Why can you burn ash right away?

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ancy

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Everything I read says NO GREEN WOOD, so why ash?
 
If I had to burn green wood, ash would be one of my first choices due to it's lower moisture content when green.
 
You cant.

What I mean is you can't if you want a good burn to get the most heat out of it and safe burn. Yes, green (recently living) ash will burn, but it will hiss and steam a lot. I love ash firewood, but I'd rather burn any seasoned wood over unseasoned ash.
 
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A living ash tree is one of the lowest moisture content trees in N-America. It would be somewhat typical that a fresh drop would yield about 30-35% MC in a live one, compared to say ~70-80% in a white oak. It will burn, just not very well.

Season all wood for a year (c/s/s)
Season white Oak for two - and you won't have to question the quality of your firewood.
 
I have odwf I have burnt green and many times at least put a big green round in the mix to have longer burn time. I know dry wood burns faster and cleaner but burn is burn no?
 
...but burn is burn no?

Well...no. Green (or high moisture wood) consumes much of the heat content stored in that wood to boil the moister out. Wood can't burn until the moister is gone (hence your longer burn). I have seen figures that can go as high as 10-15% of a logs energy can be wasted trying to boil moisture out, just so it can burn.
 
Well...no. Green (or high moisture wood) consumes much of the heat content stored in that wood to boil the moister out. Wood can't burn until the moister is gone (hence your longer burn). I have seen figures that can go as high as 10-15% of a logs energy can be wasted trying to boil moisture out, just so it can burn.

Yeah I know it burns hotter too but many times I burn all green so it goes from mounring til dark when I arrive home and use hackbury,or really whatever fits in the furnace!
 
Yeah I know it burns hotter too but many times I burn all green so it goes from mounring til dark when I arrive home and use hackbury,or really whatever fits in the furnace!

Well, the one upside to green wood is longevity of a fire. The downsides are many. Creosote producing, smoke emitting, Higher pollution do to incomplete combustion, energy consuming to boil off excess moisture, in epa stoves- it is darn near impossible to burn, glass will blacken in short order (for those able to view the fire). I'm sure I missed a couple.

I ain't telling anybody how to burn, but there are a few on the list above that could sure tick off the neighbor if you have one. Green wood and garbage are the two biggest enemies of the OWB. These two items, along with improper burning techniques have caused more negative press for wood burners than everything else combined. Green wood and garbage is probably the sole responsible components of many of the OWB restrictions that are becoming popular around the country. Just sayin'
 
Well, the one upside to green wood is longevity of a fire. The downsides are many. Creosote producing, smoke emitting, Higher pollution do to incomplete combustion, energy consuming to boil off excess moisture, in epa stoves- it is darn near impossible to burn, glass will blacken in short order (for those able to view the fire). I'm sure I missed a couple.

I ain't telling anybody how to burn, but there are a few on the list above that could sure tick off the neighbor if you have one. Green wood and garbage are the two biggest enemies of the OWB. These two items, along with improper burning techniques have caused more negative press for wood burners than everything else combined. Green wood and garbage is probably the sole responsible components of many of the OWB restrictions that are becoming popular around the country. Just sayin'

I hear ya bro, the squirrels chatter about it all the time too.
 
If you burn green wood for a longer fire but it burns at a lower temperature, I don't see where the advantage is, especially with an owb. I guess if you need the coals to restart in the morning or something, it might make sense but not from a heating point of view.
 
you can burn ANY wood right away, green and sopping wet, ever seen a forest fire? :D

is it ideal? god no..

i mentioned i had some white ash that has been split for 5-6 months now, still sizzles like hell

one member added the only advantage green ash has over other green woods is that it wont leave as much creosote

the old riddle about cutting down and ash tree and burning it the same day is BS.. unless you want a bunch of sizzling logs boiling water out the ends and hardly burning..
 
Because we live in America you can burn green ash. while burning green ashis a little better than burning other green wood, it is not advisable if you can help it,
 
I disagree about not being able to burn it the same day as cutting it. Do it about once a week. Go out monday afternoon and cut about half a pickup load of wood and throw most of it out back for the splitter "sometime" when i have time and burn about 1/3 of it. Also throw in green hedge. Never seems to make much difference and i have more than ample heat. I've burned seasoned wood and had more problems getting 2 year old walnut and oak to light than ash that was cut yesterday.

You guys might be right on less heat, no idea, but I have an endless supply of wood and GRASS grows where I live AND I farm so I feed the people whining about pollution even though my grass carbon offsets it.
 
For charcoal making you need a steel drum with a removable lid. Basically, you load the drum with scrap wood while sealing out any new air, and heat the heck out of it. My setup uses a drum with a piece of 2" steel pipe that srews into the bung and goes across the top of the barrell and all the way down the length of it. I built a cradle so that it lays flat on its side with room for a fire underneath, along with the length of pipe from the vent(bung). The vent should have a cap at the end and a series of holes drilled along it so that escaping gasses from the vent will be directed up and to the sides of the barrell.light a fire under the barrell, and let her get hot. The gasses that escape from the holes in the vent will ignite, keeping the fire on the drum. After a few hours of heat, the escaping gas should no longer burn. Stop adding wood at this point, and wait til morning. Open her up and you have a pile of charcoal.
Dennis
 
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Ash being unloaded today...........Damn he's putting it on the wrong pile ......:D....Suppost to keep the Ash by it self...LOL





Should make nice firewood..
.
 
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