As antoher Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
It is my Saxon lines which instill in me efficiency.
There is a quote by me on it.
I have no time for wasted time.
- Lame Cherry
See and some of you thougth I was lying. Oh ye of scant Faith.
In this, I have employed good firewood burning responds best to efficiency. On my lair I have, a lair is my platform where the barrel stove sits, I have my shovel for ashes, my lighter, my flashlight, my utility knife, my stove poker and my Cherry Plumber Lighter Torch.
I also have wood nearby in all sizes and that is what this post is about, wood size.
I sort my wood like a deer mouse does seeds.
I have no idea what other stoves do, no idea what fireplaces are about. This is about the barrel stove and I need an array of tools to make it efficient as all wood is not the same in burning, even in the same race of trees.
The categories I have are:
Twigs
Sticks up to 2 inches
3 inch size limbs
Wood blocks 4 to 6 inches
Split wood of various sizes from eight split, quarter split to split in half.
For light the stove, I lay two 2 inch sticks side by side, then layer on top twigs. I have paper crumpled up under the twigs, then I lay on top of that more 2 inch limbs and maybe a 3 inch limb.
About four paper sheets of newspaper crumpled up and placed on this, and then a folded long newspaper with the end shreded with twigs inside, is how I now light the barrel stove after prewarming the chimney to get draft or else on humid and east wind days I get belching smoke.
You will always get more heat out of twigs and little sticks than big wood. Simple oxygen and carbon fuel ratio proves that. I have to do two burns to get this chamber suitably warm and start generating heat for the house. After that every 60 to 90 minutes I have to feed the baby an assortment of wood.
If the wood has burned to just embers, then it is twigs and sticks and newspaper to get a flashpomt and things fire up again. If things go better in burning larger pieces of wood for longer burns, and I get good hardwood coals, then wood I prewarm in the front of the barrel (not recommended as thsi will start on fire at times, and these barrel stoves need the door cracked from a crack to 2 inches, BRACED, depending on the wind storm outside or the need for oxygen to burn the wood as it is all moody in burning, then I can just lay the wood on the coals and it will burst into flames.
I sort all my wood, as this makes it efficient and I do not have to pull wood out like cockle burrs in things all over the place as the stove is smoking and being a problem at the moment.
55 gallon plastic barrels make good holding containers for twigs and I do burn more twigs and sticks than anything else as fires need kindling and nursing more in these barrel stoves.
My dead brother had a wood stove which I think ran lovely, but that is for people with money. I would love to have some stove that I could pile full of wood and not look at it for 6 horus, but that is not what a barrel stove is. You pile them full and you will have things too hot and probably burn something down.
I have seen numbers of gaytube videos on how to build a barrel, stove but I think all of those idiots give up on the stove as it smokes and they can't figure out how to use them.
Mine I have a half moon of chimney bricks lining it to hold heat and to save the barrel. I haev a grill from a grill to put wood on for air and I did bend that in the heat, so things do get hot in there.
Other than those not included modifications, that is all I have done and when working properly in being tended, it will eat lots of wood and it will heat things up as auxilairy heat.
After vicious HAARP winds, snowstorms and 20 below weather, the fuel guy came out, and put only 150 gallons of propane into our 500 galllon barrel. We saved about 150 gallons of fuel and at 1.60 a gallon that is 240 dollars for a few weeks of burning, and me being up at 1 AM, 3 AM and 5 AM for feeder burns to keep things warm so the house does not cool off.
That is living in real green environmentalism.
The wood if I can choose are widowmakers. That is trees with the bark off of them. No surprises with sap or snapping wood with them and no hard lighting.
I still like elm first. I dislike ash which I have too much wood of as it burns hard, burns long and does not produce the heat I can use in this barrel stove, unless iti s night feedings to keep coals alive.
I'm partial to cottonwood which I tried out. Burns better than box elder, and longer.
Have not tried any prety woods as I can not bring myself to burning oak or maple.
For twigs I love Aspen and Poplar. They burn like paper used to. Box elder is ok too and is what I use most of as that is about all I have.
This recycled paper with ink on it does not really burn. It combust ans produces a snot coloured smoke. Same wtih cardboard which will produce a great deal of flashpoint heat.
The best is that brown packing paper in boxes as it has a low flashpoint and burns cleaner. I discovered that thin cardbord beer containers are very hot in burning, must be the coating on them, but that will get things going in difficult to ignite wood.
That is your milliion, or 3 million dollar information and I doubt any of you are really going to put this into practice except Richard and Stephanie who are in the expert phase of fireplace fires. That is another ball game and my barrel stove would not work in a nice home, unless you want to smell like an Indian tipi all the time. I don't but that is what you do to stay warm.
Think that is about it, except donate like your life depends on the above information as it does.
Nuff Said in another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Amen
agtG
