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We put in a fire pit last summer and burned the store bought pre-cut wood.
Recently, a friend gave me a bunch of firewood, fresh cut last October and stored outside all winter. Now, it's at my house and I have no idea how to turn it into wood suitable for an outdoor fire pit.
What do I need to do to use the wood this Summer? Do I just chop it with an Ax? What kind of Ax? I heard of a log splitter, but have never used one. Do I need to dry it out?
I'm pretty clueless here, so any help is much appreciated. Here is a picture of the wood. Thank you!
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
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It's hard to tell just how big those are in the picture. If you could have a foot, or something that we know the size of, next to those logs it would help. We can't tell if they are big enough to even use a splitter on them.
They look like they are still wet and green. It takes a good year for wood to 'season' sufficiently for burning. At least for fireplaces. For outdoors, 'green' wood is ok to burn but takes more effort to keep the fire going.
That looks like very wet wood which would be hard to get burning well & would smoke a lot. I would use (purchased) dry cured firewood to start the fire & get it going well with plenty of hot coals and then use some of your gifted wood on top.
That looks like very wet wood which would be hard to get burning well & would smoke a lot. I would use (purchased) dry cured firewood to start the fire & get it going well with plenty of hot coals and then use some of your gifted wood on top.
It's been raining a lot here, so maybe that makes it look wet? Sorry, but I honestly don't know anything about this.
Little logs like that are great for a fire pit because, usually, you do not want something that will burn for four hours or more. If that is the entity of what you have though, you will need to get some more firewood. This will burn up n a matter of minutes. It is hard to tell if it is still green/wet, or just some kind of wood that has that look. It kind of looks like shrubbery, rather than a tree.
if you are going to roast marshmallows or anything, you absolutely need to know what kind of wood you are using. Some woods give off toxic fumes, horrible flavor or even toxins (could be poison ivy).
There is no reason to split those, they are already small. They are too small to go into a splitter anyway, you could try with an axe, but you would need really good aim. Splitting the larger ones might be worthwhile, but certainly not worth renting a splitter at $90 a day. The idea of splitting is that many logs will only burn around the edges and the go out. What do you do with the left over? When you split, it creates more edges/angles to catch and decreases the overall thickness that the fire has to burn through to keep going. Triangles (or squares) burn more readily than circles because there are thin corners to catch fire and burn though. As heat builds the thicker wood can sustain fire. Your will not have that issue.
Get a bunch of brush/twigs (a lot and then a lot more). Put some of the little branch size sticks you have in and get it going then add the rest. Mix in some dryer wood might help too. That little bit of wood will probably be gone in half an hour.
If you do not have access to free wood, go out to the country. People usually just stack split wood by the road with a price on it (at least here they do). $60 - $70 will get you a face cord of good split hardwood. One cord will last most people a summer. $15 - $25 will get it delivered. I would guess there are about 30 - 50 of those grocery store bundles in a face cord. It is a LOT cheaper.
Be aware of any rule or restrictions on transporting firewood in your area. In Michigan it is illegal to transport ash tree wood between counties and most available firewood is or at least includes some ash.
Location: Finally the house is done and we are in Port St. Lucie!
3,487 posts, read 3,346,890 times
Reputation: 9914
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens
Little logs like that are great for a fire pit because, usually, you do not want something that will burn for four hours or more. If that is the entity of what you have though, you will need to get some more firewood. This will burn up n a matter of minutes. It is hard to tell if it is still green/wet, or just some kind of wood that has that look. It kind of looks like shrubbery, rather than a tree.
if you are going to roast marshmallows or anything, you absolutely need to know what kind of wood you are using. Some woods give off toxic fumes, horrible flavor or even toxins (could be poison ivy).
There is no reason to split those, they are already small. They are too small to go into a splitter anyway, you could try with an axe, but you would need really good aim. Splitting the larger ones might be worthwhile, but certainly not worth renting a splitter at $90 a day. The idea of splitting is that many logs will only burn around the edges and the go out. What do you do with the left over? When you split, it creates more edges/angles to catch and decreases the overall thickness that the fire has to burn through to keep going. Triangles (or squares) burn more readily than circles because there are thin corners to catch fire and burn though. As heat builds the thicker wood can sustain fire. Your will not have that issue.
Get a bunch of brush/twigs (a lot and then a lot more). Put some of the little branch size sticks you have in and get it going then add the rest. Mix in some dryer wood might help too. That little bit of wood will probably be gone in half an hour.
Even if the wood is 1' round by 4' long? His picture is not helping in figuring out the actual size of the wood. 1'x4' is what the OP said the smallest piece was.
I guess it wouldn't matter if it is a regular fire pit and not one of those metal fire pits.
No. It's just in a pile on some rocks by my HVAC, no kindling underneath. It's poor scale from my iphone, but even the smallest pieces are 1' by 4'.
looks like it will burn just fine to me, I would start the fire with some newspaper underneath some small sticks/twigs and add your smaller dia wood as it flares up a bit. Looks like it might be apple (?). If so, save a couple pieces for your grill.
They also have fire starter briquettes that work well.
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