jags
ArboristSite Guru
Yep, and a fairly mean one at that. It takes a lot of push to crush a log into that form...Cuz it sure as heck didn't split it.
What Is Junk Wood???
- Thread starter flyboy553
- Start date
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You're turning down some fair wood if you have to get rid of it anyhow. Willow heated this house for over 30 years.
Harry K
True but move out into country like this and your wood snobbery will rapidly disappear
Suddenly what was "junk" where you were will turn into green gold.Harry K
Junk wood - poison ivy vine infested tree, punky rotted downed tree, crotches of tree that are holding dirt, gnarly box elder, to name a few kinds.
You're probably right Harry... But I don't "have" to get rid of it, or cut it, or even acknowledge it.
I only cut firewood for myself and only on my own property.
I can be choosy if I want... and I choose to be choosy about the kinds of wood I'll spend my time on.
I suppose if I were a wood scavenging city-dweller my attitude would be different... but then again, if I had to hunt and scavenge my firewood I probably wouldn't do it. I burn wood for heat because it's easy, accessible and relatively cheap, I basically cut my firewood in my back yard. If I had to haul it down the road... well, it probably wouldn't get done. Don't get me wrong, I love being outdoors and in the woods, but there's a lot of things I could be doing in the great outdoors that I would enjoy more than cutting firewood... Fish poles, my kids, some sandwiches and a box-o-beer comes immediately to mind.
Bushmans
Smoke Dragon Herder
Junk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
No but that #### will burn like crazy!
doobie57z
ArboristSite Operative
looks like smoked pulled pork, Tennessee BBQJunk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
Mr Good Wood
ArboristSite Member
Junk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
yea right i can stack anything, it won't look all pretty like most like. no rot and decent looking= sell/ little rot but not bad= pole barn heat/ rot and pretty bad= owb
Yea yea i know, our owb won't support house and pole barn, but we got it at a screaming deal so.... not in pole barn much anyway and the old stove in there dose the job.
sbowman871
ArboristSite Operative
Junk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
Now that looks like some of the shag bark hickory that I fought with last year. Great to burn, but a PITA to split.
Box elder could be the worst firewood species of them all. It does make a nice bonfire, however.
Junk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
Look here Jags, I like you and all, you're a good sort,
But that picture is just devious. You had to work a long time at that firken round to produce that particyular ####ograph....
Sadict
firewood guy
ArboristSite Operative
Junk wood - and you ain't gonna stack that:
I LOVE that wood! It weighs about 50 lbs per cord stacked right? On a lighter note, we all get crap wood here and there that we don't want to sell in load of mixed, so we give that stuff away to those less fortunate. It all burns, and free to people that otherwise would be cold is a good thing.
"Junk wood" is an arbitrary term. As a professional arborist we only sold high quality seasoned hard wood to our customers. Anything else we sold by the truck load to a local vegetable stand that sold fire wood in the winter, as "junk wood". We charged him $50 per truck load, on a Ford F600 with a 12 foot dump box with 6' sides. It still burned, and he sold it, to his customers. His wife would joke and call it "Knott-Oak", like some species of really hard Oak. But, if someone complained, she would say I told you it was "NOT" Oak. Now that I'm retired I've turned into a real firewood snob. I can go to my cousins wood lot and "cherry" pick, pun intended, I love Cherry. I mark and cut basically all Oak, split, load, and leave the mess, for free.
To the home owner not making a living in the tree business, any piece of free wood is like hitting the firewood lottery. If it's wood, it burns. My UPS buddy is the biggest dumpster diver on the planet. He can't pass up anything free. He used to call me all the time saying some customer of his had a big dead tree he could have for free, just take it down. I'd look at it for him and say I wouldn't touch it for less than $3,000 bucks. The thing would be dead, falling apart, over 2 houses, and all he had to do was take it down!!!
So, if your heading home and see a Willow blown over in a front yard and the owner tells you, you can have it, firewood lottery. What he didn't tell you is I just left and told him it would cost $85 per man hour with a 3 hr min. I'd chip the brush, take the rest to our land fill, where they make mulch out of it, and be done. To you, good wood, to me junk wood, not worth waisting time and money to process, Joe
To the home owner not making a living in the tree business, any piece of free wood is like hitting the firewood lottery. If it's wood, it burns. My UPS buddy is the biggest dumpster diver on the planet. He can't pass up anything free. He used to call me all the time saying some customer of his had a big dead tree he could have for free, just take it down. I'd look at it for him and say I wouldn't touch it for less than $3,000 bucks. The thing would be dead, falling apart, over 2 houses, and all he had to do was take it down!!!
So, if your heading home and see a Willow blown over in a front yard and the owner tells you, you can have it, firewood lottery. What he didn't tell you is I just left and told him it would cost $85 per man hour with a 3 hr min. I'd chip the brush, take the rest to our land fill, where they make mulch out of it, and be done. To you, good wood, to me junk wood, not worth waisting time and money to process, Joe
Steve NW WI
Unwanted Riff Raff.
I ain't quoting Jags again, the pic's been shown enough. That picture is proof positive that fat wedges are a problem looking for a solution. A thin sharp wedge would have made firewood out of that elm. If you want to abuse nice elm like that, I suggest you send it to me instead.
Trying to split wood with a bowling ball just doesn't work!
Trying to split wood with a bowling ball just doesn't work!
flyboy553
Oakaholic
Well, thanks for the explanations guys! Having internet issues at home so can only get online when in town.
Some of you mentioned crotchy stuff, knotted stuff, stuff ya cannot split. Crotches and knots are not an issue if you have a good splitter AND you know how to read the piece of wood to be split. Granted, I am talking about red oak as that is all I cut or split. There is always a clue in the piece as to how it wants to be split.
Crotches and knotty stuff are very dense and give off lots of heat, so they are the pieces I want for night burns.
The punky stuff I always leave in the brush pile in the woods.
Hopefully the phone company will have my line repaired monday so I can stay up to date on all the great info on AS!
Ted
Some of you mentioned crotchy stuff, knotted stuff, stuff ya cannot split. Crotches and knots are not an issue if you have a good splitter AND you know how to read the piece of wood to be split. Granted, I am talking about red oak as that is all I cut or split. There is always a clue in the piece as to how it wants to be split.
Crotches and knotty stuff are very dense and give off lots of heat, so they are the pieces I want for night burns.
The punky stuff I always leave in the brush pile in the woods.
Hopefully the phone company will have my line repaired monday so I can stay up to date on all the great info on AS!
Ted
branchbuzzer
Undiagnosed
Just a friendly reminder for the rest of you that you ARE ALLOWED to quote a message and remove the original pictures from the quote. I've contacted the management and they have assured me ya won't get banned.::thumbsup::
There is no junk wood for me. It all produces heat in my OWB. I won't load up the stove with all punky, fast burning stuff unless I will be around to reload, but I burn anything that fits in the stove. If I have to expend energy to get rid of the wood I'm damn sure going to get some energy back out of it! I have loaded stuff as small as 1 1/2" into the OWB. JMTCW...
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