Stinky Wood?

[miles220]

Ok i have cut and split what i thought was a sycamore tree....it is very dry, light in color and weight, it coals pretty good, but stinks....i mean smells BAD. (when burning) i think it smells like a firecracker that just went off? now i usually enjoy the smell of burnt gun powder or fireworks but coming out of my insert and chimney just doesn't appeal to me. does anyone else have experience with sycamore smelling bad when burned or could it be a different type of tree. there is no grain pattern nor bark. (sorry no pics)
Thanks Steve

 

[miles220]

maybe it's a personal hygiene problem that is causing the foul odor you complain of...............



seriously though, with no pics, no bark, and no grain pattern (respectively NO INFORMATION WHATSOEVER) how am I supposed to decide what firewood you have?

 

[miles220]

sorry for the second entry....i left the computer logged in at work and my buddy decided to make a post for me.....

 

[ansehnlich1]

I've burned sycamore here, it's an unmistakable tree due to it's unique bark. I don't recall it smelling bad. What I do think smells bad when burning is boxelder, which is a lightweight tree with pink/red star pattern in center.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The buddy thing explains it. Here I am just waking up and thinking same avitar, same name, appears to be a reply from the same person........

Matt

 

[miles220]

got luv buddys at work....well the boxelder doesn't match after i googled some pics of one. this tree looked just like a dead sycamore...so i did not get to see the gray flaky bark like our sycamores have. it was approx. 80 feet tall and no limbs to speak of. the splits look almost white with a yellowish tint. also...extremely hard to split but what little grain it has, it is straight????

 

[mxjamie540]

How abouts you break out one of then fancy...thangamajig doohickeys that take a picture and enlighten us all with a photograph.



Geez, what kinda useless toolbag are you?



I would have to smell the smoke more, but at first sniff, I personally did not find it offensive at all.

 

[Duetech]

Elm will lose it's bark pretty quickly when it gets the dutch elm disease, it has an odor when burning, will coal fairly well and puts out some good heat but is a heavier wood until it starts to punk. Silver maple can lose it's bark in a single season if cut up but takes a little longer when standing, is fairly light weight and it produces an odor when burning but I do not think it coals well. There is what I have heard called piss elm that gives off an odor. Gassers are espicially nice where the odor is concerned because they usually eilminate most of the odor. You usually have to open the fire box to get the smoke when burning dry wood.

 

[btuser]

The buddy thing explains it. Here I am just waking up and thinking same avitar, same name, appears to be a reply from the same person........

Matt

Suddenly I feel gratefull that my alternate personalities are sufficiently paranoid not to share my user accounts/emails with me.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Could it be popple?

 

[ansehnlich1]

got luv buddys at work....well the boxelder doesn't match after i googled some pics of one. this tree looked just like a dead sycamore...so i did not get to see the gray flaky bark like our sycamores have. it was approx. 80 feet tall and no limbs to speak of. the splits look almost white with a yellowish tint. also...extremely hard to split but what little grain it has, it is straight????

well, you ARE describing sycamore when you say the splits are white/yellowish tint, it's hard to split, and has little grain, soooo, I'm sayin' next time I get some I'll have to pay closer attention to the smell of it burning.

Also, the 80 feet tall with no limbs makes sense too especially if it was growing in a wooded area, they tend to to that, shoot straight up without limbs.

 

[JBinKC]

Was the piece of wood really light? My guess given the clue of the tree having no bark would be Ailanthus/tree of heaven. When burned it definitely has a really awful sulfur smell similar to burning tires.

 

[Gunks]

We have a huge sycamore in the backyard and we burned at least a cord a couple of seasons ago when some big branches came down. I don't remember it gave out any bad smell. Sycamore has a very unique bark. Just google to see a picture of the tree.

 

[smokinj]

sounds like tulip

 

[SmokinPiney]

Good ol army wood. Well at least that's what we call it because of it's camo pattern bark. I know the little bit of sycamore i burned did give off a pretty weird odor. And it went up like 100 yr old dried pine. Place in fire, took right off, and gone.