New Here, Couple of Questions

[njtuna]

hello, i am very glad i found this forum. my wife and i have just about finished our first year in our house. we have a fireplace xtrordinaire 36 model and absolutely love it. i've been learning a lot about firewood since we moved in. i've learned enough that i decided to chop my own wood from now on. bought from a couple of different places over the winter, with not so great results. have a few questions: 1. i have been splitting a large oak, and found that some of the wood, near the outer edges seems a bit "soft", probably rotting? it's a lot less dense and lighter than the good wood, and breaks off in small pieces. just wondering if you can burn this? 2. how do i tell what kind of oak it is? the heartwood is red, but the rest of the wood seems very white. will try to post a few pictures tonight. 3. how small will i have to cut pieces so that i can burn them in decmber? will be stacking them on log racks made from stack-its and pressure-treated 2x4s. 4. how do you feel about burning hemlock? i have a bunch from when we cut down a lot of hemlocks on the property that is split and has been seasoning since october. 5. why is silver maple not good firewood? thanks ahead of time

 

[Highclimber OR]

Well like you said the wood seems like it's rotting, that's probably true. If you dry it enough it should burn. Out here we have Red Oak and White Oak primarily(Quercus Rubra and Quercus Alba) are a little tough to tell apart when just rounds. The main thing is that Red Oak is a bit tighter on the grain than the White Oak. It all burns nice though. Welcome to arboristsite.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

1. i have been splitting a large oak, and found that some of the wood, near the outer edges seems a bit "soft", probably rotting? it's a lot less dense and lighter than the good wood, and breaks off in small pieces. just wondering if you can burn this?

If it's dry, it will burn. It will burn more quickly, and give you less heat than solid wood, but it will still give heat. Actually, that stuff isn't too bad for kindling.

Some folks around here have such unlimited supply of free wood that they won't bother with anything that's less than perfect, solid, clean wood. Others have to work more or pay more for what they burn, so are less picky. Some are so desperate they'll burn just about anything.

You'll have to decide for yourself where you fit on that spectrum. No point on it is wrong, or right, it's just a matter of what suits your situation.


Welcome!

 

[Jimfound]

1) the wood on the outer edges is the sapwood and is probably punky or rotting. This should not affect the heartwood...especially with oak which can last a long tome on the ground before rotting
2) post a pic and folks here should be able to tell you what kinfd of oak you have
3) in general the smaller you cut the pieces of wood the easier they will burn. If the wood has been dead for awhile it may be already fairly seasoned. Not a bad idea to cut in various sizes so you have smaller pieces for the early stages of the fire, and bigger chunks for when you have a good coal bed going.
4) don't know about hemlock
5) Silver maple is not considered bad firewood. It is considered a softwood (as opposed to sugar maple, which is considered a hardwood). Softwood is fine just probably not as much btu output as say oak or hickory. Not a thing wrong with silver maple.

welcome aboard.

 

[ktm250rider]

Ill trade you straight up for that xtrordinaire for my stupid gas model. Just let me know and Ill drop it off .
We almost went with one of those. Im still not sure why i went with the money burner propane unit, which of course we dont use.

 

[jrclen]

Hi NJTUNA,
Welcome to AS. I am still kind of a new guy here, but I can tell you there is a huge amount of knowledge on this site. I have heated with wood all my life. My wife and I heated our house only with wood in a forced air wood furnace until I wised up and installed a propane furnace about 15 or so years ago. We kept the high efficiency wood burning stove upstairs for another 5 years. Then I took a nice 10 year rest from cutting and splitting and stacking and hauling wood. But last summer my wife asked me to built her a fireplace. And I did it. So back out in the woods I go. OK That's enough whining.

I can tell you that any wood will burn. That is the nature of wood. Some will give more heat for a longer time - hardwoods. Some will burn fast and furious - softwoods. And some will creosote the chimney quicker - soft and pine wood. For a fireplace, as opposed to a wood furnace, you will want smaller chunks of wood. I find 4x4 inch chunks on average works good. With some smaller and some larger. I was used to splitting larger chunks from my blocks for the furnace but the fireplace likes smaller pieces.

