Burning freshly cut wood.

[Jimk]

Except when he's burning the paint off metal wheels on his bonfire..... ;-)

[Michael Chare]

The government wants to stop people burning would that has not dried properly, but do many people do this anyway?

[NY]

I'm surprised that any wood that is sold has not been seasoned for a while, even if it's not kiln-dried. I've learned something.

We have cut down quite a large pile of wood (mainly Leylandii and other conifers, with a bit of willow) and we are planning to season it for a year or so before we burn it. It's still in large branches: I need to get a decent saw (probably chainsaw) to cut it into stove-sized logs. I used an electric reciprocating saw to cut a lot of it off the tree, apart from the first ones that I did with a tenon saw, because a coarse-toothed bushman's saw had a tendency to bind in the wood very quickly. The electric reciprocating saw does the job but it's painfully slow. I need to see if Black and Decker do a coarser logging blade for the reciprocating saw, otherwise it will be chainsaw and safety lessons!

No way would we consider burning it at present, without letting the sap dry. Anyway, at the moment it's soaking wet after being outside, but that will dry when it's under cover.

[Chris Hogg]

In my previous property, we had an open fire and used to burn logs, never coal, mostly for my late wife's enjoyment. An open fire was something she'd always wanted. We'd have a truck-load of logs delivered in the autumn, and that generally lasted the winter and spring, burning them mainly at weekends. They were often freshly cut, and you could order either softwood or hardwood; we preferred the latter. It was a way for tree surgeons to disposed of the trees they'd felled. We stacked the logs in an outside store under cover, but some at the bottom were still quite damp even after lengthy storage.

Is delivery of logs in bulk like that included in the ban? If it is, what are tree surgeons going to do with their felled timber? Not that I care as I don't now have the facilities for burning logs, nor the need.

[T i m]

I don't think many people do, but now they shouldn't if they wanted to?

I'd just stack it up as habitat somewhere as I don't think it's very nice to burn?

'In the round' I think they call it.

Ah, so not very large diameter at this point.

Normally you would take it from the trunk / limb size and chog it up ready for splitting (de-liming the trunk if it has large limbs / crown or typically snedding for your conifers).

Once split into logs, stacked and covered (just the top to keep the most of the rain off) it will dry / season the quickest.

They can be ok, up to a certain diameter etc.

Hmm, on 'green' wood? ;-(

If the cut wasn't under compression and the blade was sharp and had the right 'set', it should have been like a knife though butter. Daughters 'Silky' hand held saw is razor sharp and will cut though a

4" diameter (green) branch in just a few strokes?

Again. We have put a proper green wood blade on my Saber saw and as long as the job is held firmly, it cuts though pretty quickly?

And the right PPE etc.

If the wood is green and the cut under tension, even a small bow saw should make reasonably easy work of it? The key is insuring the job is held firmly as any movement (especially angular to the blade) will cause it to stick and jam.

You can with a couple of species, like Ash (that is supposed to burn as well green as seasoned)?

I don't think it's that sort of 'wet' you need to worry about. Surface water (rain) will generally evaporate off pretty quickly, especially compared with the moisture *in* the timber anyway. That's why it's best to chog it down at last as that exposes more 'ends' to dry out from or better still, split it into logs, to further expose more of the timber to evaporate from.

Cut it into fire sized logs, split if possible / necessary then stack neatly somewhere and just cover the top to keep the rain off, allowing as much air to blow though the stack as possible. Even without any covering it will still season ok, especially if it can get the sun on it.

I bought a manual-hydraulic log splitter to log up a couple of pretty large ash trees. That was both good fun and exercise. It was one of those ... 'I'm tired ... but just one more chog' sort of things. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

That's what I'd like to know Chris.

I think the grist is they intend to 'ban the sale of wet wood and ... ' but who Polices that?

Like, are they allowed to naturally season the timber and then sell it to you (makes sense), or get it kiln dried (gotta cost more energy / pollution) and then sell it to you?

Find a timber yard that has to room to season the timber in the round (or chogs if big and handled manually)?

