I have read here that some burners use how charred their wood is prior to shutting down air.
Sometimes, usually when I am starting up a fire - a cold start, wood is charred by the time temp. hits 400* mark - but other times - especially on a reload - temp. will be in the 400* before wood has charred. If I waited for it to char I would over fire my insert....
I also notice that if it takes awhile to char it seems like burn times aren't as long....like I let a lot of heat up the chimney while charring prior to shutting down the air and thus slowing burn down.
I also notice that if wood does not char it leaves nasty creosote on the glass when it does char later on in the burn. (This does burn off as fire continues and happens on those reload situations where I do shut air down prior to charring...)
So, please define charring under various circumstances as well as how to discern what char means -ie bottom of wood only - face of wood only etc....
Thanks
Sometimes, usually when I am starting up a fire - a cold start, wood is charred by the time temp. hits 400* mark - but other times - especially on a reload - temp. will be in the 400* before wood has charred. If I waited for it to char I would over fire my insert....
I also notice that if it takes awhile to char it seems like burn times aren't as long....like I let a lot of heat up the chimney while charring prior to shutting down the air and thus slowing burn down.
I also notice that if wood does not char it leaves nasty creosote on the glass when it does char later on in the burn. (This does burn off as fire continues and happens on those reload situations where I do shut air down prior to charring...)
So, please define charring under various circumstances as well as how to discern what char means -ie bottom of wood only - face of wood only etc....
Thanks