Don't neglect your chimney. I brush mine 3 or 4 times per year. 2 or 3 may be enough, but chimney fires should be avoided. I had one this year in my brand new chimney and it was exciting. No problem though, but I would rather have brushed it. The long deep snow kept me off my steep pitch roof a little longer than normal. Then my wife built a fire out of a large bunch of small kindling wood that got way hotter than I thought was prudent. I was right. It sure made the chimney clean though. Looked new in there.

I've heard that some wood smells bad when it burns. But then all my wood smoke goes up the chimney anyway so that is not much of a problem. The punky soft wood you mention doesn't hurt a thing. It makes a bit of a mess of the wood box is all. So burn what you have and what you can get.

Someone here will be happy to answer any other questions you might have. More likely more answers than you need. I know you will enjoy the group.

 

[Sprig]

Welcome njtuna and family!
Seems the previous gents have pretty much covered the basics so I'll answer the hemlock Q. Nothing wrong with it, it will burn but not super BTU's of hardwood, some don't like the smell and if its twisty it can be a real bear to split, but it'll burn fine (old grownth with tighter rings is actually pretty nice stuff imo). On the punky outsides stuff, no worries there. If its really nasty just whack it a few times before you bring it into the house and knock off the rotted junk (it will burn too but as someone mentioned it can be messy), and make sure there aren't any buggy surprizes in there, nothing quite like waking up a blackjacket, wasp, or nest of termites to brighten someones day (I speak from exp. there lol).

Safe cutting and happy warmth!

Serge

 

[njtuna]

thanks for all the responses. there is a ton of info on this site! how can i post a few pictures? they are under 3.91mb each, but upload is failing. thanks

 

[Jimfound]

You can go here:

http://imageshack.us/

Browse to the pic file on your computer
Click the "Host it" button
Then copy the "Thumbnail for forums" url and paste it into your response to this thread. The pic will show up in the thread.

 

[njtuna]

ok, trying again: the first four are of the tree i have been working on, and the last is the hemlock, and a little maple that has been seasoning since october.

 

[GLOBOTREE]

Supply for fireplace

Hey! I am pretty new here too, I am enjoying this forum for sure. Most excellent passer of time as well an excellent source for opinions. Wondering if you are an Arborist or just a wood cutter or what? Anyways, keep in touch I may have some valuable information for your supply stream, take it easy.

 

[computeruser]

Nice pics. Looks like you've got some nice firewood in those large trunk pieces!

 

[njtuna]

just a first time home and fireplace- owner trying to do things myself, and enjoying it too i actually like chopping wood. seems to be a common thing here. and i am just trying to learn how to file chains for my chainsaw. a little confusing, but am reading up and practicing.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Yes, a nice looking stack of wood. You need to get it up off the ground, though. I find it pretty easy to scrounge free pallets, which work very well. Toss a few cinder blocks under them, and all the wood is up off the ground and well aired. You can use pallets for sides, too. I just wire them together at the bottom, and screw one board (from a broken pallet) diagonally across the back to keep the sides upright. Works great.

BTW, here are some links to some free image editing tools. It helps if you resize the images so that they fit a computer screen. I use both of these:


http://www.photofiltre.com/

http://perso.orange.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.html

 

[njtuna]

thanks for the photo sites. i realize i have to get the wood up off the ground, have log racks made from stack-it brackets and treated 2x4s, but was waiting til i finished splitting to stack. can anyone id the type of oak, or should i start another thread for that?

 

[jrclen]

thanks for the photo sites. i realize i have to get the wood up off the ground, have log racks made from stack-it brackets and treated 2x4s, but was waiting til i finished splitting to stack. can anyone id the type of oak, or should i start another thread for that?

Looks like the red oak I cut on my place. But I'm no expert. How about a leaf? Do they have pointy ends or rounded ends? Red oak (and others) have pointed lobes and white oak has rounded lobes.

 

[njtuna]

unfortunately, no leaves. the tree came to me in trunk form