Shop teacher Open House

[Got Wood]

Yesterday, my wife and I went to the school open house for our 8th grade daughter. They have the parents walk through the kids schedule meeting with each periods teacher for about 10 min.. So, we get to her Shop class and the guy gets talking about the projects and wood working tasks the kids will be doing. He makes a comment about getting the kids to help him split his firewood. My wife likes to make converation with each of the teachers as we are leaving so she comments to this guy that I am a fire wood lunatic and my daughter makes fun of me all the time. He says "I'll ask her tomorrow why you would never burn willow".

So, I then start wondering what this guy really meant. Would he really never burn willow (like someone might say about pine)? So, I get home and tell my daughter he was going to ask her this...of course she rolls her eyes and says OMG dad! I told her to tell him, you can burn any wood as long as its properly seasoned (in her eyes grey looking covers that). He may have meant that Willow is low BTU and burns fast which makes it less desirable. I reminded her that we burned about a cord of willow during the shoulder seasoned last year. Way too much info for her to care about but I am interested in what he says today....

 

[bsearcey]

I've never burned willow, but I've read that it is terrilble to split. Most of the willow I see you wouldn't have to split anyway, just leave it in rounds. I'm with you thugh. If I have it (and especially free), I'll burn anything properly seasoned. He must be one of those wood snobs I've recently read about.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well, some will and some won't but saying never is foolish. Perhaps it is time to teach the teacher.

As for us, we won't be burning willow. We don't have much of it but I occasionally cut one down....and just leave it.

 

[Got Wood]

Well, some will and some won't but saying never is foolish. Perhaps it is time to teach the teacher.

As for us, we won't be burning willow. We don't have much of it but I occasionally cut one down....and just leave it.

Yup, I agree "saying never is foolish".

I had the willow last year from helping a friend clean up from a storm. He physically couldnt do it and I wanted to help him out. So, I could keep the free willow that I was cleaning up and moving anyhow.... or get rid of it somehow. Clearly, I kept it. I will say that it seasoned really fast and was useful for those "take the chill out" fires.... similar to pine. I wont go out of my way to get willow again but if a similar situation came about I would take it again.

 

[burntime]

If I was cutting it down on my land it would get burned. If not it would never hit my property...

 

[Dune]

I cut one up to get it off my truck and out of the road. I burned some of it (in the winter). I pushed the rest of it out of the way, and it will rot and be gone eventualy. I will not burn it even from my property. I burn a lot of pine though.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I burned a big blow over from the golf course a 1/4 mile down the road. Not ideal firewood, but it split fairly easy and it kept the house warm. Bought me some time until I could find better sources of wood.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

I'm looking forward to his answer too. I burnt quit a bit of it and its all good to me. Can't wait for my new chains to come in and try out my new 32" bar on some!

Billy

 

[Bobbin]

Your 8th. grade daughter is one lucky gal! When I was in 7th. and 8th. grade I desperately wanted to take wood shop and metal shop... I was told, "Girls take Home Economics, boys take Wood and Metal shop, Miss ___." Mum's request on my behalf received a similar rebuff. I loathed Home Ec., esp. sewing, swore I'd never sew again after suffering Mrs. Sproul's class in 8th. grade. Guess what I do for a living now?

How far we've come in nearly 40 yrs.! Saying "never" is indeed foolish, Dennis.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bobbin, I'll not forget when I was in high school. In our freshman year, during the second sememster the girls from Home Ec had to switch with the guys from shop class. We got a kick out of it and we surely did eat good for those six weeks. But most of the guys were very happy to get back to the shop class, including me.

 

[billjustbill]

Yesterday, my wife and I went to the school open house for our 8th grade daughter. They have the parents walk through the kids schedule meeting with each periods teacher for about 10 min.. So, we get to her Shop class and the guy gets talking about the projects and wood working tasks the kids will be doing. He makes a comment about getting the kids to help him split his firewood. My wife likes to make converation with each of the teachers as we are leaving so she comments to this guy that I am a fire wood lunatic and my daughter makes fun of me all the time. He says "I'll ask her tomorrow why you would never burn willow".

So, I then start wondering what this guy really meant. Would he really never burn willow (like someone might say about pine)? So, I get home and tell my daughter he was going to ask her this...of course she rolls her eyes and says OMG dad! I told her to tell him, you can burn any wood as long as its properly seasoned (in her eyes grey looking covers that). He may have meant that Willow is low BTU and burns fast which makes it less desirable. I reminded her that we burned about a cord of willow during the shoulder seasoned last year. Way too much info for her to care about but I am interested in what he says today....

