Types of firewood

[macmex]

I'd like to start a dedicated thread, here, for discussion of kinds of wood to use for firewood. Ron mentioned this topic in his Heavyhitter Okra thread, and I thought it would be good if we can further discuss this here. It'll be much easier to find in the future! There, on page 63, we have some very good discussion about the advantages of elm, hackberry and some of the softer woods, etc.  Here, where we live, we have mostly oak. If I could only burn one kind of wood, my personal preference would probably be red oak, as it splits very easily and makes lots of coals. Though, in the other thread Ron mentioned that too many coals can be a problem in the dead of winter.

Here's an interesting link to Zen Woodstoves. Go down a little more than half the page and you will find a great graph which shows advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of wood. I like the rest of the site too!

[heavyhitterokra]

This was a good day to create a wood-burning thread. Our Thanksgiving this year was moved to Saturday because none of our married kids could make it here on Thursday, so I'm busy smoking two turkeys at the same time, on Friday, in a pouring rainstorm.

As George mentioned above, too many coals in a wood stove can pose a heating problem, due to lack of adequate airflow getting up to where your fuel is. Since there is a 100% chance of rain today, the fire I built in my smoker has burned down two times already and the turkey is still not in it. I had to add more wood every time the fire got low, then it would pour rain for half an hour and the fire would burn down again, before it would ever stop raining long enough to carry the two turkeys outside.

Because of all the hardwood I had to load into the smoker to keep the fire hot enough to smoke the turkeys, I had a bed of oak and hickory coals about 10" inches deep building up in the bottom of the firebox. The coals had stopped all airflow to any wood that I added after that point, and all my smoker would do was billow lots of smoke. (No adequate heat was being generated).  The cold, heavy rain was overcoming the heat in my meat chamber.

To fix this problem, I had to take a poker and dig a tunnel through the coals, from the bottom to the top, where the fire could release its exhaust. I did this to create a path for air to flow up from the bottom air vent to reach the logs on top of the coals. (A fire with no way pull oxygen or to rid exhaust will not operate any better than a car with a potato jammed in the tailpipe.) The logs inside the stove have to have adequate airflow, in order to burn cleanly.

Once I cleared an airway completely through the coals, up to the fresh load of wood, it began burning clean and hot again. Within 15 minutes' time, the smoker was the perfect temperature once more, so I could add the two turkeys. (Now, we're cookin'- rain or no rain).

With a wood stove, you can avoid most of your 'hardwood coals choking the airflow' problem, by loading your stove with equal parts, softwoods and hardwoods; like using a 50/50 mix of elm or hackberry, with oak or hickory.

You do this, to create more ash.  As the ash falls away during softwood combustion, it creates airways between the hardwood logs, so they can burn cleaner.

Unfortunately, no softwoods that I know of, are very aromatic when burned, so if you used this 50/50 mix method in a meat smoker, you would ruin the flavor of your meat. In the case of a smoker, a build-up of hardwood coals inside is unavoidable. The only way to resolve the problem is by digging a new airway through your coals, so oxygen can reach the logs that you add to the top.

Once the fire is burning clean again, it will raise the temperature inside the meat chamber. Once the temperature inside the meat chamber reaches 300 degrees, it's safe to add your meat and then, you can close the dampers slightly, to restrict airflow somewhat, as 250 degrees is really the ideal temperature for smoking meat.

If you can maintain a 250-degree temperature inside the meat box at all times, there is less chance of boiling the juices off of the thing you are trying to keep succulent and juicy as it slowly smokes to gain flavor.

Thanks, for reading my comments here. Now, it's time for me to go tend the fire ... Happy belated Thanksgiving all.

[heavyhitterokra]

I made my first smoker from an old 40 gallon hot water tank. It had concrete blocks for legs. I used rocks jammed against the tank to keep it from rolling off of the blocks. I didn't even have a welder at the time, so I cut the door openings using a Sawzall with a metal cutting blade attached.  I drilled and bolted all the doors and hinges on to it.  I used refrigerator shelving as meat racks. I built 1-5/8" Uni-strut rack slides by bolting the Uni-strut to the sides of the drum.  'L' brackets would have worked, but Uni-Strut is what I had laying around, because of my job as an Electrician.  It worked great for about 10 years, before I ever bought a real one.

