Hi all!
Our house and wood stove chimney is relatively close to our neighbors to the east (great folks). The other day, they noticed an acrid, sour burning smell making its way into their house. I'd had our wood stove burning for ~3 hours with no smells or issues, but just put this log on (see pic below) and, sure enough, it stunk like mad outside by the chimney. I yanked the log out of the stove and let it cool down outside safely - continued to smell awful as it smoldered.
![[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/pxl_20251111_220058087-webp.342156/ "[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification")
![[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/pxl_20251111_220044761-webp.342157/ "[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification")
The next day I split a bit off to check the moisture content and get a shot of the grain:
![[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/pxl_20251111_220326375-webp.342158/ "[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification")
Anyone have thoughts on what wood this could be? It looks like ash to my untrained eyes, but I've been burning barkless ash for a while with no smell issues. Could the bark have caused the stink?
The chimney is a straight shot up, out the roof, and we've had excellent draft whenever using it - I suspect that's why I couldn't smell a thing from inside of our house while it was catching.
Long-time listener, first-time poster. Thanks to this community for guiding much of the install for our farm-rescued Jotul Firelight 12 and chimney:
![[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/jotul-fl12-webp.342159/ "[Hearth.com] Request - Tricky Wood Identification")
Our house and wood stove chimney is relatively close to our neighbors to the east (great folks). The other day, they noticed an acrid, sour burning smell making its way into their house. I'd had our wood stove burning for ~3 hours with no smells or issues, but just put this log on (see pic below) and, sure enough, it stunk like mad outside by the chimney. I yanked the log out of the stove and let it cool down outside safely - continued to smell awful as it smoldered.
The next day I split a bit off to check the moisture content and get a shot of the grain:
Anyone have thoughts on what wood this could be? It looks like ash to my untrained eyes, but I've been burning barkless ash for a while with no smell issues. Could the bark have caused the stink?
The chimney is a straight shot up, out the roof, and we've had excellent draft whenever using it - I suspect that's why I couldn't smell a thing from inside of our house while it was catching.
Long-time listener, first-time poster. Thanks to this community for guiding much of the install for our farm-rescued Jotul Firelight 12 and chimney:
