Cutting Burn Wood

[fuzzybear]

fuzzybear
Who is being forced to cut burned timber?
Curious too where the "official stance" is coming from.

That was what our Territorial guberment was trying to force on us with new forestry regulations. They wanted to force us all to cut out of these large tracts after a fire.  The largest logging operation here did it once. He said never again.  He cuts to supply his own large scale mill. It was to hard on equipment, ie: more frequent oil changes, 4 times more filter changes.  He had to truck in a shower house for his crew to use at the end of the day because they were just to dirty to climb into their own vehicles.
  My experiance is with the Boreal forest, mostly spruce, and totally wild. I imagine it would be different in a southern forest with a larger mix of hardwood trees.
  When there is a fire here the policy is to let it burn unless it's in a populated area. Every few years there are large fires that are in an area that is easily accesable.  None of us want to touch it for at least 3 years. The trees keep until then. The year after the fire they are still very much green, but way to black to work with.  After a few years to the elements they are still a mess, but not as bad.
Unfortunatly one of our guberment officials thought we should be working these burns the following year, and ignore the vast stands of trees that are dying due to disease, insects, flooding.  Fortunatly, they changed their minds, and are now making them accessible by option.
 

Best suit up before cleaning the flu, the stove pipes and the ashes. ;D

I don't suit up for that, but if I had to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in that stuff I would want some sort of protection for my lungs.
FB

[SwampDonkey]

No doubt about it. An occupational hazard for a chimney sweep. But my grandfather had cut in burnt land, by hand, over the years and never had any lung problems, lived a long life.

[francismilker]

I cut several burnt logs about a month ago and the way I dealt with the dust and charcoal was to put foaming detergent in my 1500psi pressure washer and coat the logs with a little foam after I loaded them on the mill.  It wet the dust down just enough to keep it settled and I didn't have any problems at all with it.  I wouldn't bat an eye about doing it again.  All the charcoal water and black soot absorbed quickly to the erc sawdust under the mill.

I washed the sawmill bed and carriage down real well with plain water when I was finished and by the next morning you couldn't tell I'd ever sawed burnt logs. 

Now the outslabs it made was a different story.  My son looked like he'd just slid down my fireplace on Christmas Eve!  In the future I'll send them straight to the burn pile off the mill.

[Brucer]

Minerals in sap are in solution when they move up the tree, the heat of fire doesn't change them.

This is true of suspended solids like silica. Minerals can also be in soluble form, in which case they will precipitate out when exposed to high heat. The precipitate is a solid and can be hard on blades.

[SwampDonkey]

Very very minute concentration. Certainly not forming a block of salt inside the wood.

[johnjbc]

Years ago we got to cut some fire killed Oak in South Jersey. It was small, 6" to 8" and most of the bark didn't burn clear through and took the dirt with it when it fell off. It was some of the best firewood  ever cut. I remember setting in front of the fireplace and talking about the blue flames it was making.