Knot So Punky

[mnowaczyk]

It’s been years since I’ve replenished my wood, and with a mod-con boiler for my radiators and living in Delaware, it hasn’t been worth listening to the drone of the 1981 Vermont Stove Company Shelburne fan that cuts out when it gets too hot anyway.

But today it’s 22 degrees and I want to get rid of the garbage wood. I let a round that I’d used for splitting rot and attempted to use it as a splitting round one last time. Since the knots I’d piled up have gone so punky, I think I’ve been able to chop most of them down into pieces that will fit in the stove. I’ve made a pile of what is “stackable”, but it’s really all garbage. I just figure I can get a few BTUs out of it and also get rid of it as cleanly as possible, hopefully keeping the stove at 400 F. I think I’ve got to keep the ash pan door open to let gobs of air in to keep the flames up. It’s kind of a garbage incinerator at this point.

I’ve got maybe nearly as much oak that still has a little sizzle in many of the pieces because it’s been in my neighbor’s garage all the same time this stuff has been outside. I guess I can mix it in the hopefully burn this stuff all gone. Then for a serious chimney cleaning when it’s all done due to the expected quantities of ash.
I am going to shovel the scraps to mulch and pick out the chunks that look burnable. I’m watching the glass doors turn brown now though.


I wish I had some woods to toss this junk into, but living in the city, that’s not an option. I could pay to take it to the dump though.
A few knots still won’t split though, punky yet still won’t split. LOL. Check out this mess. Can you spot my splitting round?

What do you guys do with your punky wood and knots that won’t split?

 

[Sawset]

Insert junk here.
Roast your weenies.
Cordwood goes on the stack to dry.

 

[Gearhead660]

I have a separate area to stack/pile the bonfire/campfire stash. When I was in town, we had a composite site/section of the dump. Small loads were free for dumping, if you were a city resident.

 

[robj80]

I keep the punky and crap wood in a pile uncovered. When the weather is a little warmer I burn it in a chiminea or barrel outside. The kids love these days. They pick up all the sticks on the property and we burn those as well. It's part of the fall and spring cleanup. One day we had the chiminea burning for about 10 hours straight. The kids and I got exercise, the yard got cleaned and I got rid of my crap wood. I have woods as well though so some pieces I just toss in there for the bugs, birds and father time to do what it pleases.

 

[mnowaczyk]

I shoveled up most of the garbage on the right in the picture and used it as mulch. Some of the burnable pieces that ended up on top of the much I tossed in a bucket to bring into the insert to burn. That got rid of a lot of the mess. I think I’ve got nothing but two knots now that won’t fit in the stove. Maybe the starch of junk can dry a bit.

We have a movable backyard bonfire thing that I had planned to use to burn junk and big pieces that wouldn’t fit in the stove. I’d used a wheelbarrow once before for a back yard fire, and then the more appropriate mobile fire pit. Both generated so much smoke and weren’t burning hot enough IMO. Then I read how much outdoor fires pollute, and decided not to do it unnecessarily anymore.

My fireplace insert seems like it lets me control the temperature much better to assure a hotter burn. I can always open the ash pan door to pump lots of air onto the coals, while keeping it all hot in the firebox. So that’s where I am burning junk for now. Maybe it’s time to get a better “reactor” to use outdoors.

 

[spudman99]

I take all of my crappy pieces and unsplitables in a cheap plastic trash can to the woods or a local retention basin and through them into the sides. Eventually nature will break it down.

 

[mnowaczyk]

I gave up burning garbage today. The “stack” sits until the next time I have a roaring fire to try and burn som of again.

 

[Simonkenton]

Punky wood, and knots that won't split.
Garbage.
Toss it into the woods it will make great mulch, for the next generation of trees.

 

[Grizzerbear]

I save some knarly knotted pieces and any outcasts for kids to roast hot dogs and smores and the like in the backyard bbq pit. If im in the woods i leave it for mother nature to do her thing.

 

[mnowaczyk]

I finally ended up burning through the punky wood, even the knots. I got a Ryobi 18 v 12” chainsaw, and cut up even the biggest knots and burnt them up getting heat out of them. I may have taken some of the worst garbage to the yard waste facility like I did with some carpenter ant infested wood I found next to the house at a property I just purchased.

And then I found the city (or someone) dumped over a chord in the middle of the parkway which is from a carpenter ant infested tree. I will be burning that as quickly as possible too. This weekend will be a nice freeze to get on it.

 

[snobuilder]

I finally ended up burning through the punky wood, even the knots. I got a Ryobi 18 v 12” chainsaw, and cut up even the biggest knots and burnt them up getting heat out of them. I may have taken some of the worst garbage to the yard waste facility like I did with some carpenter ant infested wood I found next to the house at a property I just purchased.

And then I found the city (or someone) dumped over a chord in the middle of the parkway which is from a carpenter ant infested tree. I will be burning that as quickly as possible too. This weekend will be a nice freeze to get on it.

I was splitting some swamp oak a couple years back and a few rounds had a core full of carpenter ants. It was a sunny Jan. day and I saw the icy chunks full of ants starting to melt....about a half hour later them little devils was moving their legs.