Punky wood

[Enplater]

burning all my rotten and starting to rot wood. Do most people do the same? If I’m not mistaken this wood will attract bugs. I don’t have a wood shed to store it in so without a roof rotten wood acts like a sponge and holds water and takes a long time to dry out completely. Most of this is soft maple, some oak.

 

[bholler]

View attachment 243349 burning all my rotten and starting to rot wood. Do most people do the same? If I’m not mistaken this wood will attract bugs. I don’t have a wood shed to store it in so without a roof rotten wood acts like a sponge and holds water and takes a long time to dry out completely. Most of this is soft maple, some oak.

It is punky and unless it is pretty bad I stack it and burn it in the stove. You need to top cover your wood so it stays dry

 

[Enplater]

I keep it tarped but it always seems to stay damp, acting like a sponge. I have plenty of firewood so it’s not hurting to burn the junk in a camp fire. Maybe it’s considered a wood snob but like I said it’s soft maple. I do need to build a wood shed one of these years.

 

[WhoKilledBambi]

Waste of BTUs! I also say that whenever my wife wants to do a campfire in the yard, but we still do a campfire in the yard! Ha!

 

[Enplater]

Oh well I don’t have to have damp, rotten wood and bugs on my mind when I bring it into the house and I had a nice fire outside today.

 

[Enplater]

And the camp fires are typically white pine around here, it’s rare to burn a lot of hardwood in a camp fire unless it’s rotted or aspen. It would hurt to see my nice hand picked hard woods being wasted outside, especially since I split with an axe.

 

[Simonkenton]

Rotten wood is about as good, in your stove, as some newspaper. Burns quick no BTUs.
I don't put rotten wood in my wood pile.

 

[bholler]

Rotten wood is about as good, in your stove, as some newspaper. Burns quick no BTUs.
I don't put rotten wood in my wood pile.

Yes but it can have some punkyness on the outside and still have plenty of good wood left

 

[Simonkenton]

That is true. If the wood is 10 percent rotten, or less, on a tree I am cutting down in my yard, I use it.
If I am buying wood and the wood is 10 percent rotten, I tell the guy to take it back.

 

[Allagash350]

I use my punky ones for kindling .If they are bad though I just toss them over the hill instead of meesing with them . Maple is the biggest culprit

 

[iLoveWood]

If i have a few, splits even super punky I'll save them for shoulder days. If i find a bunch in my todo pile they go straight to the burn pile.

 

[Woody Stover]

Yes but it can have some punkyness on the outside and still have plenty of good wood left

What dies here is mostly Red Oak, so I deal with varying degrees of punky sapwood. If they stand dead for a while, the sapwood will rot off or at least be soft enough to easily remove it with a hatchet. I like Red Oak as a all-around fuel, easy to start yet it burns pretty long.
Hard to say for sure from a pic, but it appears a lot of that stuff he's burning up would be going into my stove...

 

[Woody5506]

I keep my wood tarped, about 10+ cords and never had wood rot in my covered stacks.

If it did though, I'd probably just leave it and end up using in the stove anyway. I do have a stack of pine that was split over a year ago, uncovered, and holding up fine but likely will just use it for the fire pit.

 

[Sawset]

We have a lot of oak wilt here also. Most of what we have been cutting is dead and down red and white oak. About the only thing I would leave in the woods are pcs that don't don't hold together - too rotten, falling apart. That and if its all sapwood small stuff. Otherwise, elm needs a judgment call with each round - junk, or not junk. Cherry, usually doesn't go bad.
This year I cut a red oak that had been down 25yrs. 2ft dia. Was able to cut and use most of the bigger stuff. It was lighter through and through, but good enough to burn in the stove.
Once in the yard, it all goes in the stove.

 

[johneh]

I find that punky Elm when dry makes very good kindling
Match light and breaks up with ease