By goodness, unseasoned ash does burn well...

[Dalmatian90]

Cutting to the chase:

Less then four hours from felling the white ash...and the my flue pipe reads 700º right now (just went and turned down the damper) with the wood from the tree.

The rest of the story:

I have a couple weeks of nice, seasoned, cut-n-split wood remaining under cover as my "emergency reserve" I'm hoping to use up for those end of season take the chill out fires.

I had been working away bucking up 3 year old ash logs and felling a dead sycamore. The ash was a little moister then I expected, but no worse then some oak I've burned in past times that had been cut, split, and inside a garage for a year.

Yesterday I got to some swamp maple logs. Based on the experience with the ash logs, I wasn't worried...

Even sounded good splitting it. Wood was mostly "blonde" colored except where ants had done some damage. Once it thawed out inside the house though...complete, waterlogged crud. Not good. Had to go get some wood from the emergency reserve to warm the house.

So today I decided to try some ash and took down a small tree. Wow, not much moisture in it then the 3 year old logs had...definitely hard to get going compared to properly seasoned wood. But once it did, it's burning nice. And checking my chimney regularly...it's producing a lot less smoke then some of my "seasoned" stuff did, or even the dry to the bone dead sycamore had.

I'm truly impressed.

And I WILL NOT find myself in this position next year scrounging for wood around my property each weekend! Already have the trees marked for next year's supply I'll be taking down during February & March.

 

[Moss Man]

I didn't get enough wood in for this winter, we were too busy cutting for everyone else! Won't happen next winter!

Burn what you can, just keep a good eye on the chimney flue.

 

[treeman82]

I had a couple of firewood orders come in and so last week I spent a few days cutting and splitting. 1 cord of ash, locust, and birch 1 day. The ash had been dead for a few years, and on the ground for probably 3+ months. Then a locust had fallen over, so I cut that up and threw it in, along with a bit of REALLY dead birch which had been on the ground since October? So far so good I guess?

 

[Coldfront]

I love Ash it is about my favorite wood now. And to think a few years ago I didn't know my Ash from a hole in the ground.

 

[Edmccabe]

Standing/dead ash

Here are some photos of a dead ash I cut yesterday (Superbowl day). It was 28" at the butt. Most of the tree is still solid and the pieces I split burned very well last night.

Great wood

 

[hawken08]

Here are some photos of a dead ash I cut yesterday (Superbowl day). It was 28" at the butt. Most of the tree is still solid and the pieces I split burned very well last night.

Great wood

you call that a wheel barrel? more like a spoon with a wheel.

I just finished stacking 4 face cord saturday. I agree take while for it to start but it burns great even green.

 

[turnkey4099]

There is a poem about the quality of Ash wood that refers to "burn it green or burn it dry..." I wish I had a copy of it. Someone posted it on here many years ago...?Sanburn?

Harry K

 

[woodbooga]

There is a poem about the quality of Ash wood that refers to "burn it green or burn it dry..." I wish I had a copy of it. Someone posted it on here many years ago...?Sanburn?

Harry K

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,
Chestnut's only good they say,
If for logs 'tis laid away.
Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;
But ash new or ash old,
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.

Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last,
it is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E'en the very flames are cold
But Ash green or Ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.

Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke,
Apple wood will scent your room
Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom
Oaken logs, if dry and old
keep away the winter's cold
But Ash wet or Ash dry
a king shall warm his slippers by.

 

[clawmute]

Deleted double post of poem.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

Beautiful.

Who penned it?

 

[turnkey4099]

Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year,

<snip rest>

.

Thanks. This time I saved it. Oddly, I just threw a nice chunk of ash into the stove. Only have a few of them left.

Harry K

 

[country boy]

Ive been burning quite a bit of green ash here lately my seasoned supply is about gone. Another nice thing about burning ash is it burns up clean, leaves very little ashes.

 

[woodbooga]

Beautiful.

Who penned it?

As far as I can tell, a prolific poet named Anne.

Last name Onymous.

 

[WetBehindtheEar]

As far as I can tell, a prolific poet named Anne.

Last name Onymous.

She's hot. I went out with her sister back in college...

