walnut firewood

[jdscj8]

is wanut sappy wood?

i had the chimney guy out this morning to look things over on the liqiud in my pipe. and he told me that walnut was sappy and to go back to my oak, but my oak is still in the timber where i store it i can't get to it so i started burning my walnut that i split 3 years ago.

anyone tell me if thats true. i was always told walnut was one of the best to burn.

thanks

 

[Bigg_Redd]

is wanut sappy wood?

i had the chimney guy out this morning to look things over on the liqiud in my pipe. and he told me that walnut was sappy and to go back to my oak, but my oak is still in the timber where i store it i can't get to it so i started burning my walnut that i split 3 years ago.

anyone tell me if thats true. i was always told walnut was one of the best to burn.

thanks

Your chimney guy is talking out his @$$. Your walnut isn't dry. You'd get the same result with green oak.

 

[RAY_PA]

yeah, dry walnut burns great, I have burned alot of it this winter. Id suspect it was not dry, but am puzzled on how, if you cut/split it 3 years ago...was it stored under cover?

 

[Jags]

...... so i started burning my walnut that i split 3 years ago.

I have always found walnut to be more serious than sappy. ;-)

Walnut split for 3 years....fouled chimney....you ain't burning hot enough. I personally consider walnut a middle of the road wood, part of that is because of the high ash content. I have never known properly seasoned walnut to be "sappy". If your wood has been split and seasoned for 3 years, my guess is that you have a different issue. Most likely, not keeping the stack temp high enough.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

If your walnut wood was split three years ago and stored properly it should definitely be dry, and I think there are a lot "sappier" woods than walnut that people burn without problems. My guess is the liquid in your chimney has more to do with how you burn and the design of your chimney.
If you can post more details and some pictures I'm sure that somebody in this forum can come up with the "correct" answer to your problem.

 

[jdscj8]

i store it under the lean2 behind the barn, it came down 2 years before i split it in a tornado

 

[Jags]

i store it under the lean2 behind the barn, it came down 2 years before i split it in a tornado

Splitting in a tornado is dangerous

Sounds like your wood should be good-n-dry. Bettin' your stack temp is too low.

 

[jdscj8]

Ya know i asked that ? last night about my stack temp on the hearth room board and got no replies. i went and got a temp gauge yesterday and my stack runs about 300-350 so i turned it up to 400-500 from what i reading and my stove was running at 850-950 i thought that was a little hot? it was -5 last night with 45 mph winds and it was 110 in the stove room and 90 in the rest of the house. the house is a old 2 story farm house and was built in the 1860's so no insulation and old windows. Isn't that alittle hot?

 

[jdscj8]

Ok now i have a walnut tree behind the house that came down 2 years ago that has not been cut up would that be ready to burn now or should i wait another year

 

[Jags]

Yes, that stove top temp is a little excessive and into the overfire range

 

[fossil]

Get it bucked, split & stacked and it might burn OK a year from now. Rick

 

[Jags]

Ok now i have a walnut tree behind the house that came down 2 years ago that has not been cut up would that be ready to burn now or should i wait another year

Wait 12 months AFTER it has been split and stacked.

 

[jdscj8]

does any one know how hot this stove should run. its a Blaze King KEF403 King model insert i think grandpa put it in back in the mid 80's they they put the king in because the furnace wasn't been hooked up sense the 60's

 

[Lumber-Jack]

You really need to describe your chimney and where the "liquid" is, that has you concerned about?
With a properly designed and put together chimney any liquid should that might form (usually because of a cold chimney), should run back into your stove and burn up.
Pictures are extremely useful.

 

[jdscj8]

I have 8” black pipe comming out of the stove up 36” then makes a 90 then goes to a 8” insulated double wall pipe the rest of the way, 3 1/2 foot to another 90 then goes 30 foot up. the liquid is coming from the adapter between the black stove pipe and the insulated pipe inside the house. the chimney guy said the insulated pipe that goes up 30 foot looks good i looked for myself but around the adapter it had a liquid film about 2 foot long. he said everything looked good other then that, but i kinda have a bad feeling about him right now. i would put picks up but my wife forgot the camera on the bumper of the truck monday sooo its gone.

 

[Creek-Chub]

Boy, I sure hate to be "that guy", but am I the only one who smells a rat here?

 

[Lumber-Jack]

i would put picks up but my wife forgot the camera on the bumper of the truck monday sooo its gone.

Bummer... :down:

Is this liquid dripping out of your stove pipe? The pipes should fit together so higher pipes sleeves inside the lower one (male into female), thus catching anything that might fall or flow down.
Perhaps you also have a bit of an air leak allowing cold air into the stack and cooling the stack and causing the smoke to condense into liquid.
You purchased a temp gauge, why not get a moister reader too, then you can check the moister levels of any and all the wood you have now or may plan to burn in the future.
To your original question about walnut wood being more sappy than other wood, that's simply not true.

