Thinning Some ash woodland

[woodworm]

Best firwood you can get

Can you give me your reasoning for this. All firewood will burn when dry, dealers like ash because it has a very low moisture content when growing (in relation to other hardwoods) and therefore it can be sold very soon after felling.
Oak and Beech give off a higher heat when dry but you need to leave Beech for a year minimum and Oak for two years to get maximum benefit. I would sell Beech and Oak all the time if I could get a faster return on it but when you can buy ash, sycamore, birch etc which you can fell in January and sell (dry <25%mc) in September it makes far more sense

 

[Pasty]

Can someone tell me the difference between a cubic metre and a ton when selling standing wood? I've offered some ash at £20/cu m - is this too high or too low? I've just about worked out a long ash stem is a cubic metre, but what weight will it be?

Wood is usually sold by volume as it's weight will vary with the moisture content. I reckon that's a good price if it's easy to process into logs or even cheaper if it can be milled.

 

[SilliamWhale]

Can you give me your reasoning for this. All firewood will burn when dry, dealers like ash because it has a very low moisture content when growing (in relation to other hardwoods) and therefore it can be sold very soon after felling.
Oak and Beech give off a higher heat when dry but you need to leave Beech for a year minimum and Oak for two years to get maximum benefit. I would sell Beech and Oak all the time if I could get a faster return on it but when you can buy ash, sycamore, birch etc which you can fell in January and sell (dry <25%mc) in September it makes far more sense

Because of the poem!

By the way whats willow like for burning?

 

[Pasty]

Can you give me your reasoning for this. All firewood will burn when dry, dealers like ash because it has a very low moisture content when growing (in relation to other hardwoods) and therefore it can be sold very soon after felling.
Oak and Beech give off a higher heat when dry but you need to leave Beech for a year minimum and Oak for two years to get maximum benefit. I would sell Beech and Oak all the time if I could get a faster return on it but when you can buy ash, sycamore, birch etc which you can fell in January and sell (dry <25%mc) in September it makes far more sense

You pretty much explained it. There is also the ease of splitting compared to say beech or oak which can be a bit of a pig. This won't be a problem for the serious guys with a big splitter / processor but attacking narly beech with a maul can sometimes be a challenge. As you say, all dry wood will burn well. I do find a slight difference in characteristics though. Ash is good because you get lovely, long lasting embers which will get the fire going the next day whereas oak seems to turn to dust more quickly and not give you that ember bed. Sycamore is another lovely fire wood, splits easily and dries quickly, as does Alder and Hazel although Hazel can be tricky to harvest if overstood.

All that said I'm burning through some coppiced hawthorn at the moment and it's a magnificent wood if you can avoid the spikes. Really dense and after a year in the shed, burns brilliantly.

 

[Pasty]

Because of the poem!

By the way whats willow like for burning?

Willow is really good. It's not dense and will be very wet when cut so needs a good season and also be aware that it can soak up moisture from the air if left out so best logged and barn stored. You won't get a long burn but it's certainly worth using, maybe mixing with something like oak or another denser wood.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I think golden chain is a good wood to burn, very hard to cut, but it lasts ages in the log burner. I have been told the dust from cutting it is poisonous, but I have not had any problems. It grows in the hedgerows here in West Wales.

 

[Pasty]

Because of the poem!

By the way whats willow like for burning?

This poem?

Welly boots will stink and smoke,
Pallet wrap your flu will choke
But tyres treaded or tyres bald
Will keep away the winter's cold.

Burning tapes and DVDs,
Will cause your ecofan to seize.
A gallon of petrol in the grate,
Will put you in a terrible state.
But tyres white or tyres black,
Will warm your aching back.

Plastic bottles, tubs and spoons
Your neighbours will complain of fumes
But tyres old and tyres new
Will finish them off with acrid plumes

 

[Danllan]

We have a large preponderance of ash herein the woods and in the hedges as standards, so lucky in some ways. I've been thinning out a lot of willow from the bottom fields and, once dry, it burns very well - even a bit better than I hoped, best in 6" rounds or split logs of a bit bigger. Alder is fine too, but takes a long time to dry if it is any size.

Shed storage is the way forward for everything, saving time and giving a better burn. We burn as near as damn it everything and class our firewood in four ways: 1) Split wood, meaning what has been logged and then split into wedges or halves; 2) Cut wood, meaning anything that is still in the round and has just been shaved and cut to a usable length; 3) Uglies, meaning all the smaller bent and scraggy bits left over; 4) Nicky wood / faggots, meaning the thin stuff made up in bundles of about 6-8" round and tied up with itself.

