Hey everybody, so I've been doing a lot of bark fires on the patio this spring. They're nice sometimes because a) they light quick b) they burn out quick so if you only have time for a short one it doesn't feel wasteful like when you light up nice wood and c) it gives me a way to get rid of all the splitting scraps. Anybody else do this?
Ive had several bonfires this year so far that were mostly bark piles from splitting. Ive also got a tote of bark for kindling.
Some folks burn it in their stoves and you will get heat, but you also will get a huge amount of ash for a little amount of heat. If you are short on the woodpile, go ahead.
If its decent and not punky etc. ill put it aside for the firepit. Depends on the species too. Black locust bark stinks when burned so that gets returned to the earth. Lots of it ends up around the stacks/processing area for mud control.
I use bark on occasion as kindling… works great to get a fire going. I only keep the nice bark slabs, not a bunch of trash, that bark stays in the woods.
I burned a bunch of bark up last week. Still got a bunch from cleaning up around the empty stacks, I’ll use it for fire pit kindling until it’s gone.
I had a lot of oak that shed it's bark while working it up this winter. I intially started using it as a top cover, but then switched to using it as 'flooring' for the stacks. Makes an excellent base layer to stack on top of if you are not putting on skids. I have used it in the past to cover muddy areas around the wood pile.
Waste not, want not. Used bark this weekend in the fire pit for the Mother's Day grill out in the yard.
Most of the bark from my splitting goes to the stump-dump. Falls off when splitting it gets trashed , if it stays on the split it then gets burned. I have a lot of larger quarters of Oak that has been sitting for a year or two , most of that falls right off and leaves me with all barkless splits. The bark is kind of wet and nasty so to the dump it goes.
I bought a gas powered mulcher for bark and splitter scraps. Bark also makes great mulch for my trees, garden, and compost pile.
I stopped burning bark that falls off. I have run some through the chipper/shredder to help break it down for the compost pile. I also just dump piles of it in the woods. Fungi take it over to slowly extract nutrients to supply to the trees and it makes for a great moist micro environment for frogs, toads, salamanders and newts..
I burn a lot of bark in my solo stove, outdoors. But I also burn a fair amount of bark in my wood stoves. It burns great! I have tons of firewood split, stacked and seasoned. But I get satisfaction out of burning bark. Plus, I enjoy feeding the fire and don’t mind cleaning out ashes - especially during shoulder season (June, July and August).
