I can have the same experience. Air flow between the firewood sticks is my issue. Burning down my coals to less than average (coals restrict my air flow), using one stick of a "volatile" firewood (super dry maple for me) with good access to primary air (bottom row for me), with difficult burning wood above (locust), and finally good air passages between the sticks cures my slow burn problems. I feel getting good hot draft between firewood sticks cures my problem. Some wood of various types (locust, hickory, oak) sometimes just need an extra "kick" to go for me.
Oh stop! I’ll gladly co-sign your theory of the 27 feet of Seattling errr I mean rain we had this year ruining entire crops of firewood
I haven't burnt a ton of BL, but what I have did not impress me...as has been mentioned, it takes more air and to me that just means more BTU's up the chimney...didn't seem to make the "stove melting" heat that some claim...
Fortunately I don't have a lot of this Locust. Mostly Beech and Oak which burn great. I remember having the same problem with Locust when I had the Fireview. Maybe its got something to do with the fact that the Cat stoves typically get run with less air.
I’m not sure what’s going on with your locust. Don’t give up. I run my ideal steel with BL and red oak on the same air setting and it gasses for hours with secondaries burning. It makes almost no ash but most of the BL I get has been dead awhile and has no bark.
I can vouch for fire_man and his wood stacks as I was at his place last summer. Many would be very envious! I will say that even with oak I do have to give the stove more air and it burns best when mixed. Now I am mixing in 1 or 2 splits of ash with the oak and that works well. Give it a try with more air Tony and let's hope it works out. I have very little experience with locust and do not remember having a problem except for the stink.
My 2 cents. My favorite wood was always black locust thus my signature "locust post". There was nothing I liked better than a stove chuck full in my old style air tight stove. Stuff it full, get it going and dial the air back to 1/4 and the damper almost closed, loved it. When I put in the new cat stove it was entirely different. I still burn some but only mixed with other stuff. Locust just does not seem to off gas like other species and so the cat does not have the fuel to burn.
Yup that is exactly what I am seeing - almost NO secondaires! I'll play with it some more and give it more air to keep the flames up. I have never had to burn a load of dry wood that way before but enough of you guys have convinced me. It'll be a while before I get to another stack of Locust but I will report back!
Don’t feel bad. I’m one of the locust mania crew running a PH just like you. The “mania” is more of a hobby within a hobby than something built upon experience. So little locust in my area it was fun to hunt it. Just started burning black locust this year. I’m finding exactly what you’re saying. It doesn’t burn like anything else. In fact last night was my first stove full of nothing but BL. Running as normal it died out, seemingly failed to ignite the cat. No secondaries, temp started dropping. Usually if this happens you just add a little air and it restarts. Not last night with locust. Kept upping the air and it just didn’t want to flame up and restart the burn. Tonight I tried another load. This time I let it rip with bypass open untIl it was in the 600 stovetop range (cast iron near the outlet) Then I engaged the cat and left a little more air than normal. All was fine. After 20 minutes I dropped my air down to normal cruise which is fully closed in my stove. Everything went well. Still debating if locust hunting is a hobby worth pursuing. Folks may think I’m nuts but the PH seems to have two,,,,??? Heat levels?? When firing up the top of The stove where the thermometer lies gets hot. Let’s say it eventually goes up to 700 on the cast iron. The cat is driving that heat. Hours later when the stove begins coaling stage I can feel the lower part of the stove rising in heat,,,,,after hours of fire in there one would think it’s already up there. Seems to me I can feel the stove get hotter as it spreads to the bottom. Anyway it seems BL just wants to throw that coaling stage heat faster. Weird stuff.
I've got some large split Honey locust that's very well seasoned(over 4+ years). They make for a great night/day burner when its frigid out. I get a nice bed of coals in my Fisher and will load in a large chunk of Honey and let the pipe temp get up to 450 while its flaming up. I slowly dampen her down and let it idle at 300 at the pipe and stove top will usually be around 500-550. I will always have a good bed of coals after 10-12 hours. I do not have any experience with burning in a "modern" stove. Don't give up yet, there is a lot of good Btu's in locust!
I have very little experience with a wood stove and did not know what 'secondaries' is/are. I found a drawing and I suppose it is the stove burning gases from the wood via an air draw at the back of the stove? I then found a video and see a flame up high and I assume that this is secondaries. Very cool. When I have used a wood stove burning BL, I was amazed at the blue flame and the amount of heat, just crazy heat from that stuff.
Once in a while I'll have the issue with BL. (Running a CAT stove). A little more air to get it going seems to be the fix. I probably have 5.5 cord of dead barkless BL. I have some for this year, but been burning oak I have. I'll throw some in tonight and report back.
I could not keep the combustor active when I was burning BL. The stove was belching smoke outside. I should have tried a much higher air setting than I am used to.
Too funny (at least to me) not to share... When I read the above quoted bit, somehow my brain automatically said it in Yoda voice. These "issues" of black locust and air supply level in cat stoves....if the load is mixed and not all BL, does that help alleviate the need for a "higher" air setting? Does the other wood burning at "your usual air setting" help drive the BL to burning better?
I tried mixing oak and BL and still had problems. In fact the load was more oak than BL. I switched back to all Oak and now it burns great. It really is acting like the BL is unseasoned. This was wood I split and top covered in late 2017.
I have burned very little with the exception of some Black Locust that Brad had given me to try. Tossed some on after fire was burning and it did not have a big flame but did burn slow and had coals that lasted a long time , It did have a rather bad smelling smoke though. I know that since it came from Brad it was defenetely seasoned before I got it.
Well, you had better just spend $15-$20 and get a moisture meter. I can’t imagine that your Black Locust isn’t dry but a MM will let you know.
It also makes sense like others have said, Locust just off-gasses less. That would explain why it needs more air to get a flame going. Yea its hard to imagine 2017 wood not seasoned, especially since oak in the same stack burns great.
