The weather is dismal as usual. Cold and wet. But our wood burning stove brightens things up and it's better for watching than the TV. Almost as good as the bird table.The price of fossil fuel is making log fires more popular and I can smell wood smoke up and down our lane these days. I've heard that there is a long waiting list for installation of wood burners by the local firms.
There must be an increase in demand for firewood locally, although I've not heard of any happy firewood merchants - but then that's probably a contradiction in terms. I have noticed more people asking me if I've any old wood lying around. It seems that we are still scavanging our firewood in the traditional way.
There are several versions around of an old poem about firewood. The one I've posted here was sent to me by my mum (her excellent calligraphy) some years ago and there's a lot of truth in it.Just about any wood will burn, but they all have different characteristics. The age and moisture content has a huge effect upon the quality of the fire. Some wood needs to be seasoned for quite a while, sweet chestnut for example, before it makes good firewood. Other woods, like birch, don't last well and are best dried and burnt within a year.
The most popular firewoods around here are Ash, Oak, Beech and Birch. Though a few burn Pine. We burn a lot of birchwood, otherwise it would go to waste. It's very good firewood almost immediately and its excellent as long as its dried. Unlike many denser hardwoods it doesn't need to be seasoned. In fact if you do leave it outside for a season it will probably be past its prime already. As the poem says it will burn hot and fast, so we mix it with some oak and beech when we can.
It's best to burn firewood with the lowest possible moisture content as the combination of the volatiles in the wood and the steam will create creosote in your chimney given half a chance. We stack our firewood in shelters down the side of the house and try to bring it in at least a day and preferably two before we will burn it so that it can dry as much as possible.
6 comments:
I love that old poem, and your Mother's calligraphy does it proud. I've also noticed a drastic rise in log burner use in my area of Suffolk. It worries me how much turnable wood gets burnt though!
Great Blog, Mark.
define 'dismal'.
As a person who loves snow and a cold day to curl with hot chocolate, cats and a good iPhone game, I need to ask others to define what they mean by bad weather.
when I say it was a miserable winter, that means it didn't snow much and/or it rained and washed the snow away I hate that!
Hello Lisa,
you're right I wasn't very clear. To me a dismal day is dark and gloomy overcast with persistant light drizzle or mizzle (mist/drizzle) often windy as well.
Hello Woodturningblog,
thanks for you kind comments.
I heard just yesterday that firewood is selling at over £70 per cubic metre, sometimes £80 . But most obvious is the number of people looking to scrounge firewood.
You can rely on me to rescue and forward as much turnable wood to others as I can.
Sorry, I wasn't meaning to be critical -only that I do enjoy the snowy days. Actually, I enjoy those wet cloudy days too (not all the time - of course.) The sun is like a charge, a cloudy rainy day is soothing - if only I could order the balance that suits me . . .. sigh.
really nice old poem....i love it much.....
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