Emergency Wood Burning in Mr. Herald #6

 
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Post by coalnewbie » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 5:24 am

Plus wood gasses will coat the base and other paths with a basic film, the opposite of acidic anthracite's gasses.
I might suggest that it is a little more complex than acid base reactions. Anthracite gasses and ash are acid but acidity means nothing without water. Damage to stoves and chimney are not in the winter. Wood is perhaps basic (I do not know) but more importantly creosote is sticky and that is a magnet for ash particles. It's main use use for protecting horse pasture fences. Hence numerous photos of restored base heaters with blocked passages. I am with William, wood no doubt has its place, but not in my BB stoves - ever. Even if free it's is damaging the stove and at best just making it less efficient. Perhaps if you as smart as a Wilson or a Pierre and use a very well seasoned high BTU wood you can get away with it. If you want to burn wood use one of the excellent wood burning products now available, or use a backpipe or standard coal stove you can clean easily in the spring. Wood firing a BB stove is like running a Ferrari on TVO. Cruelty to BB stoves, I need to get a bumper sticker. The sight of a Herald filled with one large unseasoned log, burning cold is too much for me. I am a sensitive lad.


 
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Post by wilsons woodstoves » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 8:40 am

uncle. I agree with dlj. Seeing the wood it looks Not seasond(no checks) also looks to be pine, one log at a time will just smolder, you need to fill that baby up. the herald will burn wood better than the
Glenwood or the wings . one reason is smaller base pan another ,lack of little holes under loading door, (less secondary air) Split that wood when there is a good frost,Fresh sawed side up.
Wilson

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 1:54 pm

Rob R. wrote:You would have much better results with seasoned wood, split properly.
wsherrick wrote:I think the lesson that is going to come out of this that it is best to have some coal on hand.
It just makes life easier.
Agreed. Save the wood for kindling.
Better yet, use BBQ charcoal bricketts and kerosene. I have lots of windfall trigs and branches here, but after hearing how William and a few others easily start their stoves, I find it faster and easier than loading paper, then twigs, then slit wood to get it hot enough to start adding the coal. Knocked about ten minutes off my time to get the stove going.

The charcoal won't soot up the mica windows like wood will.

One 20 pound bag of charcoal is good for about four fire startups, takes up less space, than wood to do the same number of start-ups, and it's easier to store. Plus, no worries about wood bits and bugs tracked through the house. ;)

Watch for sales of twin-packs of 20 pound bags of Kingsford charcoal at Lowes. ;)

Paul

 
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Post by scalabro » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 2:54 pm

The ultimate in slackness :D :D is matchlight :idea:

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 4:11 pm

scalabro wrote:The ultimate in slackness :D :D is matchlight :idea:
I tried a bag of Match light early on. It wouldn't light. I had to use lighter fluid to get it going. :mad:

I bought a bag at Wal-Mart at the end of BBQ season when it went on sale. I think it sat on the shelf too long because they wasn't enough volatiles left in it to light, even with the direct application of a flame from a pro-pain torch. :(

At least with the kero, I know it's fresh and it's going to light easily.

Paul

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 4:13 pm

coalnewbie wrote:
Plus wood gasses will coat the base and other paths with a basic film, the opposite of acidic anthracite's gasses.
I might suggest that it is a little more complex than acid base reactions. Anthracite gasses and ash are acid but acidity means nothing without water. Damage to stoves and chimney are not in the winter. Wood is perhaps basic (I do not know) but more importantly creosote is sticky and that is a magnet for ash particles. It's main use use for protecting horse pasture fences. Hence numerous photos of restored base heaters with blocked passages. I am with William, wood no doubt has its place, but not in my BB stoves - ever. Even if free it's is damaging the stove and at best just making it less efficient. Perhaps if you as smart as a Wilson or a Pierre and use a very well seasoned high BTU wood you can get away with it. If you want to burn wood use one of the excellent wood burning products now available, or use a backpipe or standard coal stove you can clean easily in the spring. Wood firing a BB stove is like running a Ferrari on TVO. Cruelty to BB stoves, I need to get a bumper sticker. The sight of a Herald filled with one large unseasoned log, burning cold is too much for me. I am a sensitive lad.
FWIW, wood creosote and wood ash are slightly base, about an 8 on the PH scale. If moisture mixes with them, it start to eat metal also.

Paul

 
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Post by nortcan » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 8:52 pm

PH 8 is 10 times more basic than neutral 7, so imagine with anthr. PH level? Very rare to see rusting St-St chimneys when burning wood, but see a lot with anthracite burning and that is why a masonery chimney is the best when burning coal.
Antique coal stoves are not the best one for burning wood but what I meant was if wanting to burn wood a few times before going to the steady anthracite fires , it will not clog the chimney and the other parts. And shure the wood should be dry just like it's supposed to be when burning wood.


 
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Sun. Oct. 04, 2015 8:59 pm

You would also be far better burning hardwood than that pine.... that is pine you are burning ? :shock:

 
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Post by UncleDoDat » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 12:38 am

Yes, I believe it is pine. I picked it up the end of last spring. A whole bunch of it was just sitting on the side of the road next to a tree cutting machine. Needless to say I helped myself to what I thought was a lot of wood. Some very large pieces. Tree trunk sizes even.
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I figured it could be used as kindling. When I get this baby up And running.
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The whole charcoal procedure just doesn't seem applicable to that monster. However, half of my wood supplies are gone in just one day. Mr. Herald made mince meat out of them. I mean Mr Herald burnt the big logs down to absolutely nothing.

