Selfsufficientish.com

starchild wrote:We've had the cat on fire twice infront of the woodburner too - funny how they just lie their oblivious to what is going on and then get huffy with you when you wake them to put them out !

I'm so annoyed. Last weekend we ended up with two spark holes in our sofa due to chestnut wood spitting. I'm gutted, but there we are - we live and learn. We bought it in, and I'm guessing it was only a year or so old

An expensive mistake so it would seem...........

sweet chestnut will spit no matter how old it is. I got some (by mistake, I was after larch for kindling)) from the sawmill at work that fell down in the hurricanes in '87 and has only just been harvested for timber. It spat something awful and is only good if you have a woodburner.

GOod to know Mike; thanks. I might as well get on and use it up then - I was thinking we could save it a couple more years, but I'd rather have the space!

We've been busy all through the winter clearing the trees from our land & have huge piles of wood all over that need to be dealt with.
We also have a lot of ash trees (well, not so many now!) and after researching, I decided to go on a mission to burn ONLY ash this year alongside the peat in our stove.
Sometimes, we've burnt other woods, but not in any great amounts, as you can see the temperature drop in the stove & then cleaning it is harder too.

But Ash, the wonder wood - in a stove, you can use every inch of the Ash tree - it burns hot right down to the small twigs.
When we take an ash tree down, we've found that it's harder to saw than a lot of other woods, but once chopped & brought in, it's a wonderful wood for the stove - Andy uses the twigs to start the open fire & we've not brought firelighters for months - the ash twigs catch quickly & start a fire off in no time.

As for seasoning the rest, well it's being logged & split & stacked..... slowly, slowly.....

Oh gorgeous - how I would love to burn only ash. Good for you.

Not that I'm a tad envious or anything

Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;

That's a worry - anyone know why Elder comes with such a dire warning?

mybarnconversion wrote:

Make a fire of Elder tree,
Death within your house will be;

That's a worry - anyone know why Elder comes with such a dire warning?

apparently, elder was the wood that the crucifiction cross was made from. Also, Judas hanged himself from one. How true this is I don't know. What I do know is that burning some woods (laurel, rhody, etc etc) can be bad for you as they release cyanide. Possible elder has similar properties.

A quick google implies that Elder doesn't burn well as it spits a lot and is very soft. I've used it as kindling in the past but it does burn very quickly.

Cheers
Zoe

Us Witches are said to live in Elder too

Maybe that's why they grow so well in my garden?

MW

keliz5000 wrote:How long should you season sweet chesnut firewood, 1, 2, or 3 years? What is best? And what about oak, they say to season it for 1 year, but does it get better if you season it for 2 or more? I've been looking for a website that might have all this information, but I can't find anything.

This place might help http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/services/ ... liers.html

Hope it has the info you want.

If you are using an open fire then i would season the wood for 2 years. If a stove then a year is fine. Make sure the wood is chopped up and stacked with enough gaps for a draught to pass through. Use some pallets to stack the wood on keeping them off the ground. Cover during the winter to keep the rain out. Tarpaulin is ok. In the summer remove cover and let it all dry out further.

As for the topic of Ash. It's the best wood. I am very lucky to have about 4 acres of the stuff, also the previous owners to the land did nothing for about 20 years so there is masses of the stuff. Slowly chopping it back so to be able to coppice it.

Hello,

As someone who relies on a cast iron wood burner for my main source of heating and speaking from experience 3 years is the minimum time for any kind of wood. Burn wood that has only been seasoned one or two years at your peril ( I've made that mistake before and believe me the last thing you want is to deal with is a chimney fire). even if you have the chimney swept twice a year.