 

[jdscj8]

i went and got a moister tester last night and all the wood i checked was between 25 and 30 percent and my pipes are the right way exept the adapter between my black pipe and the insulated pipe the piece slides up into the insulated and down into the black pipe i herd i little sucking coming from that spot so i put a little hi-temp around it so well see what happens. thanks everyone for the input
what does creek-chub mean by a rat?

 

[Lumber-Jack]

i went and got a moister tester last night Excellent, I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out of it if you continue burning wood,
and all the wood i checked was between 25 and 30 percent Ok, so your wood could be a little more seasoned, below 20% is best
and my pipes are the right way exept the adapter between my black pipe and the insulated pipe the piece slides up into the insulated and down into the black pipe i herd i little sucking coming from that spot so i put a little hi-temp around it so well see what happens. If that doesn't work you might be able to find a short adapter to fit in between those two pipes to reverse how they fit together
thanks everyone for the input
what does creek-chub mean by a rat? I'm not sure???

 

[mbokie5]

Lots of walnut here in southern Ontario. It's awesome. I take all I can get.

The only thing harmful about walnut is if you use it for horse bedding. Otherwise, it's perfect.

I have one in my back yard that calls for a pro to fell. But I want to use it for lumber. We're talking over 40 foot long boards. I understand it's worth a lot of cash.

 

[jdscj8]

Whats wrong with using walnut for horses whys it bad? we chip all the small stuff from all the trees and thow it in the barn with the horses. Bonus with being able to get some good money for that one. we have a lot of big ceder trees on one side of the farm that we sell when we cut them there bringing some good money down here. Our timber got hit preaty bad about 5 years ago by a tornado so i've been clearing out sence. I cut a walnut today that my 24" bar just made it half way though, tree was about 46" across. I got about half way up the tree and my saw would not cut any more so i tryed going up the tree some more and it felt like i was trying to cut concrete or some thing so i sharpend my chain and still nothing. I know some oak gets preaty hard but not walnut. If i get into town tomarrow im going to get a new camera (still not to happy about the old one but o well) and take some picks of this thing. Any one tell me how to get this thing cut let me know i'll try about any thing, if not its going to the bonfire. O ya my hi-temp around the adapter worked no more liquid and no more air leak thanks.

 

[mbokie5]

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/AN034

As for why the tree is so hard, I don't have a clue. Never had that problem.

 

[jdscj8]

Ok, so the $80 moisture meter i picked up lest weekend is JUNK. It said all the wood i tested was between 25 and 30%. Yesterday before it snowed we were out clearing fence lines, and i had the meter in the truck, so for the hell of it i tested some of the wood we just cut. That piece of chit said all that wet, sap runnin out of it wood was, you guessed it 25 to 30%. At that point i was pretty ticked off. So i had my brother bring his drywall tester over (it reads wood to) and it wouldn't read the wet stuff. So anyway my split walnut is nice and dry dry dry. And for the idiot that told me my walnut was to sappy. I have talked to 4 other people on here that knew exactly the person i was talking about, and they have had problems with and his son also, so thank you to you all. I tryed calling him friday to tell him what i thought of him but his number has been disconnected. O well, maybe he pissed the wrong person off. haha O ya the walnut that came down 2 years ago behind the house tested 26%. Thats not going to cause a problem is it, if i burn it now? I'm felling LAZY about now and don't want to load any more from the timber when this one is at the house. Theres enough in that tree for the rest of the winter.


People please ASK before you go on someone land to cut. Wensday we had a guy and his wife go into our timber and both got hurt. he cut a tree and it was falling at her so she jump into the creek and broke her leg, he went to help her and fell hit his head on a rock and knocked himself out, its a creek that you can't just climb out of. No one knew they where there, i didn't find them untill 10:00 pm when i checked on the horses. The lady heard my truck and started yelling when i shut it off. There are alot of farmers that will let you help clear land off, but please be respectful and ask, and let them know when you go in to cut and get done for safty sakes. That way if there is a problem someone will at least know your there.

 

[gzecc]

I always test my (cheap) moisture meter on different woods. First if you touch your fingers you should get around 35%. If you touch wood in your house (trim, furniture) you will get very low #'s < 5%. If you test fresh cut trees you will get very high numbers > 40%. If you test fresh split 1 year seasoned splits you will get around 20-30%, depending on the species. I use my meter as a reference. I wouldn't bet my life on its readings!

 

[Cluttermagnet]

FWIW I burned some Black Walnut and it was pretty good wood, but nothing to write home about. I like Oak a lot better. I got a large, dead branch of Black Walnut and split it up. It was good and dry. While it did burn hot, it would completely burn through a lot sooner than any Oak. I don't think it had near the BTU's of Oak. It didn't coal very well, and I think it made a fair amount of ash.

If your Walnut was seasoned enough, I'd look elsewhere for the cause of the dripping. I like the 'burning too cold' theory- firebox not hot enough or wood too green. Unless... your insulated pipe is somehow too cool inside, up near the top and creosote is leaking all the way down from up there?