Next, I made a smoker from a standing 55-gallon drum.  It was an easier build. 

My favorite smoker was about 10' feet long, made of rocks.  I insulated the fire box with Kao-Wool, from the Heat Stress job that I had just finished doing on the Unit II, GRDA Powerhouse, in Chouteau.  The Kao-Wool was salvaged from the dumpster.  Koa-Wool is a brand name of insulation made from extruded ceramic.  It is similar to Fiber-glas, except it can withstand much higher temperatures.  I just packed that around my fire box to prevent heat from cracking my rock work.

The firebox was just two, 55-gallon drums welded together end to end, to form a 6' foot long chamber where hot air ran under the meat box.  There was a steel plate laid over the barrels to form a flat surface.  The steel plate was just a scrap piece of 30" inch cable tray cover.  All the rest of the construction was done with sandstone and mortar.  The meat box had a wooden door, made of saw mill oak.  The meat chamber had refrigerator racks that slid out the front on Uni-Strut glides.  

I built a chimney straight above the fire box, so the smoke had to travel through both barrels, then travel through the meat box directly above the two barrels, to escape from the chimney.  I could smoke two-50- pound shoats (suckling pigs) at once, or two goats, or two deer, or six turkeys, or 100 pounds of Boston butt pork roast at once.  I used to cook for 50 to 80 people on the 4th of July and other Holidays or family reunions.  None of these smokers were store bought.  I hand made each one for a different location as I moved around the State until I could finally settle down somewhere more permanent as I got older.

[john]

Be careful about using refrigerator shelves, there have been cases of cadmium poisoning from this.
www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/1950s-refrigerator-cadmium-on-the-racks.100571/

[john]

This is such an interesting thread, we use wood to heat our house, (a mixture of hardwoods) I never realized that certain types produce more coals than others. Around here most people are burning ash right now as all the ash trees are dead or dying, because of insects (emerald ash borer) and disease(ash yellows) . Ash is such a pleasure to split and burn. Most people consider it one of the best, because it is such a dry wood, people say it will even burn green.

[heavyhitterokra]

To answer a good question posted earlier:  "No, Sandstone will not withstand direct heat of oak or hickory coals." 

I know this for a fact, from picking up acres of red and black, scorched, and busted up sandstone after my dad burned 40 acres of dozer piles to create additional cow pasture. Dad used to say that fire just softened the rocks  for the brush hog.

At one of my boy's birthday party sleepovers, dad lit a wind toppled red oak stump on fire, for a wiener roast.   Since it was late October, they decided to sleep closer to the fire for warmth.  About the time the kids started turning in for the night, the sandstones that were tangled in the tree's roots, started exploding with great force, knee-capping one kid and setting another's sleeping bag on fire. 

At a minimum, I'd expect thermo-induced fractures in your rock work.  Sandstones laid in a temporary fire ring while camping, often do not survive the first night's use. 

On a side note; one of the best, and cheapest charcoal grills I ever made was created, by inserting a 20" inch truck rim inside the top opening of a 55-gallon steel drum.  It was held from falling through the drum, by 5 sheet metal screws placed directly below the truck rim. 

Most 55-gallon drums are 22" inches inside diameter.  So a 20" inch rim is a fairly tight fit.  (The 20" inch rims are 20" inches wide at the bead point).  The outside diameter of the rim is large enough to cover and seal off the 20" inch tire bead.

After inserting the truck rim above the screws, I stood the drum on end and placed a round, grill rack inside the truck rim, also supported by sheet metal screws. Walmart sells round grill racks in the sporting goods and outdoors section.

To keep the coals from falling out through the center of the truck rim, I wadded up old, rusty screen wire, which I later replaced with a piece of 1/4" inch expanded metal. (A lighter gauge would have worked; that's just what I had on hand at the time).

Most steel drums are 34" inches tall, making them the perfect counter top height to grill and cook your meals on top of. Steel drums also make a great inner-form to lay rock work against, making your work look really streamline and symmetrical as you lay stones to match the circumference.

