Choosing and finding wood

[ballard6449]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Scored a pickup load of Mesquite (2" to 4" thick pieces). Client of mine just cleared a pasture with dozer and was piling it up to burn.....
Trying to get out and get another load before it all burns

[sjordan93436]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

I jsut find our walnut to start fast, burn bright, but burn out quick. the weight of the wood is _significantly_ less than the oak.

The oak takes a while. Even after almost a half hour, it is just getting started. When I move the fire to the side, ouch, ouch- it almost dies. But then ! a little later the oven is closer to temperature, it starts and burn hot.

I need to watch two things. When I move the first time, I can kill it. Later, I need to be careful not to overfeed, the fire and the oven can get too hot.

[jwnorris]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

NO, walnut is not bad .. I use it myself. However I can not find it for free.

As for those that are highlighted, I am just passing along what I have heard in the past about the softer woods. Maybe the high temperature would make a difference. The harder woods do have a generally higher BTU rating.

I just located some local olive and used the first batch this weekend. Sure burns HOT.

J W

[sjordan93436]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Walnut is bad? I use it regularly for starting fires. It goes on top some oak kindling (wine barrels from a friend). Then red oak. So it is at least an hour before cooking. the oak starts FAST. A friend has a walnut orchard and has a huge pile of old, old walnut no one else wants. Cost free.

Our coastal red oak is very dense and hard to start. But once it gets going, it is great. (Santa Barbara county)

[maver]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

JW, it looks like the highlighted woods are perhaps the more pitchy woods, more likely to release sparks and heterocyclic amines (carcinogens) when combusted at lower temperatures? Sparks may be an issue in the pizza oven, but I have a hunch the health concerns with some of the highlighted woods may be less of an issue due to the higher temperatures. I guess when it comes to health we'd like more than a hunch though (but that doesn't keep us from eating barbecue!).

Marc

[jwnorris]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Here is a link to a post of mine discussing the characteristics and BTU ratings for wood.

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f2/alder-maple-firewood-2543.html?highlight=wood#post15053

In the lower portion of the post, where BTUs are discussed, those in red are soft woods and normally not used for cooking.

J W

[maver]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

I have plenty of alder and use it for the oven - does not contribute as many BTUs as maple but it certainly works. I tend to use the lower BTU woods as my starter fire where I make up for lower BTUs with volumes of fuel (wood), then use the maple during the maintenance phase when cooking pizza. Maple excels here for longer consistent burn, no sparks. Alder sparks a little. Alder is easier to get burning than maple, which also makes it pretty good as kindling.

[dmun]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Here's a table from woodheat home that gives the calorie content of various firewood species. The higher up the table, the better the wood. The table shows three maples with widely divergent heat values. The stuff we get here on the east coast is great firewood. White (or paperbark) birch is a popular fireplace wood, mostly, I think, because it looks good in the firebasket, and the bark burns ferociously, giving a nice appearence. The wood doesn't give off much heat, but it's not as bad as the conifer based softwoods, like pine and spruce, for creasote on the chimneys. Alder, I don't know about.

[sharone]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Hi There,
I'm new here. I found a source for some of the better woods, i.e. various fruit woods like apple. Was wondering about these other varieties that are easier for me to get in my area? Maple, birch, and alder wood? Any thoughts on these?

[Acoma]

Re: Mango

Here in the Philippines most of our firewood is well under three inches.
We have a lot of Mango, and some Mahagany. We also use Santol and
Nara. These are woods that many of you have not heard of. I beleive that
part of the problem I had/have with my oven is not getting it hot enough.
JJ

I eat Mango and I have had Mahagany furniture

[Mojoe]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Regarding pallet burning, fumigation and heat treating are two practices used in the industry and one reason is not to spread disease/bugs to other countries when shipping items internationally. Here's a link with an example the markings, scroll down a bit: 337 - November 10, 2003-More Information - Institute of Packaging Professionals

Another for the Canuck: Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Plant Health Division - Policy Directive 01-05 - The Canadian Wood Packaging Certification Program

[Archena]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Cool - maybe it was just the salt cedar I was remembering (a wood pile approx 10'x20' went in just over 12 hours - no, it wasn't that big of a bonfire. Pine would have taken less than 1/3 if that).

[Les]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Mesquite is a hardwood so I would think that it would be fine. In regard to cottonwood, it has about 1/2 the BTU's as oak. I burned it here one year and all I got was ash - I'll never cut it again.

Les...

[Archena]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

I've never used an oven (it's on my to do list right after 'build the oven' ) but we had a number of campfires when I was in NM. As I recall mesquite burned really fast - salt cedar being the only thing I've ever seen burn faster. For a sustained fire I wouldn't think it would be suitable - but as an aromatic it is of course great. The problem isn't that it doesn't burn hot - it does - but in order to get an oven up to temp you'd probably have to burn three times as much as you would hardwood or even of a denser softwood.

Out of curiosity - and having nothing to do with your question other than it got me thinking about NM - I wonder how well cottonwood would do? It's denser than mesquite although I don't think it's a hardwood.

Anybody ever use sweet gum?

[ballard6449]

Re: Choosing and finding wood

Has anyone used mesquite? Does it generate the BTU's? We have an abundance of it here and use it for BBQing in the pit