I was speaking with an old timer here at work today about getting the most out of your wood. There was no epa stoves back in his day. Anyway, I asked how he kept his stove going so long and he explained that his stove would hold a 30" log, and it could stay going for 25 + hours. He said he used split wood for awhile, but them would throw in whole logs, and it would last a long time. What are your guys thoughts on this? Thx ( seasoned, of course!)
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I could smolder large logs for a long time, but I think the issue here is getting good heat into the home. Unless the large logs can be on fire long enough to get the stove hot enough the kick start the secondaries and keep the secondaries going, you will have a pretty cold stove with a lot of smoke. Cheers!
Of course it will burn longer, it is still less seasoned at the core. You can walk around our neighborhood and see the old timers burning. Bunch of dogged old fools if you ask me. 90% of these old timer practices ended up in smudge pots.
Anything much over a 6" round and my stove no likey. As stated, anyone can smoulder a gigantic round for hours on end, but, with "useable" heat output, I think not.
I put logs as large as the door on my stove will allow. I split a bunch of pieces that are 10"X 8" X 19", they will burn 12 hours and the glass stays clean all night. This is dead standing lodgepole so it is dry all the way through. The trick for my setup is to put one of these beasts in the stove on top of a good bed of coals with several smaller splits. If I put two of these beasts in the fire will sometimes die out.
Been around these type of people. I choke when I walk out to my car. You throw three handfulls of scraps in an absurd amount of newspaper light - when it gets going you throw three large logs on, as soon as they catch you close the air down and cause the visibility to go from 1 mile to 1 foot around your house.
It bothers me as a wood burning - gives us a bad name. I leave with my eyes burning, smokers cough (I don't smoke) and smell even after a shower. I love the light smell of wood burning from my house but can't stand the smoldering, smokey heavy wood burning smell.
Logs take a long time to dry, splits dry quicker and burn cleaner in my unprofessional opinion.
It bothers me as a wood burning - gives us a bad name. I leave with my eyes burning, smokers cough (I don't smoke) and smell even after a shower. I love the light smell of wood burning from my house but can't stand the smoldering, smokey heavy wood burning smell.
Logs take a long time to dry, splits dry quicker and burn cleaner in my unprofessional opinion.
<drool> That's almost my whole firebox! I got 17 3/4 wide 10 1/4 high, and 11 deep.
burleymike said:
My brother in law has burned in a wood stove for over 30 years. Normally a very smart man but you cannot talk to him about the proper way to burn. He smolders big rounds on a regular basis. Thanksgiving day he had a smolder(I will not call it a fire) going and we were out on his deck getting smoked out - atleast no bugs were around lol ... I tried to talk to him but gave up ....
One of the best lines I read here: Seasoning takes the water out of the wood, what do you put on a fire to put it out? Water. So, why would you try and burn wood that is full of water? Common sense tells ya that aint the brightest thing to do.
One of the best lines I read here: Seasoning takes the water out of the wood, what do you put on a fire to put it out? Water. So, why would you try and burn wood that is full of water? Common sense tells ya that aint the brightest thing to do.
I'm sure my stove would produce mega gobs of heat if I could stuff bigger rounds into it. Problem for me is the load door geometry. I have successfully burned 7" rounds of hickory 20" long that weighed almost 20 pounds and they burned fine. Cat stove users do this all the time and they get plenty of heat. With a non-cat stove you have to have a real good coal bed and the stove has to be very hot.
The load conditions that could lead to a runaway stove with small splits are just perfect for huge rounds. In other words, you can't just rake some coals forward in a 250º stove and fill it chock full of huge wood and expect it to take off, at least with very dense hardwoods. It'll either sit there and smolder or go right out. It's always a judgment call, based on personal experience and on specific knowledge of your particular stove/flue setup.
Bottom line, no matter how clean the burn, if you take 25 hours to burn 60 pounds of seasoned wood at 20% MC, you'll only get the amount of heat produced by 60 pounds of wood over that time, or about 15,000 BTU/hr... basically, shoulder season burning. But if it's real cold out and you need 120 pounds worth of wood energy delivered in 25 hours, you will be an unhappy and very chilly camper burning only 60.
The load conditions that could lead to a runaway stove with small splits are just perfect for huge rounds. In other words, you can't just rake some coals forward in a 250º stove and fill it chock full of huge wood and expect it to take off, at least with very dense hardwoods. It'll either sit there and smolder or go right out. It's always a judgment call, based on personal experience and on specific knowledge of your particular stove/flue setup.
Bottom line, no matter how clean the burn, if you take 25 hours to burn 60 pounds of seasoned wood at 20% MC, you'll only get the amount of heat produced by 60 pounds of wood over that time, or about 15,000 BTU/hr... basically, shoulder season burning. But if it's real cold out and you need 120 pounds worth of wood energy delivered in 25 hours, you will be an unhappy and very chilly camper burning only 60.
