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AngelBy, if you're sitting by the fire relaxing this winter, get some pecan shells and toss a handful or two in the fire. You'll see all diferent colors of flames that really makes it look pretty
I read all your replies and I Don't know about u angel, but I'm still not sure what the answer to your question is. I was wondering the same thing . What I got out of it was that its Ok. I think Ill try a load of just oak bark tonight and see, then Ill let u know "the real answer"
I read all your replies and I Don't know about u angel, but I'm still not sure what the answer to your question is. I was wondering the same thing . What I got out of it was that its Ok. I think Ill try a load of just oak bark tonight and see, then Ill let u know "the real answer"
First; welcome to the forum. You did pick an older post so there is a chance you might not get a response.
I sold firewood and I never worried about the bark. If it was on the wood; I burned it. I also used a lot of firewood myself until I switched over to oil heat.
One thing that was not mentioned is ants and insects. They can hide under the bark. Ants are also great at hiding in the wood; so if you see a hole in one end of the log be suspicious. Sometimes people will bring wood into their houses to season. If you bring in a cold log with ants and insects; they can wake up and become active in your house. You also have more spiders when burning wood. With a wood burner and cold logs that have holes in the ends; I would bring them in and immediately place them in a hot wood burner. That way I avoided being overrun. The maple wood is the worse wood for ants.
As far as bark itself: Avoid a bark from white birch because it burns hot with too much creosote. Cherry bark is also like that. But, in general, most barks would burn fine. But the idea of keeping a pile of loose bark, my feeling is, that it will bring too many bugs into the house. You might want to test this idea first.
I've found that bark seems to create more ash for me to clean out of my insert when measured against wood with no bark such as mill cut off pieces. I can buy hardwood cut off pieces for $30/ton, it's dry, sides are squared so it stacks great, some of it as large as 8x8x16 inches....the best part is no wood eating insects. It's a great deal for me, in previous years it's taken me weeks of cutting, splitting, stacking.....now I can do 10 tons in a week or two.
Paid to have a large tree chopped down in my small front yard of old house.
Needed pros as wires went through it 3 different places
Anyway, i told them I wanted to take some wood.
They said... take all you want, but I'll be honest with you its all free for me and I dont take it
The effort of chopping to size, splitting and then waiting a year or longer... well, you can find someone on craigslist who is willing to tear up their body doing all the work for next to nothing.
So I got a 1/2 cord of seasoned and split oak from a nice older couple for $85.. Delivered to my house.
found from a craigslist ad.
We are simply summertime firepit burning, so maybe I'd think differently if heating house with it.. but this seemed like a perfect option considering my needs.
We have a huge pile of logs in our backyard. It is all well seasoned. We split some of it. First I rented a splitter and my son and I split logs like crazy - for a while. Eventually I exhausted myself and my back could not take any more (I am strong but I work in an office, so my back does not hold up well.). We returned the rented splitter. I think we split about +/-four cords of wood. in six hours so it was $90 to rent the splitter (plus the cost of gasoline). That worked out ok.
My muscly son moved off to college and I got older. I rented a splitter again I worked for about two hours ad split about a cord of wood or less Including setting up, cleaning up stacking as I split, and towing the splitter to and from, I had it for four hours or close enough they charged me for 4 hours. $60. A face cord of hardwood delivered was $65 at the time. Not really worth it.
We then found a teacher who had a splitter and split wood on weekends for $15 an hour. No brainier since is costs that much to rent a splitter. and he was doing the work. Only things are: 1. He worked very slowly it took him over two hours to split about a cord; 2. He did not clean up and just tossed the split wood into a pile. so we still had to clean up and collect,/stack the wood; 3. He worked on it for about 3 hours one day and then one hour another and said he had to leave. We never heard from him again. I think he realized it was not worth it at that price, but it was barely worth it for us vs. buying split wood.
I think the big time pros do faster because they use splutters that split a log into quarters in one pass. they also have big trucks and front end loaders to move the wood around. Further they have more people, so they can take turns lifting the logs into place, and since they do it all the time, they do not get worn out in a few hours. Thus, they do it faster, cheaper and better than I can, so, as long as we buy wood at the right time of year (when it is cheap) it makes more sense to buy it.
Now, I would be happy just to get rid of the woodpile in the back yard. We already have a two to five year supply split and stacked. Our house was originally made to be heated by fireplaces, but they do not heat evenly and some of the addition plus all of the upstairs does not get that warm. So it is more just for the pleasantness or atmosphere. We could use a few more cords, but We do not need all the wood we have, plus some it is it getting eaten by ants and bees and starting to dry rot.
We already have a separate pile of bonfire wood (smaller logs/branches and crappy types of wood you do not want to burn in a fireplace). With the kids mostly gone, we really do not have that much use for firewood anymore. Fires are nice, but unless you are going to be home for most of the day, they are rarely worth it and we are rarely home for most of the day. We tend to come and go and you cannot just leave with a fire burning.
"Fires are nice, but unless you are going to be home for most of the day, they are rarely worth it and we are rarely home for most of the day. We tend to come and go and you cannot just leave with a fire burning". Time to look into an insert for that fireplace, they are safe to leave unattended, and will hold a fire/coals all night.... like this one.
For the most part I peel the bark off (if I can) and set it aside to use for kindling and fire starting. Seems to get the fire going the quickest, at which point I switch over to purely wood only.
A lot of the seasoned wood I burn has the bark loose on it anyway. I leave it all outdoors on the pile and for the most part I guarantee ou most of it has a carpenter ant nest in it by now. The wood I keep in house is from those $6/bag piles you buy at home depot. It looks nicer, and tends to be void of insects. I used 2-3 of them plus bark to get my fire going in my fireplace, and then switch over to the "dirty" wood from outdoors that's full of ant/spiders.
Thanks Kygman, can you please tell me where can I get the pecan shells? Are they sold in bags at the garden/nursery center?
lol, pecan shells come on pecan nuts. that you are shelling as you sit by the fire.
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