# Firewood



## Grimm

My folks are having a 20 year old ficus tree removed from their yard early next week. The arbor thinks it will yield a cord to 2 cords of wood.

My questions are this...

Is ficus safe to use as firewood in my fireplace?

How long does it need to season? I'm not expecting to use it this year.


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## Ezmerelda

I found this answer on line:

Trees/Ficus wood

Expert: Jim Hyland - 7/14/2007

Question
I was told by a friend that Ficus smells like pee when used as firewood. Is this true?

Answer
After the wood dries I would see no problem using it in the fireplace. In fact there is very few trees that could not be used for firewood. Once you get a good bed of hot coals going the ficus wood should do fine. It of course will not burn as well (hot) as say seasoned oak.
Most trees that are not dried for firewood when burned give off odors. Ficus is used worldwide for firewood with no problems.

The Link: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Trees-739/Ficus-wood.htm

But it doesn't say how long it needs to season. I'd guess that it depends on how much sap the tree has to begin with.


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## smaj100

I was always taught you can burn almost anything in a fireplace except evergreens (pine and such) as the amount of tar and sap can clog the chimney.

I would split the wood to allow it to cure, stack it either in a wood shed or covered on top with a tarp and allowed to season for a min of 6 months longer if possible. If you leave it just cut up in logs, it wont cure as quickly and bugs are more prone to want to eat it.


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## mosquitomountainman

Grimm said:


> My folks are having a 20 year old ficus tree removed from their yard early next week. The arbor thinks it will yield a cord to 2 cords of wood.
> 
> My questions are this...
> 
> Is ficus safe to use as firewood in my fireplace?
> 
> How long does it need to season? I'm not expecting to use it this year.


This is an excerpt from an article I wrote on firewood.

_Seasoning
Seasoning is just another term for drying wood. When a live tree is cut down, sixty percent or more of it's weight may be water. This is called "green" wood and the moisture in it causes problems when you burn it. A large percentage of the heat must be used to evaporate all of that water before the wood fibers can burn. As this water evaporates it's trying to put out your fire just as if you were sprinkling water on it. You end up with a cold fire. A cold fire not only gives off less heat, it also produces creosote which clogs chimneys and is the number one cause of chimney fires. Wood is considered properly seasoned when the moisture content is reduced below twenty-percent.

...When a tree dries, very little moisture escapes through the sides, traveling instead through the cut ends. The best way to dry firewood is to cut it into stove length and stack it where air can circulate through it. The shorter the wood and the better the air circulation the faster it will dry. It's seldom necessary to season stove length wood longer than six months. However, longer wood may need a year or more to season properly. Unless you live in a climate where rain and high humidity are the norm, covering wood doesn't speed things up much. Likewise, splitting the wood helps a little but again, the improvement is minimal. 
_

Hope that helps.

Steve


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## mosquitomountainman

smaj100 said:


> I was always taught you can burn almost anything in a fireplace except evergreens (pine and such) as the amount of tar and sap can clog the chimney.
> 
> I would split the wood to allow it to cure, stack it either in a wood shed or covered on top with a tarp and allowed to season for a min of 6 months longer if possible. If you leave it just cut up in logs, it wont cure as quickly and bugs are more prone to want to eat it.


Except for the occasional Birch all we burn is evergreens. Fir and Larch are the favorites around here. The keys are to be sure that they are well-seasoned and you keep the fire hot. Green/wet wood and cold fires cause the most creosote. (You're much better off with a small, hot fire than to stuff the stove full then let it smolder for hours.)

We also clean our chimney at least twice during the season.

