Crunchy ashes?

[92utownxh]

I get something similar in the my OWB, especially lately with it being so cold. Mine look like pieces of melted metal. I get them every year when it gets really cold. When I rake the coals it's definitely a metal on metal sound when I hit one.

 

[branchbuzzer]

Speaking of which, these two guys need to get outside FAR worse than I do!

As soon as all my support straps are done in the dryer I am goin' OUT there!

 

[Bob95065]

Speaking of which, these two guys need to get outside FAR worse than I do!

I am only following this thread to read the end of that story.

 

[mainewoods]

Lightning struck trees, causing fusion of the minerals and possibly other surrounding trees? Elm and oak are reputed to be the 2 most frequently struck trees, and most of you seem to live in lightning prone areas. I'm reaching!

 

[mainewoods]

And I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.

 

[gtsawyer]

I burn a lot of elm lately, and also get the crusty clinkers a lot. It's not an EPA stove, the draft is usually mostly open, and I don't use a grate, so the coals stay next to the ashes, with a fair breeze of fresh air passing by. I'm leaning towards to the fused ash theory. I think someone called me that awhile back: " 'fused as...' " or something like that.

 

[Bing187]

Wish I'd seen this before, started a new thread today for the same thing. Really strange! Seems to be related to Elm/ Cottonwood, Maybe to wood with some moisture in it.... Or I don't know what. Strange to me that with all the heat in that firebox that there could be anything left besides powder, but there it is. Isn't there some nerdy physio-chemist lurking here that can give us a scientific answer? lol.

 

[Holtby]

I get those too sometimes from Elm mostly, some even have a greenish tint, like oxidized copper? A copper clinker, maybe I should save those..lol