Firewood lore, traditions, and history

[woodbooga]

I've been thinking about starting a thread on this subject for a little while.

Given the sheer antiquity of burning wood for heat - as well as the hands-on nature of gathering and preparing the fuel - there is a lot of lore out there. Sayings, traditions, time-tested practices passed from one generation to another.

We're the continuors of a living legacy with a long history. Let's hear the bits of folk wisdom you've encountered in firewooding and talking with other burners. Sometimes folk wisdom is true. Sometimes not - or is at least ill advised (see my 3rd example below).

I'll prime the pump with a couple.

On burning poplar: A poplar fire in a newlywed's home was said to be good luck in promoting pregnancy. (Because of its low btu content, poplar was an ideal wedding present from relatives eager for grandchildren. Part of a machievellian plot to force the newlyweds to find alternative ways of keeping warm).

On the ideal mix in the firebox: "Burn 'em as they grow" is an expression I've heard some old timers use. Specifically relating to white pine and red oak, which often occupy the same forest habitat side by side. One ignites the other and makes for a bright and lasting fire.

Burn time:Some of the old timers in the hills here keep a bucket of water by their stoves. They dip each end into the water to help extend the burn time of a given stick of wood.

 

[avalancher]

It always makes me nervouse when you start a thread.There have been far too many times I have read your posts, muttering under my breath,"uh, no way.You have got to be kidding..."
then to finish the post and realize you were pulling our chains again.you sure come up with some stuff!
but, looks like this is for real.
I hope.....

We had a myth back home that was strickly adhered to.If you cut down a tree and discovered a birds nest, you had to remove the nest, climb a nearby tree, and find another home for the nest.If you didnt, it was not only considered bad luck, but it gauranteed that the bird when coming back to its nest wouldnt find it missing and nest in your hair instead.
Seeing as how I was the youngest of the bunch,seems like I always ended up in a tree.
Maybe that was the idea.....

 

[KD57]

I lived next to a pecan grove an old man farmed. If we cut a tree down for any reason, the smaller limbs not used for firewood was always placed around the base of the nearest tree. This, he claimed kept the trees in the grove "pure" and would prevent the nearest tree from dying in shock from a family tree member being cut down. These were all grafted trees.
I dunno if it's true, but in 2006 I had 2 big pecan trees on our fenceline. One had to come down for an oil field easement. Last July the other tree died for no apparent reason. I had not placed the small junk limbs around it. Go figure.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Tradition in my family says add a pinch of salt to the 'first fire'. In doing so you ensure one of two things: The winter will be mild and you will have enough wood to keep you warm all season, or if the winter is cold you will have enough wood put up to keep you warm all season. Either way, a pinch of salt added to the 'first fire' will keep you warm.

My family history is from my ancestral loggers in Massachusetts who relocated to Wisconsin in 1846 to 'follow the logs'.

Edit: There might be a tad of Irish lore involved there also.

Shari

 

[demographic]

This must have been posted on here before but I'll bung it on to make sure anyway...

Beechwood fires burn bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year
Store your beech for Christmastide
With new holly laid beside
Chestnuts only good they say
If for years tis stayed away
Birch and firwood burn too fast
Blaze too bright and do not last
Flames from larch will shoot up high
Dangerously the sparks will fly
But Ashwood green and Ashwood brown
Are fit for a Queen with a golden crown

Oaken logs, if dry and old
Keep away the winters cold
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
Fills your eyes and makes you choke
Elmwood burns like churchyard mould
Even the very flames burn cold
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread
So it is in Ireland said
Applewood will scent the room
Pears wood smells like a flower in bloom
But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry
A King may warm his slippers by.

Another...

Logs to burn; logs to burn;
Logs to save the coal a turn.

Here's a word to make you wise
when you hear the woodman's cries;
Never heed his usual tale
That he's splendid logs for sale
But read these lines & really learn
The proper kind of logs to burn.

Oak logs will warm you well,
If they're old and dry.
Larch logs of pinewoods smell
But the sparks will fly.
Beech logs for Christmas time;
Yew logs heat well;
'Scotch' logs it is a crime
For anyone to sell.
Birch logs will burn too fast;
Chestnut scarce at all;
Hawthorn logs are good to last
If cut in the fall.
Holly logs will burn like wax,
You should burn them green;
Elm logs like smouldering flax,
No flame to be seen.
Pear logs and apple logs,
They will scent your room;
Cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flowers in bloom,
But ash logs all smooth and grey
Burn them green or old,
Buy up all that come your way
They're worth their weight in gold.

Honor Goodhart, 1926

And one more...