I care as I have to preference to breathe as fresh an air as I can get. ;-)

Daughter currently lives by the river and where narrow boats often moor up. On a colder still night the air is full of the smell of burning wood and coal. Like petrol, the 'smell' is nice (to some) but when it's fumes are a carcinogen ... ;-(

Personally, all timber should be used as timber and for as long as possible and / or then chopped up into chipboard and made into something else. Once past it's final use it should then be stacked in empty underground workings, keeping all that carbon captured. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

This may help (if accurate):

"Sales of wet wood in units of under two cubic metres will be restricted from February 2021, to allow for existing stocks to be used up.

Wet wood sold in larger volumes will need to be sold with advice on how to dry it before burning from this date, the government said."

Cheers, T i m

[Jethro_uk]

Given the aromas that waft around here when wood burners are going, I think MDF and melamine are used a lot.

[John Rumm]

TS do some Silverline "green wood" blades that are not bad if you saw can take the standard recip saw blades.

[harry]

I keep my wood in a ventilated shed for two years. I then move it into the conservatory through the Summer months (which is next to the wood burner). So my wood is as dry as it's possible to get it without heat.

Still trying to ban wet wood is a stupid idea. Some people just pile their firewood outside. Or they have a fancy "dog kennel".

[Martin Brown]

You can get it direct from tree surgeons, but I have *never* seen it sold on garage forecourts or supermarkets. I confess I haven't looked all that hard since they vastly overprice and over package tiny amounts of wood and coal. The stuff I burn is mostly diseased dead wood.

I'll still be able to get fresh and wet in 2m^3 quantities if I want but I would never dream of burning anything other than well seasoned dry timber in my stove. Mine is typically two years seasoned under cover and then left by the fireside for a while and used in rotation.

No-one who is serious about heating their home would ever use wet wood!

It needs at least two years seasoning protected from the rain to get the water content down. Longer still if you don't cut it into short lengths.

Burning too high a proportion of soft resinous wood may lead to interesting chimney fires if you don't pay attention to making it burn clean and sweeping it periodically. Hard wood burns more steadily.

I wonder how in the ban they will deal with specialist requirements for full scale live steam and model steam engines (the latter requiring the highest quality of furnace anthracite to stand any chance of working).

[The Natural Philosopher]

Nope.

[Jeff Layman]

Agreed. One year is not enough, and maybe two isn't if you get the sort of weather we are having at the moment! And remember that a complete round with intact bark will take a lot longer to dry than split wood.

The other thing to consider is getting a decent wood moisture meter (the sort of thing here:

). That way you can check the wood yourself to see if it is dry enough.

It's worth considering regular use of a chimney cleaner powder to help keep the deposits down.

[williamwright]

That's totally bonkers.

Bill

[Tim+]

Does this stuff actually work and if so, how? I?d like to believe that it does but I?m a tad sceptical.

Tim

[polygonum_on_google]

If you were able to do that, completely, what would happen to all the fungi which rely on wood? Surely we don't want them to become extinct.

[Tim+]

Answering my own question. Seems others are sceptical too.

Tim

[T i m]

Well, whilst it might not be workable ITRW, it is a good idea in principal.

The problem with using wood for carbon capture is that you loose that capture as soon as you burn it (that's it's typical end) or allow it to decompose.

So, if you can keep it as wood (ideally once it's got to chipboard as you can't typically re-use that for other things), you keep the carbon captured.

Keep growing trees and harvesting them, you keep capturing carbon. So, either make into things that people are going to keep for a very long time (good quality furniture), then just don't burn or let it rot away when it's finished with.

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

We wouldn't do it to *all* trees, we would (typically) only do it to the wood we harvest to use for ourselves.

Of course not. ;-)

Take an unused mine system, pack it with chipboard, flood it with some non-toxic liquid that effectively encapsulates the wood, stops it decomposing and then the mines won't collapse either. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Dave Liquorice]

Well it will give you a vague idea of the moisture content of the surface but not the inside of the log which is the important bit.