Backwoods said:
Beware whenever you are talking to someone who used to burn wood or some old-timer who burned those 30" logs that kept going for 25+ hours. Most old-timers (yes, I am an old-timer) don't know squat about burning wood in these new stoves and knew very little about burning wood in those old stoves. I say that because when I grew up, almost everyone (except the rich folks) in the neighborhood or even in the state heated their house with wood or coal or a combination. We were amongst the very few who burned dry wood back then and we were also about the only ones who did not have chimney fires and smelly smoky house. Besides, to get a 30" log into a stove, well, that takes a mighty big stove!
As for burning the larger pieces. Yes, it is fine....so long as it has had the proper drying time and few have it. During mid winter when we stock the stove for night, we do like to put a big piece in the bottom rear of the stove. Many times this is a round rather than a split. It does tend to extend the burn times but once again, we have the time to dry our wood. For example, the wood we will burn this winter was cut during the winter of 2008-2009. That's about as soon as we will burn wood. Many times we will be burning wood that has been in the stack for 6 or 7 years. Then we can burn some rounds but they won't be all that big.
Yeah, I used to burn that way too, thinking "I want coals in the morning, I'll throw in a big unseasoned round". Then I got the BlazeKing and realized the thing could easily keep a fire going overnight with bone-dry wood - and the catalytic still active !
I do find myself wondering, now that I'm a firm believer in seasoning my wood, how much longer un-split rounds will take to cure ? That's assuming they're roughly the same diameter as the pieces split from larger rounds.
I do find myself wondering, now that I'm a firm believer in seasoning my wood, how much longer un-split rounds will take to cure ? That's assuming they're roughly the same diameter as the pieces split from larger rounds.
I used to burn whole trees in my woodburner, the branches stuck out the door but as soon as they burned off I could get the door shut. 
my stove is in an office complex. i burn split wood and try to get hot fires going to avoid smoke. large logs if you have a ton of coals are ok...otherwise, i avoid them.
Backwoods said:
The name of the new game is NO smoke. Smoke is unburned fuel. This is wasteful and also a wonderful pollutant. You can get away with smoldering in a catalytic with dry seasoned wood. Pretty hard to season full rounds of your southern hardwoods. 2yrs with split stuff tells me it aint gonna happen in rounds. Times have changed.
I usually split my splits which is the opposite of what is being discussed here. I just love the sight of a nice flame and I would imagine it being very hard to get a nice fire with such large pieces. Backwoods is a great name, very close to Dennis' name LOL.
Dennis is one of our most beloved members. very insightful and an overall wealth of knowledge. If you hang around long enough soon you will find out who he is. He goes by Backwoods Savage. Its all good.
Backwoods said:
Dennis is a Michiganite . . . what the heck do you guys call yourselves anyways . . . who seems to think the best way to split wood with a hydraulic splitter is to do spliy vertically . . . I have tried to educate him to the benefits of horizontal splitting, but he is an old codger who refuses to budge . . . Dennis is also one of the nicest guys you will meet here . . . one of the guys who has helped out many a member here both with sage words of advice and with acts of kindness such as donating wood to less fortunate or folks who only had unseasoned wood . . . and Dennis is a good friend.
Welcome to the forum by the way . . . you're in a good place.
Hes answered alot of my questions already. I only knew him by his screen name until I actually opened my eyes. Everybody here its great. Is this place slow during the off season, or do we talk about icecream and swimming instead?
Backwoods said:
Nah, there's a few of us die-hard wood geeks that hang out year-round. . . but the pace definitely picks up during this time of year.
When I stay at camp with a big barrel stove I pack it full of couple big rounds before bed and I have coals in the morning. The stove doesn't put out a lot of heat with a couple of smouldering rounds, and I am sure it puts out a ton of smoke, but it does give a long 'burn.' I guess I am more generous than Backwoods Savage - I think the old timers knew how to keep coals overnight and didn't care much about smoke or efficiency, so naturally their methods are different than the recommended approach with a modern stove. I don't understand the thinking behond burning wet wood except that it does make the wood smoulder longer -it is a pain in the butt and a waste of wood.
Well, he's......wait, WHAT!!??Backwoods said:
You don't know who Dennis is? Dang rookie. :lol: Stick around, we'll learn 'ya.
"Dennis is a Michiganite" That sounds like something you'd find hanging in a cave. Or, a type of rock.
However, Jake, I think the proper term is Michiganderanianite. %-P
There was a fuss over this a few years ago, and we officially became Michiganders.......you know, like Geese. I never did figure that one out, and I live here.
However, Jake, I think the proper term is Michiganderanianite. %-P
There was a fuss over this a few years ago, and we officially became Michiganders.......you know, like Geese. I never did figure that one out, and I live here.
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