Steve


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## Grimm

mosquitomountainman said:


> This is an excerpt from an article I wrote on firewood.
> 
> _Seasoning
> Seasoning is just another term for drying wood. When a live tree is cut down, sixty percent or more of it's weight may be water. This is called "green" wood and the moisture in it causes problems when you burn it. A large percentage of the heat must be used to evaporate all of that water before the wood fibers can burn. As this water evaporates it's trying to put out your fire just as if you were sprinkling water on it. You end up with a cold fire. A cold fire not only gives off less heat, it also produces creosote which clogs chimneys and is the number one cause of chimney fires. Wood is considered properly seasoned when the moisture content is reduced below twenty-percent.
> 
> ...When a tree dries, very little moisture escapes through the sides, traveling instead through the cut ends. The best way to dry firewood is to cut it into stove length and stack it where air can circulate through it. The shorter the wood and the better the air circulation the faster it will dry. It's seldom necessary to season stove length wood longer than six months. However, longer wood may need a year or more to season properly. Unless you live in a climate where rain and high humidity are the norm, covering wood doesn't speed things up much. Likewise, splitting the wood helps a little but again, the improvement is minimal.
> _
> 
> Hope that helps.
> 
> Steve


Thanks. My dad was excited about the prospect of giving us wood we could use rather than pay to haul it away. I wanted to make sure it was useable before I hauled it up the mountain.

Love you guys here! Always helpful.


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## smaj100

Mosquito,

How do you clean your chimney? I've seen all kinds of chemical burning type gadgets to "clean a fire place" not real smart on this, and I doubt there will be many chimney sweeps around post SHTF. I live in the mid south so we have plenty of pine, does it require more seasoning time than hardwoods?


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## UncleJoe

smaj100 said:


> Mosquito,
> 
> How do you clean your chimney? I've seen all kinds of chemical burning type gadgets to "clean a fire place" not real smart on this, and I doubt there will be many chimney sweeps around post SHTF.


Chimney brush. Just make sure you get the right size for your chimney. You'll need a few rods as well. measure the length/height of your chimney and buy the appropriate number of rods. They usually come in 6' sections and are threaded to tie as many together as you need.

The entire setup, depending on how many rods you need, will only set you back about $50. That's less than most chimney sweeps will charge you for one visit. Like MMM, I clean mine twice a year; once before the heating season starts and again when we get our Jan. warm-up


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## mosquitomountainman

We do as Uncle Joe says. I also burn the fire pretty hot every morning when I first fire up the stove. (Don't go overboard here and try to make the chimney or stove glow red!)

Don't mess with burlap bags full of rocks or dropping/agitating chains down the chimney. They work (sort of) but can be hard on chimneys and don't always do a good job. Brushes are cheap and they last for years. We have ten years usage on ours and should easily get another ten.

*One caution: Watch out for power lines! Fiberglass rods shouldn't conduct electricity but stay away from power lines ... period! *You do not have to touch a power line to get electrocuted. They'll jump a gap just like the spark plug in your car. Depending upon the voltage they can jump several feet so give them a lot of clearance. We have a steel rod with our brush but we live off-grid so power lines are not a problem.

It's also a dirty job and the right tools make less of a mess.

I seldom cut down a green tree so seasoning isn't normally an issue. If I cut a green one up (usually because it's blown down by the wind) I put it in the back of the wood shed or in an outside stack. IME six months is plenty of time for green wood to dry out as long as it's cut in firewood length (16 inches for us) and gets good air circulation.

I can tell pretty quick if it's seasoned by splitting it. Wet pine is spongy and a real pain to split. (I split our wood using a splitting maul.) I've also found that green-cut pine will have more resin in it. The pitch seeps out the ends and makes the wood sticky. IME this doesn't cause creosote buildup but does make the wood ignite easier and burn hotter. Another way to tell is by weight. This takes some experience but dry wood is considerably lighter weight than wet wood.

I always tarp whatever is stacked outside. Our winters often include snow that thaws somewhat then refreezes. If you don't cover the wood you end up with a big pile of frozen together wood if you try to use it around January or February.

My next book is going to be on firewood and will cover chainsaws and their use, seasoning, burning and cleaning the chimney.


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## smaj100

Im familiar with cutting, splitting and stacking it. Did for many years with my father as a 2nd source of income when we were kids. 

I never realized how easy it was to sweep a chimney after I posted this went and watched several youtube videos. We won't have any overhead powerlines at the homestead, so steel, or fiberglass rods shouldn't be an issue. Will definately be making the small investment of a few tools.


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## Grimm

WOW! I also didn't realize how easy it was to clean a fireplace. I will have to talk to the landlords to see if they prefer a professional to come out and clean the chimney. If they don't want to pay then I'll do it myself and charge them the cost of the tools.


