Sticks & stones

[NewHeat]

Really new to this. Be patient with me please. I know nothing so I have a huge learning curve. Can someone teach me the basics.

Moved into a house that has a nice xtrrdinair wood burning insert! I know good wood makes all the difference and I have some but what happens if I burn sticks? I have tons of crappy trees (Silver maple for example) that drop branches all the time as well as huge brush piles from heavy and continuous pruning. I've got a few acres and a lot of yard cleanup to do over the next few years. I'm not looking to create a lot of heat but wondered if they will create any heat as well as being a good way to get these out of my yard. Many are over a year old and shouldn't be "wet." Does anyone else burn this kind of crap or am I just being silly?

 

[TheAardvark]

The sticks will make nice kindling. If you want to burn up a lot of brush I would just do it in an outdoor burn pit.

 

[ElmBurner]

Burning sticks and small branches will give you a very hot fire that you will have to feed all the time. If that's OK with you, there's no reason you can't do it. But yeah...if you just want to get rid of the branches, an outdoor burn pit is better. Then you can just throw it all in a mound, let it all burn, then go on with your day.

A fireplace works best when you are working with pieces that are 4" and above.

 

[DougA]

I burn lots of small branches because it's either that or they go into the brush dump and that's already too big. We can't do outdoor fires in our area unless it's for cooking or warmth and burning leaves or branches is a big no-no.
As long as the sticks are dry and you are OK feeding them all the time, go for it. Be aware that if you put too many dry sticks in all at once, you can have an overfire. That's when the fire gets out of control and very hot, very fast.

 

[Riff]

I use it as kindling, feed a few sticks and let them burn down, and progressively work my way up to more normal sized pieces. Like they said above, only a couple at a time, but it makes good used of the debris. A lot of it is silver maple, some walnut, some oak, depends on which tree got shook up during a storm.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

I burn lots of small branches because it's either that or they go into the brush dump and that's already too big. We can't do outdoor fires in our area unless it's for cooking or warmth and burning leaves or branches is a big no-no.
As long as the sticks are dry and you are OK feeding them all the time, go for it. Be aware that if you put too many dry sticks in all at once, you can have an overfire. That's when the fire gets out of control and very hot, very fast.

X2

 

[Wood Duck]

The main problem with sticks is that they burn up fast, as others have pointed out. You'll have to reload a lot and never get long lasting fires. Other than that, they also take more effort per BTU that larger wood, but if you gotta get rid of them anyway, go ahead and burn.

I have lots of branches fall on my lawn all the time and I have repeatedly thought about breaking them up for kindling. I never do because it is a lot easier to pick up the slivers lift behind from splitting firewood. The branches end up tossed into the woods.