A solid method of shoulder burning

My wood has to be trimmed down from 25 inches or so, to about 18 for the new stove. The ends are anywhere from 1-6 inches when cut away. I would have guessed that a full stove of ends would be a risky load likely to cause a runaway burn. This is not the case at all. A full load with primary air wide open burns very slowly. I am guessing that is due to the lack of continuous air paths for the fire to spread through. I had to add a couple splits onto this mornings load to get the stove up to a temperature that would offset the 35 degree overnight effects. These loads of ends burn consistenly, just slowly. A nice ability to have. We are supposed to see upper 50s this weekend, so there will be lots of chunks loaded for the next few days.

I get a lot of oak 4x4's from a friend's worksite.They are usually bent/cracked/busted to various lengths.I cut my firewood to 20" lengths for the wood stove(s).The leftovers become fodder for the punks&chunks firewood box for shoulder season burning.The short 4x4's plus crooked/gnarly/unstackable firewood, sure do save a bunch of prime firewood.

I was in the same situation, and still find plenty of long ones. I'll still get 24 hours out of a load of chunks, 10-12 if the weather is cold.

I think your on the right track with the irregular shapes and the way the air moves through them. It takes a while to get rockin', especially if they're packed in there good.

I threw in a bunch of "shorties" as I call them, freakin' stove ran away fast....900* in a short period.....my bad for walking away from the stove to early....lesson learned

in the highlander its box is shallow and mostly allows e/w burning but if you cut the wood in like 8" lengths I can load N/S. I have used end cuts to load the stove before and I can really pack it tight this way vs e/w. When I cut this winter I will but some specifically for loading like this in this stove, next time at the farm.

It certainly will depend upon what type of wood it is and how dry that wood is. When we burn cut-offs, it is usually done during the daytime and also we tend to burn those in spring or fall and not a full load.

"cookies" are a pain to stack and carry. I've taken to burning them in "campfires' near my splitting area when working the pile in the winter.

I have nightmares about fires near my stacks.

Something I've never worried about.