Hickory makes the hottest coals in stoves when winter's bleak,

Apple wood like incense burning through the hall both fragrance seek,

Elm wood fires have little smoke and warm both serf and lord,

Oak logs split and dried this year make good next winters hoard,

Beech burns bright and fill a the room with warmth and dancing light,

Maple sweet, not white or red will burn throughout the night,

Birch logs cut, need ne'er be stored they blaze, then heat the pot,

Ash, straight grain and easy split the kettle sings, and stove is hot,

Poplar logs must need be dried lest smoke both then ensue,

Pine and fir midst showers of sparks burn fast and line the blackened flue

 

[woodbooga]

I lived next to a pecan grove an old man farmed. If we cut a tree down for any reason, the smaller limbs not used for firewood was always placed around the base of the nearest tree. This, he claimed kept the trees in the grove "pure" and would prevent the nearest tree from dying in shock from a family tree member being cut down. These were all grafted trees.
I dunno if it's true, but in 2006 I had 2 big pecan trees on our fenceline. One had to come down for an oil field easement. Last July the other tree died for no apparent reason. I had not placed the small junk limbs around it. Go figure.

That's a real cool story - exactly what I had in mind.

And avalancher, I might be a jerk, but I'll never jerk yer chain. Purely on the level.

Also, any urban - er rather rural - legends, regional expressions, and stranfe happenings would also be kindly appreciated!

A couple others occurring to me since my OP:

In a woodburning cookstove like mine, you bake biscuits in a 'quick oven.' You get the oven up to temp real quick by burning small sticks called - you got it - 'biscuit wood.'

Although not firewood-related per se, I've always liked this bit of lore:

The Abanaki Indians of Northern New England, in planting their crops, always waited until the leaf of the ash tree was the size of a mouse's ear. The ash was sacred to them, partially because of its use as a raw material in making pounded split ash baskets. Some of these baskets were beautifully decorated with dyed porcupine quills. I knew an old Passimiquoddy Indian who made these. He used to harvest porcupine roadkill for ornamenting his craftmanship. He's since gone but he lives on in my memories.

 

[KD57]

Another saying from the old man:

"Indian build small fire and crouch over it, White man build great big fire and get way back"

 

[Lloyd H]

folk lore

My father taught me to split wood as it grew, mall to hit top of the round

 

[woodbooga]

ash lore

http://www.treesforlife.org.uk/forest/mythfolk/ash.html

Mythology and Folklore of the Ash

Yggdrasil, the World Tree in Viking mythology, grew on an island surrounded by the ocean, in the depths of which the World Serpent lay. This ash tree’s trunk reached up to the heavens, and its boughs spread out over all the countries of the Earth. Its roots reached down into the Underworld. A squirrel ran up and down the tree carrying messages from the serpent gnawing at the roots to the eagle in the canopy, and back. A deer fed on the ash leaves and from its antlers flowed the great rivers of the world. A magical goat grazed by the tree, and its udders dispensed not milk but mead for the warriors in Odin's Great Hall. The gods held their councils under the canopy of their guardian tree.


Odin, the foremost god of the Vikings, hung himself on Yggdrasil as a sacrificial ordeal, during which he lost an eye to ravens. Ultimately though, he was rewarded with insights and wisdom, notably knowledge of the system of the Runes. Both he and Thor, the god of thunder, were said to possess magical spears made of ash wood. Mortals’ spear shafts were also typically made of ash (as were bows, in the absence of yew, and arrow shafts).

The words for ash and spear seem to be related in that a poetic Anglo-Saxon word for spear was aesc and the Norse word for ash was ask (influencing Highland place names such as Port Askaig). The Vikings were also referred to as the Aescling meaning ‘Men of Ash’.

Like the Vikings, the Gaels also thought of the ash tree (which they called uinsinn, pronounced ooshin) as protective. Of the five legendary guardian trees of Ireland, three were ash. Ash is also the second most popular tree growing beside Irish holy wells, and on the Isle of Man ash trees were said to protect the purity of springs. In England the ash is the commonest tree as a place name element after the thorn.

In British folklore the ash was credited with a range of protective and healing properties, most frequently related to child health. Newborn babies were popularly given a teaspoon of ash sap. Ailing children, especially those suffering with rupture or weak limbs, would be passed naked through a cleft in an ash tree or ash sapling, to cure them. The cleft was often specifically made for the purpose and bound together again after the ceremony to heal over as the child also healed. Some folklore then suggested an intimate bond between the welfare and fate of the now related tree and person, with harm to the tree being reflected in the healed person’s life, leading people to become understandably protective of ‘their’ ash tree.

Though there does not appear to be any religious reason why this tree should be associated with Ash Wednesday, the mere association of the words is obvious, and in parts of England children used to bring a twig of black-budded ash to school on this day. Any child who failed to remember this risked having his or her feet stomped on by other ash-twig-bearing children!

Ash wood is very strong, tough and elastic, and it is said that a joint of ash will bear more weight than any other wood. Chariot and coach axles were made of ash as were oars, tool handles and the weaponry already mentioned. The tree coppices well, giving strong straight poles for bean poles after five years or oars after twenty. Ash coppice stools seem to be able to go on producing poles almost indefinitely and an eighteen-foot-diameter stool in Suffolk has been estimated to be over a thousand years old. The density of the wood also makes it an ideal fuel, as is reflected in its Latin species name Fraxinus meaning firelight. One of the traditional woods used as the yule log was ash. In some areas the ‘log’ was actually a ******, that is a tightly bound bundle of coppiced ash rods. To this day ash is the most highly valued firewood, burning for a long time with an intense heat, whether seasoned or green.

