Which types of wood produce blue flame?

Im burning wood right now in my wood stove and noticed big blue flames.

A few pcs of defective holiday lights also help

How about that sumac??? or definetly BLUE Spruce I'm sorry smokey,sometimes I can't help myself--like stated,any hardwood w/ a good draft in a good stove

freetown fred wrote:How about that sumac??? or definetly BLUE Spruce I'm sorry smokey,sometimes I can't help myself--like stated,any hardwood w/ a good draft in a good stove

the sumac is still wet, BLUE spruce might be it tho.

Good chance it's american elm. When it's dry, and still sound (tends to rot on the stump pretty quickly), it consistently burns blue. Look at the end grain. If its got a wavy line as it makes its circumference with tiny spots in between the waves, its american elm. It's fantastic firewood, and it's fairly plentiful, even dead and ready to harvest. But sometimes you need something like maple to keep it kindled, and you have a short window of opportunity to harvest the dead trees before they start to rot.

smokeyCityTeacher wrote:

freetown fred wrote:How about that sumac??? or definetly BLUE Spruce I'm sorry smokey,sometimes I can't help myself--like stated,any hardwood w/ a good draft in a good stove

the sumac is still wet, BLUE spruce might be it tho.

From the info posted before in the other thread, I seriously doubt it's sumac. Definetly have my bet on ailanthus. I was given a cord of it and was told it's not good because it was sumac. A tree guy I went to school with told me what it was. Started to burn it that year and cut quite a few cord off my lot over the years. You won't get blue flames off it like other harder woods but it's deacent fuel in the spring and fall.The stuff you have is way to big for sumac plus if you've ever cut staghorn sumac, it's quite pithy. Like soft brush and I've never seen any get biger than 4 - 6" before it croaks.

Blue flames will come off of well aged black locust. That stuff is as close to coal as you can get imo and still find it growing above ground

white oak, black locust, trees that are the hardest, don't have volitile sap and contain the highest fixed carbon. I have noticed this in elm, although it is not as hard as many other woods, perhaps it has a high fixed carbon content in the wood.

Berlin wrote:white oak, black locust, trees that are the hardest, don't have volitile sap and contain the highest fixed carbon. I have noticed this in elm, although it is not as hard as many other woods, perhaps it has a high fixed carbon content in the wood.

I have some locust from last year - it might have been in there - you guys sure know your trees (for coal guys that is)

Everytime I buc a few Black Locust, I need to sharpen that chain at the end of the day. Its THAT hard. Takes a few years to fully season, too. Burning some right now. HHOTTT blue flames, after most of the volatiles are burned off. Great amount of BTUs per lb. for a chunk of wood.

Toss some wire in there -- copper gives off green & blue flames.

The builders of Russian Fireplaces, large masonry stoves with many extra lineal feet of meandering flue, say that the blue flame is the incandescent indicator of carbon monoxide being released. When the blue flame has stopped, the operator completely closes off the flue even when there is a big deposit of red coals laying on the firebrick. A properly sized stove only needs to be fired once a day with trash wood and branches that are normally wasted or chipped. These site built units are far superior to coal stoves from a maintenance and fuel cost perspective. Goggle it. All wood will "blue flame" at some point.

I have a masonry stove and get blue flame from pine (lodge pole, douglas fir, and spruce -blue and otherwise) and from poplar, cottonwood, ash, boxelder, cedar...