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## Country Living

As with the others, we use a chimney brush. We also use a commercial vacuum to clean out the top of the wood stove (creosote settles there also). We use the wood stove to heat the house in winter and we only clean it and the chimney once a year in September (after the squirrels, birds, etc) have had a chance to TRY to get through the chimney cap screen).

I toss some granulated creosote cleaner into the fire a couple of time a week and I think that's what makes the chimney so easy to clean. The stuff just flakes off. As with MM, I also make sure the first fire of the day is hot. 

I spent most mornings in July splitting kindling (using the electric log splitter - I'm NOT out to prove I can split by hand - at least, not yet) and now I have a cord's worth of kindling split and stacked. This week we're moving firewood up from the pit (where we store it) and are staging it on pallets behind the barn to use this winter. Then all that's left is to clean the wood stove.

According to ImpactWeather, this winter is supposed to start earlier for Texas and be a bit colder than average.

By now you're scratching your head wondering what on earth could I do with so much kindling! Those of you with wood stoves know they're more efficient to heat a house and they burn less wood than a fireplace. The kindling lets me get a hot fire faster and I can control the heat of the fire easier (we don't have a damper). Last year was the first year I made a concerted effort to use kindling and I used a lot less wood and had better fires.


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## LincTex

Country Living said:


> I spent most mornings in July splitting kindling


Hmm.... most of my kindling is just in the form of small branches picked up in the yard? (Oak, Pecan, and Juniper/Cedar)

I do like to get pine boards as construction scraps (easy/plenty). I split pieces off of them with my hatchet (REAL easy to do).

I use these to get the fire started - pine slivers, and up to pencil diameter, start with a match, no paper needed. I add a few larger pieces of pine (finger diameter) and then start loading pieces of oak/pecan branches.


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## Wellrounded

Our kindling is always small twigs and branches picked up around the yard. Eucalyptus are very messy. We have stringy bark here, a type of eucalyptus that makes fine timber, burns beautifully and has very thick fibrous bark. The bark, if dry, will light with one spark every time, love that stuff! 
I gather it through the year as we clean up around the place and stack in a small shed, I guess I'd probably use half a ton of kindling a year.


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## eddy_dvyvan

Wellrounded said:


> Our kindling is always small twigs and branches picked up around the yard. Eucalyptus are very messy. We have stringy bark here, a type of eucalyptus that makes fine timber, burns beautifully and has very thick fibrous bark. The bark, if dry, will light with one spark every time, love that stuff!
> I gather it through the year as we clean up around the place and stack in a small shed, I guess I'd probably use half a ton of kindling a year.


I use the same trick, that bark burns real good. Maybe its the oil in it?.
Smells great as well

-------
I use the oxy torch up the flu to set the creosite on fire. And it just burns itself clean. I use thicker pipe than most and i wouldnt recomend it for regular stove pipe. You know when its going good cause it sounds like a jet and flames shoot out the top. Freaks the neighbours out abit though.


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## BlueShoe

I have in-laws that have burned evergreens that died on the property. They have a 12" flue so even when build up occurs it will usually fall off the sides easily. Wood is their only heat. They do clean the chimney more now than they did prior. Once two slabs of creosote fell together from opposing sides of the chimney and blocked the draw.


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## Jimthewagontraveler

Hey Grimm how ya doin?
List of odd things I have burned in my wagon.
Sand dirt or ashes mixed with oil kerosene diesel gsaoline etc.
All of these cause me to dismount my 3'' chimney and clean 2 times per week.
I clean by placing in a bucket of ash and pouring flamable liquid down from top and lighting the bottem on fire.
It roars like a small jet engine.
Wax burns well if I can find paper to act like a wick
Any kind of wood seasoned or not unseasoned gets burned out real hot till I have nothing but a huge bed of coals.
Any wood that has the bark falling off I will trust a bit more.
Dung horse cow or whatever [my least favorite] it is smokey no matter what I do.
Twisted grass burns hot fast and short but Im warm no clogs from that but I do burn with the door open and sitting in the chair.
With a bucket of water.
Remember my stove is tiny tiny and my insulation is zero.
And my pipe is truck exhaust.
I think if you have a good chimney and keep it clean you should be able to burn anything.


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