Backwoods Savage said:
Battenkiller, I am not attempting to be hostile but only wanted to point out how your posts seem to come across. As I stated, it just looks like you need some ego boost so you make out as if your word or idea is the only one worth anything. After all, you keep posting for the umpteenth time...
If I read your post wrong then I sincerely apologize. I do not mean to make enemies of anyone on this forum or any where else. I just post what I have found to be true and not just something that I have read. Many times I read supposedly truths but later find them to be wrong. I also have thought that I've been right only to find later that I am wrong and am never afraid to admit that.
Gee, Dennis, I already said you misread my post. Why bring up the ego boosting thing again? I really don't need any ego boost, trust me. I am a well regarded professional woodworker in my area, so any ego boosting needs I may have get met adequately by my peers, thank you. Most of the stuff I post here is the result of folks saying things that just make my jaw drop in disbelief. I feel obliged to correct these things if I have a chance, just like you seem to. If you see that as a need for attention, so be it. But your posting rate is almost 2000 posts/year. You have posted for the umteenth time the necessity of having 3+ years of wood on hand, even though it is impractical or impossible for many folks to do this. Or how many cord of wood you have on hand or pics of all your stacks. C'mon, what's with that if not ego?
Maybe I shouldn't try at all, I really have important things that I sometimes put off in order to provide help. Yeah, sometimes a pissing contest gets started by someone who thinks I'm full of it. I'm not the kind of guy to duck and run in that event, although I am learning. I do my very best to think things through from a logical point of view and
then to do the research for facts. That's the beauty of the Interweb - the information is out there. I admit, my presentation may come off at times at officious, but that is not my intent. And I try to leave anecdotal stuff or personal observation out of my posts unless I can support those things with facts.
For example, I have noticed you mentioning that ash is one of the most rot-resistant woods out there, but my personal experience, both in firewood and in boat building, has proved to be otherwise. Ash is considered by the woodworking community to be a non-durable (very prone to rot) species. I have had 16" logs of ash lose a lot of BTUs just sitting on pallets for 3-4 years. Sure they burned, but I could tell when I split them they were not what they once were. So your observations are different from mine, but mine are supported by the industry.
You seem to think I just find Wiki facts, accept them as gospel, and present the info here as my own. True, I do use the net to double-check my thinking when I can find the right info, but most of what I have posted here is just general knowledge to me that I can't seem to understand how folks can't get. Simple physics concepts like moisture gradients and heat transfer (tricky one there) and draft and relative humidity, most of it based on very basic thermodynamics learned in an entry level college course. I repeat these facts because folks are constantly getting hung up on these concepts, maybe because they never took physics or organic chemistry or whatever. My repetitious stating of these facts is only an attempt to get through to those folks. If it's not helpful or appreciated by the community... hell, saves me a bunch of time. I try my best to stay out of install posts and specific stove problems because I don't have the knowledge to speak of these things with any authority. I drop my two cents in on occasion there, but I mostly think that is for the experts.
Regarding this thread, it is a
fact that dry wood pyrolyzes faster than wet wood, and that small splits pyrolyze faster than large ones. If you have a stove that is designed for "X" amount of smoke to be burned off by secondary air or a combustor at a given burn rate, it makes perfect sense to me that deviating either way from the ideal will give less than a desirable result. Everything I have read or been told by experts over the years leads me to the conclusion that wood of 18-20% MC is that ideal, and that splits in the 6-8" range are probably the best compromise. I've never had wood around outside long enough to get much lower, but I can tell you that the wood I dry in a few weeks with fans inside my basement burns like rocket fuel in my stove. When it's in there too long, I get smokier burns at startup. Toward the end of the season, I resort to mixing in wetter wood to slow down the pyrolysis of the load and the smoke goes away. That's my observation, and the industry facts support my observation.
No one is claiming that observation is without merit. Without observation, there would be no science. But facts
plus observation are better than just observation by itself if you want to achieve a deeper understanding. That's why I finally decided to check the MC of my wood to confirm what I had already observed.
You know, I see a lot of hooey posted here by first year (sometimes first week) burners, and I don't see them getting flamed here. It is probably my tone that so offends you. I find it very difficult to disagree with folks on the net, and this wouldn't be the first time I've offended someone on a forum, but I'm a very direct kind of guy when I feel the need to make a point. You would not find me so objectionable in person, trust me. But next time, don't call me out in public on it, OK? We have a PM system here. To date, no one has used it to say anything that wasn't supportive. I don't participate in Internet flaming, and I
do get offended by it when it is directed my way.
