I finally got around to burning some Honey Locust. Not to be confused with Black locust, (BL is fantastic). I css this pile of HL in 2019 It was stacked on pallets and kept off the ground. It has been here long enough that a Silver maple has grown next to the stack. I burned some last year, it didn't burn for squat back then. So I figured give it another year. It still doesn't kick out any btu's. The fire burned out at 2 am and the water cooled off until I refilled (with HL, and birch) at 8 am. Then it took hours longer than usual to warm back up. The only HL wood that burned ok was on the very top of the pile that got full sun/rain. Everything under that burns awful. I would gladly process Elm and gum vs HL, At least Elm and Gum dry out and burn hot. The red line is the hot water feed from the owb. The blue line is the return line. It was taking so long to warm up that I threw in a piece of hedge to speed it up. You can see from the steep climb on the graph that the hedge really helped things warm up. The piece of hedge was 3 inches in dia, and 5 ft long.
Weird. The stuff on the pallets doesn't look too dry. Weathered yes, but not dry. I wonder if the long sedge grass surrounding the stack had anything to do with moisture retention? I've burned 2 and 3 year HL with no issues. The worst firewood I ever burned was this long dead black cherry. It was well below 20% on the MM but barely burned, only charred. I had to mix pine with it to get any kind of heat out of a stove load.
I can't cover here there is way too much wind. Plus it dries out faster if you let it get rained on, at least in this area.
It looks like it wouldn't burn worth a ..... Hoot. Maybe a new storage method is in order? I've not burned HL myself but ANY dry wood burns better than you're describing.
The few weeds that grew up only get up to 3 ft tall. The stack was 6ft tall. Idk what it is about HL I've processed and burned it many times it's always the same. Last time I had it stacked 5 years on concrete. it was the same. You can tell by the weight of it that it's still heavy and full of sap. All the choke cherry here splits and burns fantastic. Plus it dries in 4 months, perhaps its a different kind of cherry?
Agreed. I think it's the lack of checking in the end grain that makes it look like it's not ready to burn. I didn't stack it in the tote until this fall.
Interesting. I cut and burn all the HL I can get. What with the thorns and the shear weight of the the stuff it's a pita but in my stove in the house I love it for overnight heat. Almost like burning coal. I've also found out that it doesn't need as much drying time as I once thought it did at least not in my world.
Wood left in the open like that would mimic the moisture content of dead and down woody debris that is entered into the calculations that predict wildfire behavior. 1000 hour fuels ((3”+ in diameter) are slower to dry and also slower to absorb moisture. It could be that given your frequency of precipitation and your daily humidity cycle, the wood will just never dry unless it it protected from the elements. While you might not be able to top cover your wood for the duration of its drying cycle, perhaps you could give it some shelter for 5-6 weeks before burning it. That way you won’t lose ground in the drying process when you have a rain storm roll through. I’d be curious to see what the actual moisture content is when you are trying to burn it. Wood, regardless of species should burn hot at a given moisture content. Problem is they retain moisture at different rates.
If you took it from the stack pictured I'm thinking it may be too waterlogged being that close to the ground. Seasoned, yes, dry, no. Being a very dense wood, it takes longer to dry once waterlogged. Just my 2c
I HAD one from 2000-2004 and divorced in 2005. Met Ms. buZZsaw in 2007 and we've been together since. We behave like a cantankerous old married couple. Send her a sympathy card please!
