Pi$$y wood???

[Timberwerks]

Hi Guy's

I started getting calls for firewood and one person said make sure you don't bring me any pissy wood. I know some woods will have a odor when burned but what are the most common? How can I avoided pissy wood? I have heard Elm called pith Elm but being in Wisconsin most of the trees I am getting are Elm so I hope they will be ok.

Dale

[sprucebunny]

Red oak has a noticable odor.Wet wood smells.

[Timberwerks]

Yes, Red Oak smells poopy :D. My wife walked in the garage at one time when I had some Red Oak freshly cut. She didn't belive me when I said it was the wood.

Dale

[Tom]

Mine makes me undress outside when I've been cutting Live Oak, Water or Laurel Oak.   :D

[beenthere]

If the wood is dry, I don't think it will smell bad. Wet wood can smell, and oak that is infected with bacteria can REALLY smell.
I understand, infected (with bacteria) oak lumber should be kiln dried on a different schedule than the uninfected oak, because it is higher in green moisture content, and will collapse if dried too fast. The smell is one of the identifying factors, I hear.

[Woodcarver]

I don't recall ever noticing much odor from the elm we cut for firewood. It is dry, though, when we cut it.  The trees we cut have died from Dutch elm disease.  We let them stand until the bark is shed.  Find a few morels around them and the wood is dry enough to put in the basement and burn. Wet green elm might be another story.

The black oak I'm bucking up and splitting right now definitely has an odor.  I would describe it as a sour smell. Downwind from the pile it is noticeable for some distance.  Fortunately, the odor disappears as the wood drys.

                Woodcarver  

[Wes]

 Has anyone ever smelled alanthus ? not shore of spelling.But I know that when its cut or chiped it shore does stink.

 And when I dumped a load of chips near my house to fill in a low spot my wife shore was pi$$ed. >:(

[beenthere]

Chinese sumac  (Ailanthus).  Tree of Heaven  :

Yup, stinks.

[TN_man]

Tom,
In a previous thread you said that knots would get real hot on a bare bottom. I was wondering how you ever found that out. ??? I guess I got my answer without even asking. :D

[Ron Wenrich]

The ones that stink in our area are black gum, pin oak, ailanthus, and elm.  

Oak with bacteria usually have a black tint, and is often called mineral.  Most guys don't want it due to color.  I've heard it also has a tendency to break up and develop shake when dried.

You could always seperate your aromatics and charge more.  Cherry, sassafras, hickory and apple are good examples.  We used to seperate hickory and sell to meat smokers.

[SwampDonkey]

 :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I have to shake my head here  :

First off, I think the guy ment 'pithy' and that's a bit misleading. What the guy is telling you is he doesn't want wood that has become spoiled with fungus growing on it. He wants this years cut wood. ;)


sigh...

TN_man.

Talkin about finding out how real hot wood is on the bottom. MY uncle was sleeping in a top bunk in a camp. He climbed down in the night and fell on the top of the camp stove, landing on his butt cheeks and came away with a hot bottom. :D :D

[SwampDonkey]

Timerwerks:

Just relaying a little of life's experiences. ;)

I had a cousin who removed a white elm from his field. He came and got father's tractor mounted wood splitter and  tried splittin it. He bent the base of the splitter with the increased pressure needed to sever the elm blocks. Brought the splitter back and didn't tell dad he broke it, nor did he offer to fix it. Any oneasks me now for a splitter I tell'em I have a daul axe in the shed, just what ya need.

You sure have your work cut out for ya splittin that elm wood. In Saskatchewan I see signs up banning the use of elm for firewood in towns and cities because of the bark beetles carrying dutch elm disease. White elm will spoil fast in my area with large shelf fungus growing out the cut faces. I have some in the shop and had some fungus startin on it there too. Dang stuff.


Good luck with your stove wood.

[Woodcarver]

I don't know which variety the elm is that we have in our woodlot (something else to learn on the forum), but I haven't found it too difficult to split.

For years we split our firewood the old fashioned way, with a splitting maul.  I grew older and our two boys who helped grew up. One day I and the younger of the two boys, who was still living at home, were splitting some box elder that seemed to have grain running in fourteen different directions.  After about an hour of worked that produced more heat than wood, I dropped the splitting ax and said enough of this lets go to town and buy a splitter. I've had a few pieces of pin oak that put the hydraulic splitter to the test, but the elm hasn't been a problem.

Speaking of box elder, there's a wood that just plain stinks when you burn it. We burn a little of it.  Our only neighbor, who also heats with wood, does too so there have been no complaints. :D  :D

[Buzz-sawyer]

If your elm splits easily it is NOT red elm :D :D