Burning wood pucks.

[mainstation]

I was recently chainsaw cleaning up some knuckly pieces and now have a good stock of wood pucks. I have just put on a nice 6"d x 11"diam Beech puck. Hot bed of coals required and 1/2 draft on insert. Good heat pouring out. A few times , just about an hour or so in, I prop up one side with a smaller Ash split to keep the heat up. Anybody else burn "pucks".

 

[LLigetfa]

I had just come off a long construction job when I bought my former home and didn't have time to get my wood supply. Fortunately for me, a guy that had a chimney fire decided to quit burning wood and he gave me three cords of well seasoned Ash. The only thing, it was all bucked to 24" and the longest my stove would take is 20" so after recutting it all, I had lots of "pucks" as you call it. I burned the pucks first. Sometimes I just tossed them in willy nilly but other times I would put them together like a roll of quarters to form a log.

 

[Corey]

Pucks, chips, cubes, slabs, sticks, rods, chunks, balls, semi circles and even a dodecahedron once. If it's untreated wood, I burn it regardless of geometric configuration.

 

[littlesmokey]

My old top loader loved odds and ends. we called them chunks, and referred to the stove as the chunker. It especially liked to butt end off cuts from the maple/alder mill. All you can haul for free. I have never heard them called pucks, but it fits.

 

[LLigetfa]

I call them runts. Back in my younger day when I was living hand to mouth, I would deliberately cut short chunks so that it would season faster and burn better. Two or three year seasoned wood was unheard of back then. I often burned wood that I had scrounged just weeks or months before. Had a chimney fire to show for it too.

 

[mainstation]

Yes, "chunks, butts," etc, each to their own. A wise man picks up the leftovers for just an occassion as a damp November night. Not for an overnight burn neccesarily but warms the house nonetheless. Good story LL, I think we've all been there.

 

[Slow1]

I too have a collection of these - I call them chunks. Mine came from trimming splits that were too long. Sad part is that I cut some 24" pieces down to 20" for the old stove before deciding to replace it with this one... now I have a bunch of 20" splits that need to be trimmed again. Guess I'll have more chunks and some familiar splits to look at. Humph. Well, truth be told I expect most will fit as I cut them a bit shorter than 20" at the time.

Anyway, not knowing exactly how to store these I started out tossing them into a couple trashcans I had available. Those were filled in no time. Then they went into a heap. Once I had my large 'borg' wood pile cube built I tossed the pile of chunks on top of the cube to dry out (all seasoned wood but the heap was on the ground and so they didn't stay dry very well) and now they help keep the tarp 'roof' peaked.

I like burning these - I burned up the two trashcans full already using them as the base for starting fires. I'd take a bucket full of them (until my wife reclaimed the mop bucket) and line the bottom of the stove with them as neatly as they would fit, then piled the kindling on top etc to build the first (and only in most cases) fire of the day. They do burn fast but hot and coal nicely. Now I expect the rest will get burned throughout the season as they avalanche down when I restock the deck wood pile from the main one. They sure don't stack worth a darn!

 

[SolarAndWood]

Pucks, chunks, butts, twisties and every other unstackable have been keeping us warm so far and probably will until Christmas unless their heap gets buried in snow.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Yup, we burn all our junk wood during the daytime.

Having a pretty good supply of wood on hand, I am still cutting off some long logs that I cut for the old stove. I did some of that yesterday. The short ends just get thrown in during the day.

 

[SteveKG]

One nice thing about a top-loading stove is that they don't care about odd-shaped and -sized chunks and pieces. I toss the odd ones into a pile off to the side and don't try to work them into a stack where they'd foster instability. Then I use them up at the first of the season and don't even figure them into my "cord" count. Anything that won't work in the top-loader I use in the fireplace. Nothing gets thrown out when it comes to firewood.

 

[Slow1]

I may no longer be part of the top loader club but I certainly am into the "nothing gets thrown out" state of mind! I have had no problems burning the chunks - I suppose it could be an issue if I wanted to fill the stove to the top with them, but given the amount of surface area they would have I imagine that wouldn't be wise in any case... then again, haven't tried it so can't knock it either.

 

[fossil]

I've heard them called everything from pucks to frisbees to pancakes to chunks, to scraps, to whatever. I save 'em all up in big plastic bins and burn every last one of them. They're fuel. Rick

 

[SWNH]

Pucks, chips, cubes, slabs, sticks, rods, chunks, balls, semi circles and even a dodecahedron once. If it's untreated wood, I burn it regardless of geometric configuration.

+1 !!

 

[firefighterjake]

I burn chunks . . . and love them. I try to use most of them up in the Fall, but have some scattered throughout my woodshed. My view . . . wood burns regardless of size or shape. Sure it may take a few more of them and they may not be good for an overnight fire, but those misshapen chunks are still untapped BTUs . . . nothing is wasted in my pursuit of cheap heat . . . which is why I also have some mighty ugly looking wood and woodpiles.

 

[John_M]

My stove gets fed any wood that is not painted, treated or laminated. Like Dennis, large rounds and splits are burned at bedtime. Cookies and chunks are burned during the day when needed to remove a slight chill. Much time was spent gathering up twigs smaller than 1/2' from the 55 year old ash we felled last spring. I now have at least a 3' cube of perfect kindling which I joyfully share with others who thought I was wasting my time gathering up such "small junk" as they called it.

John_M

 

[glassmanjpf]

Gotta love those pucks! Keep them in a bin to burn the following year. I too burn them in the fall or keep my eyes on a nice size one for a slow overnight burn. The only thing that goes to waste is the sawdust from whacking up the logs. I even keep a seperate pile for "camping wood" thats for the undersible pieces that just won't look pretty in the stove

 

[Slow1]

Ahh yes, sawdust. I finally found a use for it. After noticing how well it killed the grass under where I was cutting up logs I started raking it up and putting it around the bushes, trees, rasberries etc - anywhere that was away from the house that I didn't want grass growing through. Cheap mulch. Not sure how well it will work out long term as I haven't done it long enough, but will see what's left of the beds I tried it on in the spring.

My question on these oddball pieces is just how much faster can they season? In the beginning I only had well seasoned pieces that I cut off from splits that were ready to burn so it was a non-issue. Now I'm cutting logs and have started to generate green chunks of red oak. Now oak is a 2-year+ wood for ideal seasoning, but what about these smaller pieces? If a chunk is only 4-5 inches maximum in width just how long does it take for the heart to dry out enough to burn well? If that piece happens to be a knot (as so many are after all) does that add a lot to the time? I'd rather not have to manage them for 2 years after all...

 

[SolarAndWood]

I don't even think twice about burning the chunks from processing this spring no matter what the species. Short pieces dry quick and storing them is inconvenient at best.