| |
BUYING FIREWOOD CONFUSING GAME FOR FIRST-TIMERS
Ever been here...you're at someone's home for dinner, and the hosts have a perfect fire burning in the fireplace? Before long, someone - usually one of the men - innocently asks the host, "Say, Bill, where do you get your firewood?"
Usually that one simple question launches a lengthy litany of facts and fiction about firewood. Happens every year about this time. I've been at that dinner party dozens of times. The questions are always the same...what kind of wood is it? What did they charge you? Is it a real cord, a fireplace cord, or a rick? How does it burn?
A common area of confusion has to do with measuring quantities. Since the sale and delivery of wood is generally not regulated, many a wood burner has accepted delivery of a mess of wood, only to discover long after the check's been written and the truck has wheeled away that the actual quantity is less than they thought they were buying, or the quality is not what was expected.
Consider the many ways wood can be sold - by the truckload, by weight, in ricks, runs or units, and of course by the cord - standard long cord, stove wood cord, short cord, face cord, or running cord. Is it any wonder that folks get confused?
Wood is generally sold in divisions of a standard cord - i.e., a neatly stacked pile 8 ft. long x 4 ft. wide x 4 ft. high covering 128 cu. ft. Since a stack of wood contains airspace, only 60-110 of the 128 cu. ft. may be solid wood. Usually it runs between 80-90 cu. ft., with round-cut wood containing more solid wood content than split.
Few people have 4 ft. fireplaces or stoves, and many lack the equipment to reduce 4 ft. lengths to stove dimensions. Therefore, wood is usually sold in face cords - lengths corresponding to either fireplace dimension (16 - 24 in.) or stove dimension (12 - 16 in.). When you buy a face cord, you are buying a pile 8 ft. x 4 ft. x whatever length dimension you specify. A rick (also called a "fireplace cord" by some) usually refers to 16 in. lengths.
The most common types of wood burned by most people in this area are oak, ash, maple and birch. In terms of actual energy value, here - in descending order- are the most dense woods, the woods that produce the most heat. (The numbers in parentheses are fuel value/cord in millions of BTUs). Shagbark hickory (30.8), white oak (30.8), sugar maple (29.7), American beech (28.0), red oak (28.0), yellow birch (27.3), white ash (25.9), American elm (23.8), red maple (23.8), paper birch (23.8), black cherry (23.1), Douglas fir (21.4), eastern white pine (15.8) and aspen (12.5).
One of the most disappointing mistakes a woodburner makes is buying wood that isn't sufficiently dry. Air-dried wood contains about 20-25% moisture. You can tell it's dry if the ends look weathered and contain cracks that radiate like spokes out from the heartwood.
Green wood, which is almost twice as heavy as dry wood, can be used to dampen an excessively hot fire or used at night to help hold the fire over. It tends to smoke more than dry wood and therefore increases creosote deposits and soot.
If you must burn green wood, the best choice is ash, since its moisture is relatively low on the stump. That must have been what motivated an anonymous English poet to write these words:
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut only good, they say,
If for long 'tis laid away.
But ash new or ash old
Is fit for queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast,
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mold,
E'en the very flames are cold.
But ash green or ash brown
Is fit for queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold.
But ash wet or ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
 |
| |
PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
$10 + $2 for shipping
by Cliff Johnson |
 |
 |
| |
|
