Burning mill ends in a BK?

[volunbeer]

Tried to search here and on internet without much luck, Is it ok to burn untreated mill ends if you mix them in with a larger amount of regular firewood? Anyone with a BK have any experience or advice for burning mill ends?

It appears to be a cheap way to get wood (even see large amounts for free around here) and they are easy to stack and already dry. I know you can burn up a stove if you use too many of them at once, but it seems like an economical way to extend the woodpile. In my area these would mostly be fir or pine.

Any thoughts and thanks in advance! I finally have plenty of wood CSS (already working on next years), but thought it would be nice to toss in a few mill ends every load because the air control sounds pretty amazing on these things.

 

[begreen]

Should be ok if they are dried out well enough by stickering between slabs. You may get a lot of bark which can cause a lot of clinkers in the ash, but cheap wood is cheap wood as long as it is dry and burns well.

 

[HisTreeNut]

+1 on begreen said.

 

[jetsam]

Wood from a mill may be salty if the mill gets wood from a coastal area. Salty wood is death to stoves. (Chances are that your stove manual mentions driftwood for this reason.)

(broken link removed)

 

[Highbeam]

Your mill ends in eastern Washington won't be salted. They will burn just fine. Remember that this is a cat stove and as such is not supplied with excess air that, when combined with excess fuel from small wood, could cause temperatures to skyrocket out of control. Your cat stove is able to reduce the air to very low levels and sip on the fuel from the slab wood.

In a non-cat you have very little ability to keep the temperatures under control in a slab wood scenario and end up with a nuclear type, self feeding, spiraling reaction where more heat causes more fuel to boil out of the wood which causes more heat and stronger draft for more combustion air to be sucked in which causes more heat which causes more fuel and air.

The way you load the stove will matter. You would want to stack the slabs in there tightly to mimic larger pieces of wood with as little surface area as possible exposed. Imagine a pile of sawdust, it smothers the coals because air can't get in but if you fluff it up and allow air to access the huge surface area it can be very rapid burning.

Just be sure there are no chemical treatments and that you are really dealing with clean wood. Some parts of WA sell lumber cutoffs which are small chunks of finished wood so little 2x4 and 2x6 pieces. Some places sell actual slabwood which is the round part of the log shaved off to make a square chunk of lumber. It is much more common in WA to find the cutoffs.

 

[sportbikerider78]

You guys don't taste your mill ends? ....and all this time I thought you were pros.

 

[volunbeer]

Thanks for the replies - the mill ends around here appear pretty clean and are mostly 2x4. They are frequently available on craigslist for free or for minimal costs.

 

[begreen]

Mixing them in with regular cord wood as you mentioned should be fine, especially in a cat stove.

 

[kennyp2339]

You guys don't taste your mill ends? ....and all this time I thought you were pros.

They only eat seeds, bark, and mulch out west, I only eat plastic wrapped mill ends.

 

[begreen]

Eewww, shrink-wrapped mill ends suck. How can you smell the wood or feel them for moisture content. Out here we do have specialty stores where mill ends are piled free and natural, no plastics applied. They sell well in spite of being a bit pricey, but then so does artisan firewood.

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[kennyp2339]

When you drink your water from the Passaic river everything tastes the same, chicken even tastes like chicken lol

 

[tarzan]

Eewww, shrink-wrapped mill ends suck. How can you smell the wood or feel them for moisture content. Out here we do have specialty stores where mill ends are piled free and natural, no plastics applied. They sell well in spite of being a bit pricey, but then so does artisan firewood.
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Finally, someone who truly GETS IT!