This is the axe I purchased. I'm wishing I could locate the receipt. Because either it's not working properly or I'm not working it properly. And I weigh almost 300 pounds. So I am hitting the wood with everything I have.
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In any event I will be putting my order in first thing in the morning for 4 tons. The reason I haven't purchased any cold as of yet is because I knew that getting four tons I would have to reinforce my cold storage. This is what it looked like last year.
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Today I was a very busy bee. New and improved coal storage. With a sliding door.
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Also it is not very cold tonight I still picked up some wood from Lowes 1 bag 6.69 If my Amish community was open today I'd have a few bags of coal at 5.50 a bag. And much longer burning.
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This treated wood really smells good though. Kind of sweet even.

 
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Post by Pancho » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 6:37 am

wilsons woodstoves wrote:Uncle, If the wood is at least 6 month seasoned, and you have a wood plate on top of the coal grates(slots to the front) Best if wood is cut short so as to lay horizontal. Get the chimney hot and put it in base burner mode. Right Poncho??? Its a lot easier to kneel on the floor with a small hoe, than hang out on the roof collecting creosote. Just my opinion.
Wilson
Yezzir Skip.

DO NOT try to choke down the stove with the MPD and DO NOT worry about your stack temps.
With coal, you want all the heat coming from the stove with minimal heat going up the chimney. With wood, send some heat up the chimney and run the stove hot....and sit back and try to stay awake. :)

 
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Post by Pancho » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 6:42 am

UncleDoDat wrote:How thick should logs be? I have some pretty thick ones out back. I even brought an axe to chop'em down to size. Well, split them a bit. I think I need a heavier axe. Splitting wood shouldn't be that Damn hard. :surrender:
You want a variety of sizes. Think about it....you have a round firepot and typically triangular or semi-circle splits....you want to put as many splits in there as you can. To fill the voids, various sizes and shapes are necessary.

THAT SAID......if you have 'some pretty thick' logs out back (which is open to interpretation) but I would be a bit leery about it's moisture content. Wood in stick form (unsplit) takes FOREVER to season. Be careful.

 
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Post by Pancho » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 6:49 am

UncleDoDat wrote:
So, do tell me about laying the wood horizontally. :idhitit:

Ideally I would love if my wood was able to lay horizontally. But the firebox is rather small when trying to burn wood. Please let me know if there's going to be a problem I just toss the whole log in.
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Plus I saw a video of that other guys who sales stoves for a way inflated price. Stuff wood in one these babies like it was going out of style. All standing straight up..
You can't make your splits longer but you sure can make em' shorter.
I don't think burning vertically, unless very small splits, will work. You need the wood to burn down to form an ash bed and that bed needs to be maintained. That stick will burn up the ash bed versus contributing to it.

I went through my wood stash and cut it all in half and re-stacked it. A half hour with a saw and you can cut a lot of 'cookies'.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 6:53 am

Green conifer wood - that's why it was still at the roadside. We only use it in an outdoor fire pit or as camp wood. Burning green conifer wood is about the best way to buildup creosote in a chimney that there is. :shock:

That looks like a slitting axe in your picture. Kind of an axe that is part splitting mall. Not as affective as a real mall, or monster mall, on the really big stuff, but better than a single, or double bit axe.

Trying to hand split butts as big around as in your picture is next to impossible. Especially if it's green. Some steel splitting wedges, hammered in line with the grain, will get those big chunks split up to where you can then use the splitting axe.

Better yet, just use coal ! ;)

Paul

 
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Post by Pancho » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 7:05 am

UncleDoDat wrote:Yes, I believe it is pine. I picked it up the end of last spring. A whole bunch of it was just sitting on the side of the road next to a tree cutting machine. Needless to say I helped myself to what I thought was a lot of wood. Some very large pieces. Tree trunk sizes even.
IMG_20151004_234505.jpg
IMG_20151004_234707.jpg
I figured it could be used as kindling. When I get this baby up And running.
IMG_20150929_163006.jpg
The whole charcoal procedure just doesn't seem applicable to that monster. However, half of my wood supplies are gone in just one day. Mr. Herald made mince meat out of them. I mean Mr Herald burnt the big logs down to absolutely nothing.

This is the axe I purchased. I'm wishing I could locate the receipt. Because either it's not working properly or I'm not working it properly. And I weigh almost 300 pounds. So I am hitting the wood with everything I have.
IMG_20151004_234558.jpg
IMG_20151004_234537.jpg
Also it is not very cold tonight I still picked up some wood from Lowes 1 bag 6.69 If my Amish community was open today I'd have a few bags of coal at 5.50 a bag. And much longer burning.
IMG_20151004_235024.jpg
This treated wood really smells good though. Kind of sweet even.
There is nothing wrong with burning pine (if it's seasoned) other than it doesn't burn long. That said, the stumps in those pictures ARE NOT DRY. I would not burn that this year no way no how.

 
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Oct. 05, 2015 7:47 am

Pine, wet or dry - has a much higher concentration of the tar in woods that makes creosote. Because of that, extended use of pine is warned about. It's one of the most likely woods to cause a chimney fire from creosote buildup.

In a base burner I'd be very Leary of using it unless it was well seasoned and also just used when mixed in with well seasoned hardwood, too.

Paul


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