Firewood talk – ID my logs please

I’m struggling to decide if its Poplar or Ash.
If it’s Ash, I’ll make the effort to retrieve the rest, if it’s poplar, it sin’t going to be worth the bother.

Whaddya think, Ash, Poplar or something else?

Tricky one – bark is fine textured like ash, bit doesn’t look grey enough (but may just be that log…)

Mmm – some of the logs are a bit greyer than that one, so fingers crossed 😀

I reckon that’s a nice piece of ash.

I reckon that’s a nice piece of ash.

*rubs hands together*

i’d say ash – very straight grain.

You’ll be able to tell when you start splitting it with an axe. I did about 3 tons of freshly cut ash last month and it was a bloody nightmare – far harder than oak or beech. First time I swung at one of the discs, my freshly sharpened, oiled Gransfors Bruks bounced straight off the top of it and nearly took my leg off.

It seems to split pretty easy – straight grain helps with that, but the cross cutting took longer than I expected. I’ll be heading out later to collect some more 🙂

Are you sure its not a willow.

Will burn just needs a bit more seasoning.

Hard to saw, white, helicoidal grooved bark – Charme? My dictionary says that’s hornbeam or ironwood in English. Great firewood if it is.

Stick your finger nail in the grain on that split piece, if it sinks into it with a push, not Ash!

I can see where you are coming from with Ash. If you can put up another general pic of the wood you are retrieving, not close ups, may help.

Can still burn Poplar, not the best though.

Leaves – any attached can you see the tree it came from…..

Edit: it’s not Hornbeam, the bark of which is smoother than Beech! Good effort on the research though 🙂

It’s been fly tipped a little way from here and has been there since April, so all the foliage has gone. I can’t get my finger nail in though, so fingers crossed still.

Aha – the top three in the second pic defo Ash as are most of the others. The first pic is some thing else altogether – still burn it though.

Looks good to me and worth getting!

Enjoy 🙂

Cheers woodsman – time to fire up the quattro husky 8)

Gean for the other one?

Wood is quite pale, but the barck looks like it may be from a Prunus

I have just forwarded this post to Mrs organic to prove it is not just me that is obsessed with collecting firewood.

I would even go as far as to say it is now one of my hobbies!!! 🙂

Hijack alert!

Who would have thought there would be such a lively community of bark-botherers on here..?

Quick question for an newcomer to the art – how do you know when the wood’s ready to burn? Any tips? I suspect that experience is the key but any useful tips appreciated..

Isn’t it a bit like testing matches?

Set fire to the log and see if it burns.

Quick question for an newcomer to the art – how do you know when the wood’s ready to burn? Any tips? I suspect that experience is the key but any useful tips appreciated..

Linky – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Tester-Detector-Moisture-Zary/dp/B003UUFT2Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313670792&sr=8-1

At least that’s how I do it

At least that’s how I do it

A gadget for everything! Nice idea – what’s the maximum moisture level you find acceptable then?

The moisture content of the wood significantly affects the amount of heat generated and the composition of the smoke given off. To burn most cleanly or efficiently, wood used in wood burners or log fires should not contain a moisture content of greater than 25%. Both collected and commercially supplied wood can often have moisture well above this level.

•Burning dry wood is environmentally friendly, where as wet wood causes pollution.
•Burning dry wood will cost you less money, whereas wet wood reduces the heat available from the burning wood by up to 80%.
•Burning dry wood reduces the maintenance of the stove and substantially increases the longevity of the flue system.
•Burning dry wood gives a responsive fire with the finest and most dramatic flame pictures.

does look like ash, it is hard stuff, I used to ahve to try and hammer tree tags into them and they would just bounce out into my eyes.

second row looks like gean or something similar.

I’d have said Norway maple for the first bits as they have lightly ridged bark like that – very like ash, should be able to tell from a pic of the cut end as the rings look different. If you cut a fresh bit of ash it goes pink for a while before fading back to white / cream.

Bottom row in pic 3, 1 and 3 from the left look like beech, branch scars on no.5 look very like Norway maple, possibly a bit of goat willow at the RH end.

None of it looks look like poplar to me, again a cut end shot might help.

Main thing is that they should all burn ok once dried apart from the willow, which will be ok if you mix it in.