quote:
Last time I checked wood burns
now that my jaw is unwired, do I need to come out and demonstrate how to start a fire?
I'm willing to bet that as it is getting colder, and people are trying to build perimeter fires, there have been at least half a dozen attempts to start a fire by putting diesel on something over 4" in diameter then lighting it, only for it to burn the diesel off, and leave a piece of wood that is still cool to the touch.
For wood to burn, two things have to happen.
First, it has to be dry. Nothing ya'll have put onto stack yet is dry, as it has all been felled in the last couple of months.
Second, the timber has to reach a temperature higher than 572°F (the flash point of wood). This is not going to happen before #1, as water can be no warmer than around 212°F at 14.7 psia.
When trying to burn large diameter logs, they tend to slowly smolder as the water evaporates out of them and the outer layers can reach the flash point. This is not what people want to see. They want to see flames. They want to see the white hot center trying to escape its confinement... not a bunch of large logs smoldering and slowly leaning inward.
The key to getting a good fire is to get a good bed of coals. This is where the small stuff comes in handy. As the smaller trees smolder (much faster than the large stuff) they break apart and fall to the ground. This is where your coals come in. As they break apart, the surface area that is giving off large amounts of heat increases. The heat is given off in an upward manner (heat rises) and does wonderful things in the way of converting the water held by the trees into steam (steam can reach temperatures higher than 212°F, and is also dry). As the larger logs dry out because of this, they reach their flash point in a much more uniform manner, and burn as best they can.
Without coals on the ground working to dry out and ignite the larger stuff, this thing doesn't burn. The diesel is just there to get some 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' while the coals are created.