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Best Wood for burning in Woodburning Stoves, (Woodburners)
Wood needs to be well seasoned before it is burnt in a stove, irrespective if you have a woodburning stove, (Woodburner), or a Multifuel Stove. Different woods take varying amounts of time to season but, as a general guide, before being used in a stove, wood should be cut to length, split and then stacked under cover (with the sides open to the air) for at least a year. It is then good practice to have it in the log basket, inside the house, for a few days before it is actually used in the woodburner.
If you have your wood delivered 'ready to burn', stress to your supplier that the wood must be well seasoned, as it is being burnt in a stove and, as a way of checking, most woods tend to get splits across the grain on the ends of the log when it is dry.
Conifer wood tends to be rather resinous and is best used as kindling. Nothing, however, beats old skip wood / builders timber as kindling.
If you do a fair bit of slow woodburning, it is good practice to burn a good, hot stove a couple of times a week to keep your chimney dry and prevent the build up of tar.
It is important to use your woodburner regularly for to get the best results from your stove.
Do NOT be tempted to burn unseasoned wood in your woodburner.
As for the best types of wood to burn, in your woodburner, these old rhymes are as good a guide as anything to the best, and worst, sorts:
Alternatively have a look at
this wood as fuel chart
Beechwood fires are bright and clear
If the logs are kept a year.
Chestnut's only good, they say,
If for long 'tis laid away.
But Ash new or Ash old
Is fit for a queen with crown of gold.
Birch and fir logs burn too fast
Blaze up bright and do not last.
It is by the Irish said
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,
E ' en the very flames are cold.
But Ash green or Ash brown
Is fit for a queen with golden crown.
Poplar gives a bitter smoke,
Fills your eyes and makes you choke.
Apple wood will scent your room
With an incense like perfume.
Oaken logs, if dry and old.
Keep away the winter's cold.
But Ash wet or Ash dry
A king shall warm his slippers by.
Oaken logs, if dry and old,
Keep away the winter's cold
Poplar gives a bitter smoke
,
Fills your eyes, and makes you choke
Elm wood burns like churchyard mould
,
E'en the very flames are cold
Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread -
Or so it is in Ireland said,
Applewood will scent the room,
Pearwood smells like flowers in bloom,
But Ashwood wet and Ashwood dry,
A King can warm his slippers by.
Beechwood logs burn bright and clear,
If the wood is kept a year
Store your Beech for Christmas-tide,
With new-cut holly laid aside
Chestnut's only good, they say
If for years it's stored away
Birch and Fir wood burn too fast,
Blaze too bright, and do not last
Flames from larch will shoot up high,
And dangerously the sparks will fly...
But Ashwood green,
And Ashwood brown
Are fit for Queen with golden crown.
