence posts in various US locations that date to the 1890's. :coolsmile: I don't doubt it one bit. Dad said that the staples will rust away 2 times before post needs replacing.

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Yep, there are still a good number of hedge fence posts around here and some of them I can remember being there when my Dad took me hunting 50 years ago. Hard to tell how old they were then. They just DON'T decay. Here in central IL we have a good number of tornadoes and I can show you places where they have gone through a hedge row and all it did was snap off smaller limbs, twist them up a little and otherwise didn't hurt them much. I think the most amazing thing is that in the 70's a lot of guys were burning stoves and inserts around here, and they would cut an entire hedge row (farmers used them as wind breaks and fences for cattle) down to the ground. Those hedge rows have now grown back up and look like they did 40 years ago before they were leveled, and all just from stumps! When God made the Osage Orange, he wasn't kidding around. :coolgrin:

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That's so true. Short of dozing it out,the trees are almost impossible to eradicate,their shallow root system is extensive.One of my older cousins in NW MO who just retired owns part of the farm he grew up on.There's 2 very old hedgerows on 2 sides of the property line.Each one is easily 1000 ft in length.Different ages of trees since some were harvested for posts over the years.When I was walking through one of them last July,there wasnt one tree less than 10" diameter & 35 foot tall.Including 1 monster that's 24" with a 7 foot tall trunk! Actually was straight even,not leaning and/or crooked like most hedge.I couldnt help thinking what beautiful planks I could mill out of that,not to mention how rough it would be on my equipment :lol: Being how its 3hrs one way from me,that would definitely be an entire weekend project if my cousin & I ever worked out a deal.... :coolsmile: All over that 4 county area of NW Missouri (as well as a fair amount in E Nebraska,E Kansas & SW Iowa) there's hedge rows still standing that get bigger each year.From what I learned,not much is harvested anymore,other than the occasional post or fuel.

Lately I have been burned a lot of Red Cedar. It doesn't spark a lot at first, but after the burn when I rake the coals I sometimes get a lot of sparks. I think the blackened knots are what cause the sparks.

Stump_Branch said:

Does anyone have/know of wood that throws off sparks? I am refering to when I open up the door to reload. The other night sparks where coming out. not that you could see them until they got enough air, try near my face. I have heard Locust will spark when opening the door and lots of air gets to the coals. Not sure if thats what i have but im curious as to others expirences. the wood charts I have seen pretty much say no wood sparks, I find this hard to believe.

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Cherry will give you a show.


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