Firewood types

[applor]

Hey guys,

Now with my oven ready to be used, I am sourcing wood.

There is often a lot of gumtree ads for free firewood and also people selling it but I often don't know if the wood is any good for a WFO.

Is there a list/database of Australian woods and their suitability?

For example some guy is offering Fig wood and Mango wood for free but are they suitable? Google search has shown that Mango may be really sappy and as such a bad source of fuel.

I understand the gums and iron bark are good hard woods - though there are so many gum varieties, are they all good?

If anyone here has a link or has knowledge of the good woods, would you mind sharing?

I realise there is a thread under 'firing your oven' but seems to be all American wood so I wanted to post here to get specifics about Australian wood types.

Thanks!

[Greenman]

Re: Firewood types

Hi Applor - Most australian hardwoods are good to burn. The gums are good and they range from Flooded (Rose) Gum being very light when properly dried to Blue Gum and Messmate that are quite dense. There is a gum commonly used in park and street planting that is known here as Kadachi Gum, it grows very quickly has very crooked limbs and a straight clean trunk that burns very well also. It is a pest really because of the leaf dropping capacity, a black sooty material that grows on the leaves and it exudes a substance that causes havoc when harvested by bees.

Most of what I use lately is bloodwood, ironbark, wattle, blue gum and kadachi gum, mangrove, pentel cedar and melaleuka. All of these are well seasoned with some that were standing dead and the rest dried for a year after splitting.

Generally most things are good but avoid black bean, camphor-laurel and highly perfumed timbers as well as anything that has been treated. There is a school of thought that Mango contains something toxic so that may be best left for the woodturners and fig I know nothing about. I expect that there may be a difference between the commercial fruit fig and some of the moreton bay fig/rainforest fig varieties. I expect that prunings from fruit trees would also be ok if they were sufficiently dried.

If you come across something that might be suspect you can always use it to heat the oven and use known/trusted sources for cooking with a live fire.

There are probably plenty more. The difficulty is that many timbers are known by different names in different localities.

Here is a site that lists the properties of some of the locally available timbers but it is far from comprehensive. I hope this is of some use. Whats the Best Type of Firewood? | Firewood Central Coast | Firewood Erina, Gosford and Wyong

[cobblerdave]

Re: Firewood types

G'day
Steve's description of wood is great ... Could not agree more .
Aussie BBQ Forum • View topic - Australian Native Timber Matrix for Smoking
This link was posted by tropical and even though it talks about smoking wood , its a help cause if it doesn't smell nice when burnt, you will not want it.
My personal favorite is " she oak" burns hot, smells great, and gives you great hot coals. It's my all time favored wood for "in the oven fire and roasting" wood. Of course its not commercially available . And as you know its not legal to collect wood in QLD,it belongs to the State. But unless you pull up in a 10 ton truck with a chain saw running.... Most people will ignore you. So you'll get away with a bit of road side collecting.
Regards dave

[Laurentius]

Re: Firewood types

Hi Applor,

Concerning the Mango wood, its related to the urushi tree and like poison oak and ivy when burned will cause, lung, skin and eye irritation. Also beware of the sap, do not use it to start your fire, but on the other hand, when you have a roaring fire in the 400c range there no problems in feeding it to your oven to saturate it.

[Les]

Re: Firewood types

Damn - you guy's have weird tree's on that side of the orb. I need to go there one day and look at them. Might develop a taste for Vegemite as well - not

[applor]

Re: Firewood types

Thanks all for your responses!

Just grabbed some Iron bark today to get me sorted until I can collect and season some free wood.

Also Les, Promite is where its at - vegemite can get lost

[Greenman]

Re: Firewood types

Applor - Promite? Really? Get a grip mate, get a grip. Next thing you will be talking about Nutella!

Some things are sacred.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Firewood types

G'day
Goodonya applor , showing your vegan side, I secound that I like promite too


Vegemite has a lot of other uses.
Black toilet sets favored by government bodies are best. A quick smear of vegemite around the inner edge will leave a black greasy ring on the body of the next user. It is not possible to remove Vegemite from the skin with spit and toilet paper alone.
Vegemite was included in army ration packs during WWII. It can in a small tin like a miniature sardine tin. The remaining rations were issued to school cadets during the 60s and 70s. It was always a good lark to throw a can in the fire when someone stood with thier back to the fire. It was also handy to be able to recognize the more senior officers from a distance by the black stains on thier clothing.
On an Australian warship the junior officers work towards getting thier " bridge ticket" that enabled them to take over the control of the warship without the watchfully eye of a more senior officer. On their first watch by themselves there would usually be some wag who would smear Vegemite on the black eyepiece of the officer of the watches binoculars. After one use the young officer would have a fairly distinctive "panda eye" and would spend the rest of the watch trying to figure out why no one would look him in the eye! And what was all the laughing about.
Foreign visitors are usually horrified to find out of the two most deadly spiders 6 of the most venomous live in Australian. And of the world top 6 most deadly snakes its really only the fourth most deadly the common brown that really kills the most people anyway. You explain to them that Australian have a natural protection in the form of large doses of vitamin B consumed over a lifetime of eating Vegemite. Of course that want to try some , some can eat it most can't.
It's easy you explain to them you can get the same benifit by smearing Vegemite on your skin. Makes it easy to find any lost visitors in the bush , the smell of Vegemite travels a long way!
Regards dave