 

[Flehmen]

My father taught me to split wood as it grew, mall to hit top of the round

Lloyd, my father taught me the same about splitting the wood as it grows. I try to follow this practice as often as possible except for the stump end of the log that won't stand because of the felling notch hinge. What a PITA! Especially hard maple.

Woodbooga, I think this new thread is a great idea. I'm gonna have to talk to my dad about it since he learned everything from Great Uncle Howard (R.I.P.) who was an old time logger here in Northwestern Pennsylvania for 40 years.

 

[WidowMaker]

I've heard stories of some guy in the Great Lakes area that had a Blue Ox....

 

[ulyssesjones]

This is more of a truism than lore but it has always been my favorite and I am sure we have all heard it.

"firewood heats you twice. Once when you split it and again when you burn it"

it really is true though. When I go outside and split wood on a cold day the last thing I want to do when I come inside is get the fire going again. I'm just too damned hot.

-Jones

 

[woodbooga]

This is more of a truism than lore but it has always been my favorite and I am sure we have all heard it.

"firewood heats you twice. Once when you split it and again when you burn it"

it really is true though. When I go outside and split wood on a cold day the last thing I want to do when I come inside is get the fire going again. I'm just too damned hot.

-Jones

Two times seems conservative. For me:

-cutting it/loading on the truck
-splitting it back home
-stacking it
-bringing it in the barn at the first hard frost
-bringing from the barn in the house over the course of the winter
-final destination: in the stove
-CODA - If I'm cooking up some real hot chili, the firewood heats me indirectly after it's been reduced to ashes.

 

[larman]

13 loads for the winter is what i was told by my dad thats what the old timers alwas got to heat the house with makes cents in a way 13 weeks of winter 1 load a week = 13 loads. hey i tryed it one year didnt work out too good was 3 loads short lol they mustof had bigger loads than i got lol
larry

 

[mowoodchopper]

I have not heard any of the folk lore or don't have any stories off the top of my head but I do have a ? for you guys. Have you ever noticed how much better wood heat feels than any thing else? I love the heat a wood stove puts off!!! To me its crazy because I hate the summer time and when its 100 outside I want the ac on 68 or 70, but in the winter I keep it 77- 80 most of the time and if its 75 or below I throw some more wood on the fire and sit in my chair and soak up the heat and fall asleep usually!!! LOL Anyone else have the same thing going on?

 

[AOD]

I have not heard any of the folk lore or don't have any stories off the top of my head but I do have a ? for you guys. Have you ever noticed how much better wood heat feels than any thing else? I love the heat a wood stove puts off!!! To me its crazy because I hate the summer time and when its 100 outside I want the ac on 68 or 70, but in the winter I keep it 77- 80 most of the time and if its 75 or below I throw some more wood on the fire and sit in my chair and soak up the heat and fall asleep usually!!! LOL Anyone else have the same thing going on?

Thats probably because of the summer humidity, I hate humid weather too, makes everything miserable. A wood stove puts out a lot of radiant heat, not just heating air but radiant heat that heats objects directly, something a gas furnace just won't do. And you can't go huddle up to a gas furnace when you come in from the cold, it just doesn't work that way.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

13 loads for the winter is what i was told by my dad thats what the old timers alwas got to heat the house with makes cents in a way 13 weeks of winter 1 load a week = 13 loads. hey i tryed it one year didnt work out too good was 3 loads short lol they mustof had bigger loads than i got lol
larry

Our ancestors were probably right on with their count but their wood sticks were longer because their stoves were probably larger than ours!

Shari

 

[mowoodchopper]

Thats probably because of the summer humidity, I hate humid weather too, makes everything miserable. A wood stove puts out a lot of radiant heat, not just heating air but radiant heat that heats objects directly, something a gas furnace just won't do. And you can't go huddle up to a gas furnace when you come in from the cold, it just doesn't work that way.

Yeah your right and another thing, If I set my gas furnace on 80 It would run me out of the house it makes me fell like I cant breathe!! But the wood burner no problem!

 

[ulyssesjones]

Thats probably because of the summer humidity, I hate humid weather too, makes everything miserable. A wood stove puts out a lot of radiant heat, not just heating air but radiant heat that heats objects directly, something a gas furnace just won't do. And you can't go huddle up to a gas furnace when you come in from the cold, it just doesn't work that way.

My girlfriend always likes to point out that the house isn't any warmer with the wood stove than it is with the furnace cranked up but with the woodstove there is always one spot in the house that is 500 degrees. And anytime you get cold you can go stand by the stove.

Jones

 

[slipknot91]

I have more of a question than a folklore statement.

"A tree that has been hit by lightening will not produce much heat when you cut it up and burn it."

Is this statement true?