Worst firewood you’ve ever burnt?

[fishdrivel]

If we’re bragging on our Wives, I’ll put my Wife’s fish up against that Bait in your avatar
View attachment 962470View attachment 962472
The Stepdaughter ( my Favorite Deckhand) is still trying to get her first Salmon, she doesn’t get to go very often, but she still wants her turn at pulling crab potsView attachment 962473
That is a respectable Dungeness she is holding

One of the few downsides to moving to the mountain, instead of an hour and a quarter to the ocean, it is now 2.5-3 hours each way depending on traffic, so we don’t get out fishing and crabbing as much

Doug

That's some good looking dinner there!
I 've got Walmart fish in the freezer that I could eat but I prefer to feed it to my mother in law.

 

[grizz55chev]

There are a lot of different c"edars" being talked about here. There are no cedars native to the US or Canada.
Everywhere you go in the US you will find an aromatic tree that is commonly called "cedar"
Up your way, there are several species similar but not "cedars botanically speaking.

Anybody interested can read about cedars here - and the difference.
https://www.treehugger.com/identify...ar of Lebanon, deodar cedar, and Atlas cedar.

Interesting! This is a stump your friends kinda usless trivia, love it!

 

[fishdrivel]

about 7 years ago right after I got my cabin and my first woodstove I went on a scrounging mission to a location next to a river that the local area had cleared on the banks of the river for water flow purposes and they let the public have at starting in November time frame.

The wood was a deciduous not a SPF so I was not too concerned...it might not be as good as Oak, or the other hardwood but it couldn't be that bad i thought... wrong answer that stuff burned like paper gave almost no heat and left several bucket loads of ash for every single burn. I have no clue what type of tree it was, nor its name....

then I found something worse.

Ichio tree's (Ginko) the ones hear smell like rotting flesh when you burn them. the only way to prevent the smell is to let them dry for two or three years until they are bone dry...then they only smell a little bit, but they burn really fast....

I know what to watch out for now.

I was drinking beer with a bunch of climbers one evening and I got a call. A lady I previously wanted a ginkgo cut down. I put her on speakerphone. Guys were giggling when I asked her why she wanted the ginkgo cut down. She said it smelled bad. I then asked what did it smell like? She covered the receiver and asked her husband what that tree smelled like. He answered very distinctly, "it smells like ****!"
The laughter around the room could be heard by her as she answered, "I don't know but it doesn't smell good"
She fortunately had a good sense of humor.

 

[fishdrivel]

Interesting! This is a stump your friends kinda usless trivia, love it!

When I was in the tree business, it was not useless. I dazzled my clients and usually got the job - and was rarely the low-bidder!

 

[pdqdl]

I was drinking beer with a bunch of climbers one evening and I got a call. A lady I previously wanted a ginkgo cut down. I put her on speakerphone. Guys were giggling when I asked her why she wanted the ginkgo cut down. She said it smelled bad. I then asked what did it smell like? She covered the receiver and asked her husband what that tree smelled like. He answered very distinctly, "it smells like ****!"
The laughter around the room could be heard by her as she answered, "I don't know but it doesn't smell good"
She fortunately had a good sense of humor.

As many of us know, it is the Ginkgo fruit that smells so bad. I used to take care of public trail that had a large stand of those trees, each year was a stink-fest under the prolific fruit they dropped. Then one year, all the fruit disappeared. Clean! Like a vacuum got every single fruit.

It turns out that the Ginkgo fruit has edible seeds, and someone (probably Chinese) had meticulously harvested the crop. Since then, I have actually collected a pile of the stinky product, made a mess in the kitchen, and tried processing the seeds.

Bad plan. Don't do it. Cleaned and baked, the seeds still taste bad. They might be ok if you grew up on 'em, or were starving to death.

Incidental note: the bad odor from the Ginkgo fruit is a simple organic acid called Butyric acid. It is a very common chemical of decomposition, and can also be found in rancid butter, dog poop, and vomit. I used to keep about 500ml in a glass jar of the pure acid, just in case I needed to make someplace smell very bad. My bottle smelled so bad the chemical was detectible through the cap, even when the bottle was also stuffed inside a nitrile glove.

 

[fishdrivel]

As many of us know, it is the Ginkgo fruit that smells so bad. I used to take care of public trail that had a large stand of those trees, each year was a stink-fest under the prolific fruit they dropped. Then one year, all the fruit disappeared. Clean! Like a vacuum got every single fruit.