Maybe teaching woodshop in a town that 30 miles from the Ft. Worth, Texas Metroplex, is different from where you are, but I'd be a bit concerned if my 7th and 8th graders were splitting firewood with sharp ax.... Most that age are lucky to walk and chew gum at the same time... When I taught woodshop, I had the first girls ever in woodshop when I was hired. Seeing them with their shop aprons on just like the guys, it made you proud. It was very rewarding when you could see the eyes of proud kids and even more proud parents....as a project came together and then went home. I saw that the boys had strengths in the upper chest and arms and and could easily hand plane the face of thick cutting boards. However, the girls had a very hard time doing the same thing, but they square a board and excelled in the finer skills it takes for details... Parents, fellow teachers and adminstrators saw how positive and successful both sexes were, and those simple facts got our first high dollar surface planer through the tough budgeting process and delivered the very next year.

However, swinging a sharp ax and splitting school personnel's own firewood puts everybody at risk. Might ought to listen to find out what other money and labor saving activities he does using "student labor"....

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

I've burned willow before and would do so again . . . but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. It took some time to season and was a low BTU wood . . . good for the shoulder seasons which is when I used it.

Splitting firewood . . . sounds like a great racket . . . getting the students to split your firewood for you each year and call it educational . . . I wonder if I couldn't see if I could become a sub and start using this child labor to my advantage . . . I would love to haul some wood to the school and have the kiddos buck it up for me and split it . . . maybe we could even arrange a field trip . . . to my house to stack it for me.

 

[Got Wood]

The comment about having the kids split his firewood was meant to be a joke by the teacher. No way my 8th grade daughter would be swinging an axe!
He wasnt in school Friday so I'll see if he has anything to say about it today.
Around here in the middle school the kids(boys and girls) take a 1/2 year of shop or tech as they call it and a 1/2 year of home skills like sewing and cooking.

 

[firefighterjake]

The comment about having the kids split his firewood was meant to be a joke by the teacher. No way my 8th grade daughter would be swinging an axe!
He wasnt in school Friday so I'll see if he has anything to say about it today.
Around here in the middle school the kids(boys and girls) take a 1/2 year of shop or tech as they call it and a 1/2 year of home skills like sewing and cooking.

A good idea these days . . .

About the only thing I really learned and use from my "shop days" in school was the Tree Identification Class . . . obviously this has been a handy skill to retain. I do wish however that someone had taught me how to do some basic cooking and sewing . . . two skills my wife taught me . . . although truth be told she has also taught me some about construction since she knew more than me about that as well thanks to her father renovating a house in CT and everyone in the family had to help.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

When I was in junior high one of the classes I had to take was typing. And back then all there were was manual typewriters. And I can remember thinking that I would never need to know this! Sure am glad I had it now. I'll never type fast but I sure would hate to try to learn it now.

Billy

 

[mayhem]

Splitting wood in a wood shop class, I would automatically consider that a half joke because the kids are new to the skillset and are likely making lots of mistakes that result in otherwise unusable pieces of wood that would be thrown out unless the shop teacher takes them home to burn.

I do disagree with the idea that an 8th grade kid shouldn't be spliting wood. 8th grade is between 11-13 (depending on what time of year your birthday is). Plenty old enough to be taught how to safely use an axe, maul and sledgehammer/wedge combo. I started splitting wood around 9-10. My daughter is 7 now, she'll be splititing at least some of the 2012 wood by hand, right there with her old man.

I burned about a half cord of Willow each of the past 2 years. Splits just fine, a bit stinky perhaps. Seemed to dry fairly quickly and when I put it in the stove it caught on fire and kept the stove hot for awhile. During this time I did not go sterile, there were no chimney fires and the male pattern baldness was already well underway, not the willow's fault. I don't have access to any right now, but if I had easy access to it, free wood is free wood and it'd be in my truck.

 

[firefighterjake]

When I was in junior high one of the classes I had to take was typing. And back then all there were was manual typewriters. And I can remember thinking that I would never need to know this! Sure am glad I had it now. I'll never type fast but I sure would hate to try to learn it now.

Billy

About the same situation . . . took a typing class (with manual typewriters) my senior year of high school just because I had nothing better to take . . . one of the most useful classes I took in high school.

 

[madrone]

Funny the ideas even knowledgeable people get. I was told by an arborist that cottonwood corrodes your chimney.

 

[firefighterjake]

Funny the ideas even knowledgeable people get. I was told by an arborist that cottonwood corrodes your chimney.

Silly arborist . . . everyone knows it is pine that corrodes the chimney.

 

[madrone]

That's what I'm saying!!

 

[Got Wood]

Daughter just got home.... Her teacher did ask her why you wouldnt burn Willow. She recited what I told her "low BTU's and burns like paper but you can burn any wood as long as its seasoned". He says "thats not why, its because it smells like urine ....."

Oh boy....

 

[Danno77]

say what now?

 

[mayhem]

He's kind of right...but only when its freshly split. Smell dissipates quickly when you open it up. It doesn't smell at all unusual when burning.

 

[madrone]

Unless you burn it wet.

 

[BrotherBart]

I have no carpentry skills whatsoever. It might be because I ran a little casino every day in the spray booth in the shop class. Got caught just once and got my butt busted with a paddle but I marked it off as a cost of doing business.

Don't have any willow around the place.