Popping wood

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Seems to be happening more and more. When I open the stove door and the room air rushes in, I get a little popping, and sometimes big popping. Just happened and some very large coals exploded, and some hitting the door. Had I not been opening the door slowly and paused after only and inch or so, I would have had large glowing coals on the floor/carpet. Yikes!!!

Be careful. :eek:
 
I get more of that when I burn cherry. Spose it's the sap resins trapped inside? I dunno but it does catch me sleeping sometimes.
 
The only thing I’ve burned that dose NOT do this very much is black locust and oak.

I burn mostly cherry, black locust, maple, oak, pine, beach and a little hickory .... pine and cherry do it the most for me.


Iv been planning an “open door” much better now though.

Door unlatched and air control full open fir a few min. Then crack the door about 1/2” for a min. Then scrap them to the front and do the same process again. This cuts WAY down on the sparks.


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Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron
From Wiki

Also called 'popple' in the old days, because it popped.
 
The worst I ever saw was sassafras. A friend gave me some big rounds he had piled from a clearing. I thought they were hickory. When I opened the stove door, it was like I threw a handful of .22 rimfire bullets in!

I burn a lot of sassafras and can confirm this. What a great smelling wood though.
 
I burned a lot of
Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron
From Wiki

Also called 'popple' in the old days, because it popped.
I've burned a lot poplar and never had a popping problem.I always heard it called popple because it's easier to say than poplar
 
because popple reproduces by root it takes over in thick groves of trees that are often so close you can not walk between the trees and around here it is refereed to as a stand of popple while actually being a Poplar tree mass as they share roots they are suckers that come up from the roots of the original.

it was the only green tree we were allowed to cut at boy scout camp we cut them for lashing poles they work well for that , easy cutting , tall thin trees.

I didn't have a problem with it popping when it burned it cuts paper and burns like paper when dry, but I have to think it may have well been because it better fit in the dialect of Scandinavian Americans who populated the area.


many things also got local common names like "Iron wood " american hop-hornbeam
 
Mulberry, when too green, will pop a lot. However, when it dries out, it seems to pop less than ash and it really burns long and hot. Last batch of mulberry I loaded I mixed it with ash and I swear I saw blue flames. This past year it dried out very well:
View attachment 698378
Mulberry will produce blue flames I've seen it in are stove to. Burning some now that's been split/stacked close to 3 years.
 
Mulberry will produce blue flames I've seen it in are stove to. Burning some now that's been split/stacked close to 3 years.
some one had convinced people in this area that mulberry is garbage wood.

they probably never knew or will know it was used for it's very minimal shrinkage properties as pegs in timber framing and has good burning properties.
 
I believe this led to gunpowder. One of the ingredients in homemade gunpowder is charcoal. Saltpeter, and something else. It took a lot of powder to fire a musket ball.
 
Mulberry will produce blue flames I've seen it in are stove to. Burning some now that's been split/stacked close to 3 years.
Mulberry also has good rot resistance, siumilar to locust. I've heard that farmers used to make fence posts with it. You can't say that for soft maple. I've watched this stuff punk rot in two years so I burn that during the same year that I cut it to length.
 
Over the years here, this has come up a lot. One guy will say this wood pops a lot and another guy will say that wood pops a lot. I've burned them both and not had a problem. I have burned wood that pops a lot when you open the door. I think it's the sudden rush of oxygen that makes it burn real fast. As was said above, if I crack the door it will pop on the corner the air hits first, but if I wait just a bit and finish opening the door slowly, there is little to no popping.
 
I wonder if opening the air controls fully for a minute first would change the popping if it then wouldn't pop when the door was opened ?
 
Liriodendron tulipifera—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus Liriodendron
From Wiki

Also called 'popple' in the old days, because it popped.

I burned a lot of

I've burned a lot poplar and never had a popping problem.I always heard it called popple because it's easier to say than poplar

Interesting.

I stand corrected.

Thanks.

Tulip poplar and poplar are different things. Do they have tulip poplar in NY, or are you talking about cottonwood/Aspen trees? I've never burned tulip poplar, but I would say from my experience burning the poplar we have in WI, that it's not particularly poppy.
 
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