Wood with nails in a log burner?

As per title really…

Just sorting out some wood for Xmas, I’ve got a couple of pallets but I can’t get the nails out of them and it seems a shame to waste the wood.

Will it damage the stove, someone told me they can “explode” and damage the glass?

Cheers

No nails in mine but I did experience “wuffing” for the first time last night. That was startling enough. Not sure nails would have made that any more pleasant.

I have just this for 5 years with zero problem.

What is wuffing ???

Nails no issues here for the last 29 years – in that my parents and their parents before that all did it ….

Not a problem, but cleaning the grate ash or after the chimney has been swept, with a hoover is a right pain as they get stuck in the pipe…

No problem here either, pallets keep us going in the autumn.

I keep a magnet out of an old speaker to remove the nails from the grate

No problems with nails. I use a magnet to get the nails out when vacuuming the ash out.

The nails are nicely annealed afterwards so make perfect raw material for making rings.

Wuffing is when you turn the damper down to quickly and starve it of oxygen, this then pulls cold oxygenated air down the chimney causing sudden combustion which creates a loud “wuff” sound and blows soot past the seal.

Gotcha . Just need to let it get its burn on propper.

Cant say ive ever had that l

Nails are fine, just pick them out of the grate, bones however, they are really hard to burn completely…

What is wuffing ???

Wuff is the noise a petrol-soaked dog makes upon ignition …

I never had problems burning pallet wood with nails, btw.

Mine has a sliding grate arrangement at the bottom. Nails stick in it and stop it. That is all.

Tbh theres much worse than nails in pallets…..

Many are soaked in chemicals.

What about the spacer blocks that are mae of compressed woodchip? I don’t think I’d want to burn them in my stove.

Many are soaked in chemicals.

If you steer clear of the blue euro pallets you are generally ok.
Certainly non-return pallets are rarely treated – it just costs too much and isn’t worth it for how long they are expected to last.

Chicken Bones burn ok ,but lamb bones take a bit of work .
Burn ours as we have to pay for rubbish disposal privately here in eire.

A combination of a wrecking bar to start opening the palette and a claw hammer to bang the nails out then claw out fully gets pretty much all the nails out

Most pallets are softwood full of resin and sap. Doesn’t the sap and resin become acidic and damage the burner over time? Lads at work only use the pallet wood for kindling to get the fire started so they can put seasoned logs on. We are even thinking of moving so we can have a log burner, crazy I know!

I have never heard of exploding nails until now … really. 😯

Doesn’t the sap and resin become acidic and damage the burner over time?

No – folk in some Scandinavian countries burn only softwood. As long as it is dry (seasoned) it’ll burn without problem. Pallet wood tends to be very dry.

“What about the spacer blocks that are mae of compressed woodchip”

Thats all ukheatlogs are made of…….possibly a different glue mind…

Chicken Bones burn ok, but lamb bones take a bit of work.

Does anyone have any experience of human bones?

Just thinking ahead…

😉

Only used to avoid it at my parents as the range would produce huge volumes of ash that was used for filling holes in the lane.
Burn quite a few fence posts at ours as the ash doesn’t go anywhere it’ll be driven over.

6 years on never had a nail explode the only issue is they can make it hard to pull the ash tray out .

I only use pallets as kindling plus a corner block to get the stove going, then on with the seasoned wood.

UK heat logs don’t use glue, its just compressed wood chips. The wood they use to make the chips is another matter. It’s all sorts of rubbish. I know two lads who work there. They use the logs the same way I use pallet corner blocks.

Put a new roof on the house and put the old one nails and all through the stove some over 6 inch no problems .. got two year of wood out of the roof…big house mind 147msq roof was oak to burnt really slow.

Bbs.

Im not a woodsnob must burn hard wood kinda guy.

I found ukheatlogs to be efficient , long lasting and **** warm.

They are expemsive per log but **** me each one lasts and gives out loads of heat, but my wood supplies are still cheaper to burn. The ukheatlogs are a slow expensive way of starting fires though i found even chopped up into disks as per their instructions . Propper kindling works better imo.

We’ve been slowly working our way through 48bags (960kg) of heat logs from Durham Heat Logs; they had on offer on over the summer – buy one get one half price so we went halves with some friends. I’d happily get the same again for next winter.

As trail_rat says heat logs are crap at getting a fire started but once the fire is going using other means they burn away for ages and produce lots of heat.

Does anyone have any experience of human bones?

It’s the teeth that will give you away.