 

[LTREES]

This is music to my ears. I will cut an ash this Saturday for a friend, however I'm very much in need of a cord or two. I have about 8 cord for next year (mainly oak) that I don't want to touch. It is not quite ready yet. So off to collect an ash and some standing dead. The 5-6 cords needed for a year the dealer told me about just ain't cutting it. I'm down about 7.5 now. Hope the cold snap breaks this month.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Only problem I'm having is it's making a lot of coals.

Wouldn't be bad...but it's been getting down near zero. Five days into burning, I just brought out a bucket load of more coals then ash and dumped 'em in the snow to make room to fill up the stove for the night...I seriously had a good 6+" bed of coals! Not enough room to put in a good load of wood.

Need to pickup a second metal bucket so I could've put the good coals aside while cleaning out the ash...was way too many coals to just push them aside.

 

[woodbooga]

Only problem I'm having is it's making a lot of coals.

Wouldn't be bad...but it's been getting down near zero. Five days into burning, I just brought out a bucket load of more coals then ash and dumped 'em in the snow to make room to fill up the stove for the night...I seriously had a good 6+" bed of coals! Not enough room to put in a good load of wood.

Need to pickup a second metal bucket so I could've put the good coals aside while cleaning out the ash...was way too many coals to just push them aside.

When my pile of coals gets too deep, I switch to pine, which burns real hot and doesn't leave as many coals as oak/ash/beech. Keeps the temp up and makes the coal bed shallower. That said, there isn't anything better than going to bed knowing there's a pit of coals that'll keep raidiating on through the night.

 

[Wood Scrounge]

When my pile of coals gets too deep, I switch to pine, which burns real hot and doesn't leave as many coals as oak/ash/beech. Keeps the temp up and makes the coal bed shallower. That said, there isn't anything better than going to bed knowing there's a pit of coals that'll keep raidiating on through the night.

hmmm pine, I haven't tried pine for that, I was doing the same thing with tulip poplar but it creates so much ash it chokes the coals out. I love black birch for this purpose but I am out of it.

 

[woodbooga]

hmmm pine, I haven't tried pine for that, I was doing the same thing with tulip poplar but it creates so much ash it chokes the coals out. I love black birch for this purpose but I am out of it.

Confession: I didn't have any pine indoors last night and poppled the coals down. Then banked with a big knotty piece of oak and fit in some smaller spilts to fill out the wood box. Woke up to a lot of black coals in the cookstove. On the up side, fire kindled real quick in a top down way. (I have to rekindle daily anyways)

 

[Zodiac45]

Cutting to the chase:

Less then four hours from felling the white ash...and the my flue pipe reads 700º right now (just went and turned down the damper) with the wood from the tree.

The rest of the story:

I have a couple weeks of nice, seasoned, cut-n-split wood remaining under cover as my "emergency reserve" I'm hoping to use up for those end of season take the chill out fires.

I had been working away bucking up 3 year old ash logs and felling a dead sycamore. The ash was a little moister then I expected, but no worse then some oak I've burned in past times that had been cut, split, and inside a garage for a year.

Yesterday I got to some swamp maple logs. Based on the experience with the ash logs, I wasn't worried...

Even sounded good splitting it. Wood was mostly "blonde" colored except where ants had done some damage. Once it thawed out inside the house though...complete, waterlogged crud. Not good. Had to go get some wood from the emergency reserve to warm the house.

So today I decided to try some ash and took down a small tree. Wow, not much moisture in it then the 3 year old logs had...definitely hard to get going compared to properly seasoned wood. But once it did, it's burning nice. And checking my chimney regularly...it's producing a lot less smoke then some of my "seasoned" stuff did, or even the dry to the bone dead sycamore had.

I'm truly impressed.

And I WILL NOT find myself in this position next year scrounging for wood around my property each weekend! Already have the trees marked for next year's supply I'll be taking down during February & March.

Well theyah!... yah, yah (while intake of breath on the Yah's)

It's really the only wood that has this ability. Obviously it is better seasoned than green but none the less, has been the savior of many a family in a long cold wintah! Ohhhh ayah. When ever I come across some (green) I'll try and keep it separate and stack it into the barn with the kindling slabs. That makes it available if I'm running short or I'm helping a neighbor. I've been planting silver ash trees on my 4 acres round the house here. Just a couple every year. I started this 20 years ago and have a few decent sized healthy trees and small ones doing well too. Someone will thank me years down the road.