It turns out that the Ginkgo fruit has edible seeds, and someone (probably Chinese) had meticulously harvested the crop. Since then, I have actually collected a pile of the stinky product, made a mess in the kitchen, and tried processing the seeds.

Bad plan. Don't do it. Cleaned and baked, the seeds still taste bad. They might be ok if you grew up on 'em, or were starving to death.

Incidental note: the bad odor from the Ginkgo fruit is a simple organic acid called Butyric acid. It is a very common chemical of decomposition, and can also be found in rancid butter, dog poop, and vomit. I used to keep about 500ml in a glass jar of the pure acid, just in case I needed to make someplace smell very bad. My bottle smelled so bad the chemical was detectible through the cap, even when the bottle was also stuffed inside a nitrile glove.

I had a really nice Ginkgo in San Jose years ago. There were a lot of Vietnamese in my neighborhood and they barely hit the ground and they were gone. Great Post!

 

[Kanscruzer]

I was waiting for this one. I clear a lot of windrows and wooded areas for local farms here as part of field expansions and maintenance. Hackberry is by far the single most numerous tree around here.....its probably 60% of what I cut and makes up about 85% of what I burn in the stoves here on my farm. It stinks, leaves little coals, and ashes like an SOB (have to empty the ash daily), but it throws decent heat and has ok burn times. It is far from my favorite, but its a great shoulder season burner for temps >20*F. I never bother trying to sell it as I'd rather sell the more premium oak/ash/hickory/cherry and net more money. Im yet to meet a person that wants to buy hackberry.

The other issue is that it rots the instant its cut and hits the ground. You have to buck, cut, and split it quick and store it out of the elements for it to season otherwise it goes punky quick....like 12 weeks quick depending on the conditions and even if the logs are off the ground on rollers. I converted the sides of the old grainery corn crib here to house it. Can store and season roughly 12 cord at a time.

I don't "like" hackberry, but I tolerate it just fine for here. My personal distaste is silver maple.....which is the next most common tree here. Burns quick, not a lot of heat output, and again, goes punky fast if not processed and stored indoors. I give silver maple away or use it for bonfires.

Silver maple is so bad I can’t even call it wood , catapla beat it ,most worthless in my book . Probably make a great model airplane ,,, maybe.

 

[Be Stihl]

When I was new to burning wood I had some year one year seasoned white oak and sugar maple. I thought I was in wood heaven until I tried to burn it. It was hard to start, moisture was sizzling out when burning and I really struggled. I had a terrible problem with creosote also. Little did I know that dense woods like oak and maple need 2 preferably 3 years of seasoning in my area.

100% agree. I did the same, I thought one year was enough. Hickory and white oak kept us warm but it was a chore to keep it burning. I never imagined it took two years to season hardwood, but that is a minimum unless it was a dead standing tree.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fishdrivel]

100% agree. I did the same, I thought one year was enough. Hickory and white oak kept us warm but it was a chore to keep it burning. I never imagined it took two years to season hardwood, but that is a minimum unless it was a dead standing tree.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The time it takes is relative to humidity..
If you cut oak in California, you could season it in less than 6 months.
Is it legal to burn wood in California? Depends.....

 

[CaptainMauw]

The time it takes is relative to humidity..
If you cut oak in California, you could season it in less than 6 months.
Is it legal to burn wood in California? Depends.....

Its ultimately relative to the method of seasoning as well. I use a decommissioned corn crib for all of my seasoning. It keeps the weather off the wood but promotes the airflow thru it. Stacked north to south orientation, the south wind (dry prevailing winds thru the summer) easily pulls thru the stack. The stacks along the outer wall season faster, the stacks on the inside wall season slower. Through strategic placing and rotation based on species, I always have a variety of wood to burn based on ambient temps. The colder it gets, the good stuff gets burnt.

 

[Piotr Pakuła]

this tree is rotten ;-)

 

[Cricket]

I was drinking beer with a bunch of climbers one evening and I got a call. A lady I previously wanted a ginkgo cut down. I put her on speakerphone. Guys were giggling when I asked her why she wanted the ginkgo cut down. She said it smelled bad. I then asked what did it smell like? She covered the receiver and asked her husband what that tree smelled like. He answered very distinctly, "it smells like ****!"
The laughter around the room could be heard by her as she answered, "I don't know but it doesn't smell good"
She fortunately had a good sense of humor.

You want stink - chinese chestnut in bloom. OMG... Never had the opportunity to burn any, but I'd almost be afraid to.