I thought I had burned green wood before....a real lesson

[joefrompa]

Hi all,

I got a nice load of wood from my dad's neighbor this past weekend. Said it had been cut down about 3 months back. Can't tell exactly what it is, but it's very heavy. The ends showed the wood splitting apart from itself, so I thought "well, some drying has occurred".

These came in .5-4" thick variations, as well as some 12"-20" thick trunk pieces i'll split for next year.

So I got my stove up to 600 degrees, got a nice coal bed, and used some .5-1" thick pieces in the process. Those did great.

Then I threw a 2"-4" pile on top of the coals....smolder....30 minutes go by.

I opened up the air all the way to get it spark....smolder, smolder, smolder....

90 minutes when by, full air open, and then it finally lit for me. Of course, it only lit for like 10 minutes and then went back to smoldering.


Holy cow. Now that's green wood!

I've used some wood I'm fairly certain is 25-35% M.C., and it's done ok. But if the difference between 30-50% M.C. is that severe, I can't wait to see the difference between 30% and 15%!

Joe

 

[NH_Wood]

Are you forced to try to burn the rest of that green wood? Keep a very close eye on your chimney for creosote. Yes, you'll be very happy when you get those splits properly seasoned - loading on a nice coal bed and splits in flame before you are done loading the last split is part of the bliss of burning! Cheers!

 

[Big Al]

Nothing worse than green wood. Air wide open and stove top never gets much above 300. Been there, will never be there again.

 

[joefrompa]

Yeah, I've got maybe .33 cords of this stuff that's going into next year's stack. So far, next year is lined up real good with ash, maple, elm, and pine. Unfortunately, I'm running out of stuff for this year! I was hoping this would be good for this year, but no luck. I'd even accept "good enough".

My father in law gave me, estimating here, about 600-800 pounds of ash at the same time. They were cut into ~18" thick slabs about 24" wide and I'm a fairly strong guy and couldn't lift them by myself, 4 slabs in total. Dead on the ground for 2 years, cut into slabs a month ago. But it's ash, so I'm assuming it's going to be burnable this year.

Unfortunately, I'm guessing that's only about 2 weeks worth.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If you have to burn green or partially green wood, ash would be what I'd choose. It will burn but still not the best. To burn it without too many problems, try to keep a real hot fire going and don't wait so long before reloading. You may have some problems with getting too many coals so occasionally you'll have to take time to burn them down but it might get you through the winter.

 

[DonNC]

This is me the last two days. I called every dealer in the paper and at the advice of someone in another thread I asked when was the wood split(because that is when it really starts drying. )
One month ago was the longest answer! All of these guys advertise seasoned hardwood and yet they are just splitting it within the last two weeks/ month. I tried not to get rude.

Finally found someone that says it was split last may. Ill check it before I pay him. My cap looks like motor oil that has gone 25000 miles. Those pallets are a real life savor.

Ill be cleaning the chimney this week

 

[begreen]

If the wood is 25-35%, when you go to 18% you are going to think you got a whole new stove. In the meantime, keep an eye on that flue. Check it every few weeks for creosote buildup.