Firing Photos Needed Firing Your Oven Discuss Firing Photos Needed in the Oven Management forums; I'm with Splat on the firewood/snake oil salesmen. Even though this is a small market for firewood, the same is ...

[RTflorida]

I'm with Splat on the firewood/snake oil salesmen. Even though this is a small market for firewood, the same is true here in FL. Seems about 75% or the entire workforce is in the landscaping business, and every damn one of them starts selling firewood at this time of year. If I go on Craigslist there are dozens who profess to have seasoned wood.
I had one nut job argue with me about it. He had logs ranging from about 4" - 12 " (Live Oak), all unsplit, from a tree he cut down "in the spring" (this was last November). Tried to tell me it only takes "one summer" in this heat. What a load of crap. It rains torrentially at least 3 or 4 days a week in the summer, with 70% humidity the rest of the time. An unsplit 12" log will not dry in my lifetime.....I just wanted to smack him in the head with one of his logs.

RT

[blacknoir]

Thanks James, can't wait to see new videos!

The oven is cured.. I've fired it up quite a few times for pizzas.. it just always seems to take a long time and with kids that's not good..

I've got some feelers out to see if I can find someone more reputable to get my wood from.

[splatgirl]

I haven't had to buy any yet but I do not envy you guys that do. The oak we took down was huge, so I have about 2 cords not counting the 1/2 or 3/4 cord I already used this season. I think I should be good for another year. Huge props to my resident ax man for splitting, moving and stacking every stick of it by hand.
I'd say the high end Swedish ax he bought and wouldn't tell me the price of (meaning it musta been a lot!) got a pretty good return on investment.

[blacknoir]

I learned right away not to go cheap on the axe.. course, bad aim can't be fixed by any axe..

[james]

One more thing. We haven't talked about wood size. You can't put those big 8-12" splits in your oven until it is really hot. You need to feed it with 4" splits that catch fire fast and put out a big flame.
James

[blacknoir]

I just started another fire with much smaller pieces of wood over some of my regular sized pieces. I'll see how it turns out.

[timo]

I am still learning the proper technique of getting the most heat out of the wood, too. I decided to split a bunch of wood down to 1-2" pieces. Also thinking about using a grate to help keep the air moving and the wood off of the hearth.

I just want to see flame and not smoke, which to me is wasted flame.

Here's a link to a fire vid I made. Take a look and compare. I think it's too small yet.

Here's some of the wood. The right side is waiting for its day in the oven.