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After reading the notes about the burning process, you will
understand that means less pollution in the form of smoke
and less creosote condensation in your chimney.
The denser hardwoods tend to smoulder more easily
when the fire is lit first, so their flue gas temperature will
be much cooler.
Because softwoods like pine and larch contain a lot of resins and
pitch, a popular misconception is that they will fur up the chimney
with creosote more easily than a hardwood like oak. This is not
necessarily true at all. It is not the pitch that is the problem, Rather
it's the water in the pitch. Once the water in the wood has
evaporated, that pitch becomes high octane fuel! When dry,
softwoods burn extremely hot!
There is also the matter of seasoning to be considered. When you
buy wood, it will usually have been cut in the winter of the year you
buy it. Hard woods tend to take longer than softwoods to fully dry
out.
Softwoods cut in the previous winter should, with proper storage,
be ready to burn the next autumn, where-as many hardwoods may
take a bit longer than that. Oak, for example, is very slow to dry out
and ideally left for two years. It is also possible to purchase pre
seasoned wood.
Summarising we can say that it is always sensible to buy this year
for the next years fuel supply and that it is very handy to have both
soft and hardwoods available. You can use the softwoods to start a
good fire and you will have additional control over the fire (in
addition to the cookers controls) by adding slower burning wood
to the faster burning ones if you want to leave the cooker without
tending it for a while. Alternatively you can add some fast burning
softwood logs to the slower hardwood logs to instantly revive a
fire, which has been neglected.