4 year seasoned hard maple burn time

[Ricky8443]

newbie here, so bear with me.

I'm a little confused. I read many posts about ppl attempting to get an overnight burn on their woodstoves, some successful and others still working on it. A big event for some stoves is relighting on red coals the next morning.

I have a small outdoor patio fireplace that i burned a small fire for three hours with hard maple splits that were standing dead for 4 years with 17% moisture. I doused the fire with a full 3 gallon water sprinkler at 10pm. The following day at 4pm I threw some kindling on the fire and went to look for a match, and when I came back it was already smoking and starting to burn.

Why is it that I can keep red coals for 18 hours outdoors with zero air control after hitting with water but others can relight a stove the next morning withing putting a match into it? Am i missing something? Thanks in advance,

 

[Woody Stover]

Without the water, it would have burned up the wood and coals in maybe four hours or so. The water left only the center of the splits just barely smoldering and largely halted the consumption of the fuel.

 

[Longstreet]

Reminds me of the old TV show "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" where they told horror stories around a camp fire. At the end, they always put a tiny amount of water on the fire and BAM! it goes out.

When we have bonfires, we pull out the hose and several rakes. And this is always the morning after, but it stills take quite a while to get all the hot spots. The ashes really insulate the coals.

 

[Ricky8443]

That makes sense. I would like to go without dousing with water next time to see, but then I wouldn't sleep as well.

 

[Applesister]

Old Sugar maple thats smoking and hissing smells like heaven. All you need is a wool blanket and the stars.

 

[Ricky8443]

funny you should say that. I never heard of maple as a wood for smoking food, just heard of the usual suspects (hickory, apple, cherry, oak, etc). I started the fire and was really impressed by the smell. My wife came out of the house and said "that smells good'. guesss you learn something everyday. it really had a hardy old fashioned wood smoke fragrance to it.

 

[Jags]

Maple is a great smoking wood if you want a "lighter" smoke. When I grill fish if I am going to run any smoke - its maple.