'Going out for a bucket of uglies' is a family saying that, now, has several meanings...

 

[Ben M]

You pretty much explained it. There is also the ease of splitting compared to say beech or oak which can be a bit of a pig. This won't be a problem for the serious guys with a big splitter / processor but attacking narly beech with a maul can sometimes be a challenge. As you say, all dry wood will burn well. I do find a slight difference in characteristics though. Ash is good because you get lovely, long lasting embers which will get the fire going the next day whereas oak seems to turn to dust more quickly and not give you that ember bed. Sycamore is another lovely fire wood, splits easily and dries quickly, as does Alder and Hazel although Hazel can be tricky to harvest if overstood.

All that said I'm burning through some coppiced hawthorn at the moment and it's a magnificent wood if you can avoid the spikes. Really dense and after a year in the shed, burns brilliantly.

I bloody hate oak as a firewood, awkwood to process, crap to burn (compared to most other hw) and majority of customers dont like it. That said, i burning it now with elm as that but was a pig to process and ive got a big wood burner. Hazel and hedgerow thorn are my favoruite firewood.

 

[Pasty]

Oak needs to be bone dry or mixed with other stuff for a good fire. It just doesn't create an ember bed in my experience so if it goes cold, it dies. Now dead standing elm is actually the ultimate firewood but you are going to need some serious machinery to split it. Thing is, elm will survive (and has) for years from the root and throw up these trees which get to so big and then die. But the root systems is still going and will sucker up more shoots. So it's actually a really good fuel plant at the moment. You just harvest what falls over and it will throw up some more.

I guess at some point, elm will defeat the bug and we'll get proper trees again but in the meantime, it's far from dead, I've got it all over my place. Everywhere.

 

[phillipe]

£110/ton? never, that's about £200/cubic metre in firewood terms, and thats without taking the cost of felling into acount. It would be the most expensive form heating in the UK.

as i said they hold auctions on line,talking to one of the contractors bid 90 quid a ton ,and he has a tractor drag type machine,sells it on to the processor,didnt get any of his lots he bid for

 

[bobk]

I bloody hate oak as a firewood, awkwood to process, crap to burn (compared to most other hw) and majority of customers dont like it. That said, i burning it now with elm as that but was a pig to process and ive got a big wood burner. Hazel and hedgerow thorn are my favoruite firewood.

Oak needs to be bone dry or mixed with other stuff for a good fire. It just doesn't create an ember bed in my experience so if it goes cold, it dies. Now dead standing elm is actually the ultimate firewood but you are going to need some serious machinery to split it. Thing is, elm will survive (and has) for years from the root and throw up these trees which get to so big and then die. But the root systems is still going and will sucker up more shoots. So it's actually a really good fuel plant at the moment. You just harvest what falls over and it will throw up some more.

I guess at some point, elm will defeat the bug and we'll get proper trees again but in the meantime, it's far from dead, I've got it all over my place. Everywhere.

90 % of woodburners need taking to the scrapyard , that's why they can't burn oak

 

[exmoor dave]

I bloody hate oak as a firewood, awkwood to process, crap to burn (compared to most other hw) and majority of customers dont like it. That said, i burning it now with elm as that but was a pig to process and ive got a big wood burner. Hazel and hedgerow thorn are my favoruite firewood.

Find the same here, oak is always last choice for the wood burners.

But funny enough the rayburn runs great on it

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I think golden chain is a good wood to burn, very hard to cut, but it lasts ages in the log burner. I have been told the dust from cutting it is poisonous, but I have not had any problems. It grows in the hedgerows here in West Wales.

I had to look that up, never heard it called that before. Only have one or two that Dad planted.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

cadwrn aur

 

[George from SJM Planning]

I had to look that up, never heard it called that before. Only have one or two that Dad planted.

Are we talking about Laburnum?

 

[Ffermer Bach]

yes

 

[George from SJM Planning]

yes

Most of our boundary banks have Laburnum growing on them, very hard to cut but great to burn

 

[borderterribles]

Lots of Laburnum in hedges round here too. What's that about? Every part of the tree is poisonous, and being of the Pea family, stock eat it if they can! Wtf would people plant that round grass fields?