Punk

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BamaScroungr

Burning Hunk
Feb 21, 2015
133
Huntsville Alabama
This year I'm burning a 50/50 mix of maple and ash. I only started using a moisture meter recently, and I only just today discovered that my punky ash is clinging to a 39% moisture content. I thought previously that I was able to dry out my ash under or near the stove, but no. I can dry out the surface, but not the interior. So now I'm ditching the ash and burning maple exclusively. (Well okay, I have a small amount of osage and hickory to mix in with it!)

I think I have enough maple and other species to get by this winter.

You guys would do the same? You'd ditch the punky stuff if you couldn't dry it out, right?
 
Well, yeah, I dumped it. Picked all that ash out of the pile today and not looking back. A damn waste though. Wish I could dry it out.
I managed to burn 4-6 splits of half punk wood, but it takes too much handling/special attention. It's messier, it tends to smolder, not worth it. Throw it in the chipper come spring.
 
I've got some punky oak and knock/shave off as much of the punk as I can before I stack the splits. Fiskars work well for shaving off the stuff. I figure oak takes long enough to season--I don't want a sponge slowing down the process!
 
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Stack it high it should dry out
 
No ash here, but I had some punky beech and I had to keep it in a shed or it just sucked up rain water like a sponge. It wasn't even very good firewood either. I don't bother with dead standing beech any more. Same with maple - if it starting to grow fungi the birds and bugs can have it.
 
You have to cover punky wood, but if you do it dries out pretty fast. I separate the punky stuff into a separate stack.
 
Well I'm telling you guys from experience that punky ash will not dry out unless it's kept in a dry space. And I don't have one. I have no HVAC in my space and no woodshed. My stacked ash won't stay dry, even covered. I have, therefore, given up on punky ash and punk in general. Not worth it.
 
Can we see the punky wood?
I see alot of marbled maple and hollow beech, and black cherry with the sapwood growing all kinds psychedelia but never seen punky Ash.
 
009-jpg.155107.jpg

Here it is Applesister, the same image I uploaded a year ago in an attempt to identify it. Nford described it as "pure punk."
 
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Hmmm... a little different than when I think of "punk". Usually I (notice I said "I") attribute punk to an outer layer not being solid. This stuff is in a stage of full on decomposition. And yes - many do call that punk as well. Good to have a reference for this discussion.
 
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Hmmm... a little different than when I think of "punk". Usually I (notice I said "I") attribute punk to an outer layer not being solid. This stuff is in a stage of full on decomposition. And yes - many do call that punk as well. Good to have a reference for this discussion.

I guess different types of wood "punk" differently.
 
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I guess different types of wood "punk" differently.
Very true. As where oak will typically start to punk out the outer layers leaving a solid core, soft maple will simply start a total degrade (very similar to the pics above).
 
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