  Following the contour of an inner barrel could even make my sorry excuse for masonry look good.

The air gap formed between the 55-gallon drum and the coals held inside the truck rim will provide an adequate heat shield for your rock work.

Eventually, caustic ash produced by hardwood coals will rust through the bottom of the truck rim, but the outer part will stay intact.  So you might consider filling the barrel with rocks and sand or something to catch your coals 20-30 years from now, when that takes place.  The steel barrel inside will also rust away eventually, so filling it with rocks and sand gives it future structural support.   I've had my truck rim for about 31 years and still use it.  Though I plucked it from the steel drum when I moved here, so now, it serves as a fire ring in our campgrounds.  It still has the original round, grill rack on it. 

I bought my truck rim from a salvage yard in Seattle, back in 1989.  It was once a rim on a decommissioned school bus.  I think I gave $15.00 for it?  I bought my 55-gallon drum from the feed store, for about $5.00  They currently cost $18.00 at the Farmers' Co-op here in Tahlequah.

When buying one of these used rims, the rustier the better.  You don't want chrome or paint on your grill.  But no worries, if it has chrome or paint, both will burn off in a flaming pile of brush.  Old tire shops might also be a good place to find used rims. (Be sure to take a tape measure along on your trip to the salvage yard).  There are several various sized truck rims out there.
 This is the truck rim that I currently use a a fire ring at my campground.  I've had it for about 30-years.  Best grill I ever owned.

 This is a close-up of one of the sheet metal screws that support the round grill that I purchased at Walmart. 

 This is a close-up of the grill resting on one of those 5 supports.

[heavyhitterokra]

Bon,

I took photos of the truck rim grill earlier today, but I didn't have time to post them until just now. You can see details of the grill rack and its supports, in the post just above your most recent reply.

[heavyhitterokra]

George and I used the truck rim grill that I made from salvage yard parts, to boil large quantities of discarded hog parts while butchering our pigs a few weeks ago. The container I used was a half bushel, galvanized tub. We filled the tub with water and boiled the discarded hooves, feet, ears, cartilage, etc., to kill any worms in the pork, so it would be safe for our dogs and cats to consume. The wood I used was dead oak that I cut and split for our campsite this Autumn. The resulting fire was plenty hot enough to vigorously boil the pot, making the contents safe for our dogs and cats.

In normal life circumstances, you would rarely need to boil such a large volume of liquid, but it's nice to know that the homemade grill was up to the task at hand when we needed it to do that job.  It would also work to boil large quantities of water to scald chickens, ducks, or geese, before plucking, and would save you quite a bit of money by not using propane or natural gas as fuel to boil such a large amount of water.

In lean times, such as when we first bought our house in a foreclosure, and there was no propane tank here yet, we used the homemade, grill to boil water to use in washing dishes and doing heavy cleaning inside the house. To accomplish this, we used 2-gallon galvanized buckets that we purchased from the hardware store.

The reason we used the homemade grill, rather than our wood stove, was that it was early-July when we bought the house and it was too hot to cook inside (There was also no air conditioning here at the time).  At night, we boiled water on the grill, in steel, 5-gallon buckets to use as bath water for our family of six.  On average, we'd boil about 30-gallons of water per day, to do our cleaning, wash our dishes, wash or clothes, and to take baths.

A grill that size can also be used when there is no power, such as after the 1999 tornadoes that swept through many parts of Oklahoma, knocking out utilities for several weeks at a time. We've used ours many times over the years, for things other than grilling burgers because the deep truck rim allows us to stack quite a bit of hardwood inside the grill to create a very hot bed of coals. So hot, in fact, that you must take care not to burn the chrome off of your grill rack at times. That's why I keep a stove poker nearby, so I can carefully place the grilling rack over the coals after the initial fire has burned to coals.  That way, I can also remove the grilling rack to add more firewood as needed.

The truck rim without the grill top makes an excellent fire-ring for contained campfires to roast wieners on, or to keep warm on cool Autumn nights in the back yard while making s'mores.  It has many practical uses and has more than paid for itself over its many years of service.