Debate with my dad: Is there such a thing as undesirable wood if its free?

Being a good 5-6 years ahead with firewood (20+ cords split/stacked). I can snob off those lesser woods, and I do. Some just aren’t worth my time. My dad on the other hand says, it’s all wood. He will take anything.

 

Part of the "work smarter not harder" crowd here also.

 

Yes I've heard on here that mayo or Miracle whip works

 

I side with both.

My mom always said it all burns, but we only used pine/softwoods for kindling never the main fire. More than enough hardwoods in our area.

Teach dad about different woods for different temperatures depending on how much heat is needed. Cooler temps here are commonly called shoulder season when lots of heat aren't needed. Softwoods, lower BTU woods put aside to burn then. Higher BTU woods for the colder weather.

One other suggestion is to mix a piece of the softwood in with the others. Dilute is a term I often use.

Hopefully you and dad are still on speaking terms!

 

I use to take anything I could get my hands on, pretty much still do if I have the time. But I have gotten more picky over the years. Lots of Oak around here and I have to say I love it (minus it's drying time). But when the Pickens are slim, I take what I can get.

 

I use vegetable oil. Takes a little time to get the sap and oil mixed together but once you do, dawn dish soap will finish the job.

 

My three biggest reasons for taking "lesser" woods are:

Drying time.
Ease of lighting/getting the stove to crank out heat quickly when I first get up in the morning and there's a long list of things that also need my attention right away.
Burning down hardwood coal beds when they get too deep.

That being said, I will not stack cords and cords of softwoods or low BTU hardwoods in my small backyard. They have their place, but in limited quantity. I wish I knew the value of them back during my first couple years of burning. I hoarded oak almost exclusively then and was disappointed the following winter when I had trouble getting and keeping my stove going. Just starting out, junk wood is very useful until you can put up enough premium wood to be a couple years ahead.

 

Kraft salad and mayo? That's the first time I've heard of it. Makes sense that something with an oily texture would help but never in a million years would I've looked at mayo as a solution

 

In general I don't usually mix soft and hardwood. You make a good point about how softwood could be a better fit for the job in shoulder seasons but I can't help but to think of it as lesser wood and not worth storing so I try to get it out of the way as soon as possible (as long as it is dry)

P.S: All good with my dad This was just a friendly debate that I had with him.

 

Just depends on how desperate you are. lol

 

I burn quite a bit of eastern white pine. Some people don't even like to cut it due to the sap in the sapwood.
Handling it can be tricky and/or messy.
Sap is a fuel, just like the wood that hosts it. Season the moisture out of it and it burns just like wood that is well seasoned.
Sap 'causing' creosote is BS.
Don't try to smolder any wood burning and your chimney will be fine.

One thing I have noticed from burning EWP is my chimney actually is cleaner at the end of the season than when I didn't burn EWP.
EWP burns hot and fast and I don't try push the limit on starving it for air while it is burning. But I also do the same for all wood. There is a low limit one should not exceed.
Edit: Blaze Kings supposedly will handle pushing the envelope of slow burn. Doesn't mean you should.

 

Welcome to the site. You are both right, just depends on how much wood you have, how much you need, how much work you want to put in, etc.

 

Was it you? Not a rumor, its fact!

 

I've always taken it as a given that the "sappier" the more creosote involved when burning. Is that not the case?

 

Sap seems to have good potential to make creosote (because it lets you get away with burning wet wood, if you want to) but if you are burning hot and not smoldering (not "low n slow") then you will not have creosote issues (well, assuming you have truly dry wood, and a proper chimney, not some oversized masonry (read: cold) chimney)
The only difference I notice when burning sappy pine is a little more flyash buildup in the chimney.

 

The thing is when you have a lot of primo wood like oak you don’t always want to burn the best stuff all the time. During “shoulder season” sometimes you actually want a shorter fire and if all you have is oak you have to use that up. But when you have a choice you can burn the “lower quality” wood instead. So for every piece of lower quality wood you burn you are saving a piece of stuff like oak for when you truly want or need it such as when you want to have a longer all night fire. Oak to me means one thing: sleep. It will burn all or most of the night so I can stay in bed sleeping and don’t have to keep getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the stove with a shorter/ lower btu wood like pine. Think about it like this: if we used a gas furnace exclusively like the rest of most of the world there is a temperature control and many have a timer. So when you burn oak it’s like having only one setting on your furnace that blazes away for six hours at medium high heat. You may not want it to run for six hours—maybe you only want it to run for one or two or three. Having various woods in your arsenal allows you the luxury of having a so-called “temperature control/thermostat/timer” for your woodstove.

 

Well said. One other thing I would add is the storage aspect. I have mine indoors so to actively search for cottonwood, box elder and willow is not what I do. The exception for me is when I'm clearing an area for another reason. I even cut lengths of honeysuckle then just so I don't have to handle as much brush. I try to use that at the start and end of the season to accomplish what you said. When I was a kid, we didn't have our own land and took whatever we could get from neighbors or fall downs people wanted cleaned up. As we did those, word spread as people were happy with the way we treated their property and would tell others. So much so the point where we had to start turning some down. That is why it has always been a red flag to me when someone says no one will allow them to cut. lol