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How much rot do you allow?

Started by cutterboy, January 02, 2021, 05:05:44 PM

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livemusic

Quote from: Al_Smith on January 05, 2021, 07:56:41 AM
I stopped selling the stuff decades ago and just burn it myself .Now here's where the chickens come home to roost .I have some stuff that had sat too long uncovered in the elements and it has degraded .It still contains heat it just takes more of it ,lots more .As luck would have it so far it's been a mild winter and with any luck by the time is does get cold I'll be rid of this stuff .I've got a fair amount of good dry white oak should we get a cold snap .White oak and ash  can take weather, hickory and maple don't do so well nor red oak and cherry .
Al, interesting to see you say that hickory, maple and red oak don't take to being in weather very well. I have found that to be the case. Don't know I can say that about cherry so much around here. I am surprised that hickory and red oak don't do better, such as white oak does. Lately, I have found some black locust and am rather intrigued with it. Based on how good some dead ones are, even on the ground, I assume it will 'weather' just fine if not babied. Also found some water locust (lots of thorns like honey locust) and am going to try it as firewood.
~~~
Bill

Al_Smith

Some of it just takes weather better than others .For example catalpa which is fairly soft was grown in groves in  these parts for fence posts .Little odd patches that were hard to farm became an endless supply of fence posts .The fences as well as the catalpa patches along with the giant dairy barns are almost all gone now .  Corn as far as the eye can see in some parts .

Al_Smith

It's all a little different .For example white oak while not actually rot proof is resistant to same .What I'm burning now had been in rounds for 8 to 10 years and finally split this past September .It's dry as a bone and burns well .
The shag bark hickory was a wind blown and has some spalting which also burns well .The wood wasn't really rotten just lacks any moisture for about 3-4 inches on the outside of the round .
About 10:30 -- 11 each evening I load the bottom layer of wood in the insert using the oak and lay the shag over top of that .Over the night the oak coals up and the shag covers it with ashes .Rake it in the morning and if it had a forced draft blower you could forge a horse shoe in it .Toss in some oak and before the coffee is made I have a roaring fire .
This is actual ground hog day but a likeness of same has gone on the last 10 months, not much changes .Excepting during summer you don't have tend the fire . :)

Blueknife

Quote from: livemusic on February 02, 2021, 08:23:29 AMLately, I have found some black locust and am rather intrigued with it. Based on how good some dead ones are, even on the ground, I assume it will 'weather' just fine if not babied.
Black locust will last longer than pressure treated lumber, given the same conditions. Wish there was more of it around here. That's one thing I miss about the east.

Al_Smith

The hard truth of it is is if the salvaged dead fall has lain on the floor long enough it will have some rot .It might be worth chunking up or it may not .Most of my dead fall is worth the time .If it's water logged it will require some dry out time though .Cut in spring, burn in winter .Been doing it for decades .
  

brianJ

Quote from: upnut on January 03, 2021, 03:14:09 PM
The pieces you pictured would go right in the sale pile for me, keeping in mind it's a roadside "campfire wood" type of situation. Originally, I began selling campfire wood as an outlet for marginal firewood that was rotting away in in a neglected woodlot belonging to a friend of mine, TSI if you will. Inspiration came from research, I believe on this forum, from a gentleman that kept a "knots, rots and butts" bin at his firewood sales area, which priced accordingly, he couldn't keep up with.



Scott B.
Bonfires are a regular feature for some guys at work.   It has worked out I am the source of the material.   Knots rots & butts is a lot of it.    There is always some of that in every tree.   
You guys know when you are working down a branch.   Still six inches cant waste that.   Four inches is even better since it don't need splitting.   3 inches even 2 inches Should I take one more piece or not?      Wonder no more lope off a 4 foot section good for the bonfire.      
Sure makes clean up easy and a tidy pile when Im done at the field edge.    The landowners like that look

Al_Smith

You might find it surprising because I did .I don't advise doing it but I let a pile of shag bark bark hickory get way from me .Outside, no cover for at least 7 or 8 years and yes the rot got to it .Because my supply is getting lower that I expected it to because of colder weather I'm burning it .Even dry as a bone and light as a feather it's doing just fine considering every thing .So for your own stuff don't bon fire it because it still has heat .
It's going to be nip and tuck this winter .I might have another month and I might make it without going to the woods or I might not .This will never happen again .

cutterboy

Al, you're right about this winter being a cold one. I'm going through a lot of wood right now. I put up extra wood last year and I'm happy I did. I'm in good shape.
In the fall and winter of 2019 I cut up a lot of dead birch and got carried away with it as some of it was pretty far gone. I'm burning some of that nasty stuff now. I figured I'd throw it in the stove just to get rid of it but it's burning better and longer than I expected and giving off some good heat. Just goes to show you...it all burns and gives off heat.
To underestimate old men and old machines is the folly of youth. Frank C.

Al_Smith

It's surprising just how good degraded hardwoods do for a fire .I have a routine that seldom changes .I load the stove up at night throttle the air intake and go to bed right after the 11 PM news .Up around 5:30 AM .Rake the ashes to uncover the coals and toss in a couple of small pieces .Make the coffee and by then I have a roaring fire once again . The fire almost never goes out from mid November to mid to late March .

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