sustainable fire wood- pollarding trees?

[Y Fan Wen]

You can keep your oak, i dont rate it at all tbh

Looks like you've got hold of some turkey oak.

 

[Ben M]

We get ours at £30/35 per well filled 'dumpy bag' for stuff that need to be stored in the dry for approx 6 months, and £50 per bag for 'ready to burn'
Is that over priced?
Mind you 6 logs in a bag for £4 on the garage forecourt is seriously taking the P, who buys thon stuff?

I sell a mixed load of firewood in a dumpie bag for 65 quid. Sells well

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

I sell a mixed load of firewood in a dumpie bag for 65 quid. Sells well

All the stuff we buy is hardwoods, mainly beech, got a good deal with the local sawmill £40 per big dumpy bag but it will have to stand for a year.
@Lincs Lass, burned a bit of well seasoned leylandi early on this year and though it burned well, it didn't half leave a claggy mess on the glass.

 

[Lincs Lass]

Not recomended in a glass fronted burner ,still got plenty left but Im going to use it on open fire and use the better stuff in the rayburn,or mix it

 

[Wheyibuggermair]

Not recomended in a glass fronted burner ,still got plenty left but Im going to use it on open fire and use the better stuff in the rayburn,or mix it

Aye, good stuff on an open fire,sometimes wish we had mains gas esp after scrubbing the glass clean before lighting the bugger.
But on a cold winters night, watching the logs burn with a glass of something decent in one hand ( given the 'usual suspects' lurking on here, not going to mention the other hand
Can't be beat.

 

[Lincs Lass]

Had a Parkray in last house ,didnt matter if it was logs or coal it still sooted the glass ,gave up trying to keep it clean

 

[Storeman]

I have found Cif oven cleaner is very good for cleaning the glass on the woodburner.

 

[Kidds]

I have found Cif oven cleaner is very good for cleaning the glass on the woodburner.

Damp newspaper crumpled up and dipped in the soft white ash of the fire is very good.

 

[Pasty]

Yep, I keep a course cloth for the job and wet it, dip it in the ash and it does a cracking job. Newspaper also good.

There are various theories on Dutch Elm I think and the height of the beetle is one. I think the disease lives in the roots and can only spread through the tree when it gets to a certain size as the 'veins' (can't remember the correct term) are not wide enough to carry it up the tree until then. The roots will usually survive and keep throwing up new suckers which will some day suffer the same outcome. Perhaps one day, the plant will start to defeat the disease. I wouldn't have thought elm would be a good candidate to pollard these days. Ask, Syc, Hazel etc. much better.

In terms of softwood, my view is that it works better in the more efficient modern stoves. In my Esse, hardwoods like oak have to be really dry to get a hot fire but softwood is so easy and throws out so much heat. With the improved controls and seals on modern stoves, it doesn't all go up the chimney in 5 seconds either. For an open fire, you still want so well seasoned ash / oak really. A slower burn which doesn't create a force 9 gale as all the air in your house gets sent up the chimney and cold stuff is sucked in through any gap.

 

[roadrunner13]

Have 100's tons of the stuff
We burnt 50 ton on fire in yard in last few weeks!

Where abouts in bucks are you?

May be interested in some lengths 2.8m for burning in our boiler to heat the village