Coppice

[hpmer]

Does anyone have experience using coppice as the fuel source for their rocket stoves? Seems like a good match as we tend to have to split fuel more finely than is typical of other types of stoves and coppice certainly seems easier to harvest.

If so, what is your experience? Should the wood still be split to help it dry? How often can a particular stump be harvested? How thick are the pieces when harvested and how old should they be? Any type of wood better than others for the process? Is creating it as simple as cutting a tree and leaving a stump?

Any suggested sources of good info?

[Deleted]

www.thewillowbank.com/willow.firewood.facts.htm
www.woodstovewizard.com/willowcoppice.html
www.carbolea.ul.ie/src.html
www.agriculturejournals.cz/publicFiles/50990.pdf

[pinhead]

I burned sumac in my J-Tube for a while and often use it to start the first fire in my PVDB Batch Box.

It seems to smoke a lot and leaves a lot of ash. That could be, however, simply because my stove is always cold when I burn it.

Willow coppice such as in karl's first link definitely looks very interesting, though.

[Vortex]

I'm self sufficient in firewood, I have about 5 acres of mixed Willow, Hazel, Holly, Oak, Ash, and Hawthorn. When I bought the land 12 years ago it was all in bad shape so I'm still working on getting it back in condition. I haven't coppiced any trees yet, I'm still burning the dead, diseased and fallen, or stuff I've cleared that had grown over the tracks and field edges.
This is my woodshed, the clear plastic corrugated roof is brilliant for quick seasoning of timber. The more you split it the faster it'll season.



Best tools are a small chainsaw and a pair of Heavy Duty Anvil Loppers, I've found the best ones are made by Green Jem:
www.toolspot.co.uk/product/745-green-jem-heavy-duty-anvil-loppers They're a really solid build and will cut upto 2 inch green timber, I used a pair almost daily for 10 years, just bought myself a new pair so I have the old ones as a spare.

[hpmer]

Thanks, guys. I think I will try it but it sounds like I'm 3-4 years out before seeing any results.

I don't have a lot of space so this could be quite useful.

[matthewwalker]

I don't remember where in the world you are Hpmer, but up here in the PNW I have really good luck coppicing with the Big Leaf Maples and Willow, and while not coppice exactly Alder reproduces and grows fast enough to put it in the mix with those other two. About 3 years for any of those to produce 20' tall regrowth somewhere near >4" around for the large ones. It helps a ton to split them, even the smaller ones. Otherwise the maple will stay wet for a long, long time. I have a mix of that type of material mixed with cord wood split that comes from my constant vigilance for more sunlight since I have forest south of me. Honestly, the cord wood delivers a whole lot more fuel for the work put in, but the coppice is good fuel and I find it worth the trouble to harvest. I'll take some photos of some of my coppice stumps if I remember when I'm out today.

[matthewwalker]

I took a few photos yesterday for you Hpmer.

These ones are about 3 years if I recall correctly. Glove for scale...



Same stumps from a little farther away....



And this one which I harvested for the second time last spring. I think this was more like 5 year growth. Some of these were big, it makes a ton of fuel but it was a pain to harvest, thus the trunks still laying there...



Same stump up close...

[ronyon]

Matt, this makes me want to hollow out the center of one and weave a little basket house/tower. ..

[2tranceform]

Feb 12, 2014 18:10:35 GMT -8 matthewwalker said:

I took a few photos yesterday for you Hpmer.

These ones are about 3 years if I recall correctly. Glove for scale...

I am just trying to calculate the size of the trees..... What size of glove is that?


Just kidding man! Thanks for the pictures. This is pretty interesting. I will keep this technique in mind. First, I have about 10 years of wood to clean up before I need to think about coppicing, capisce. Probably some hugelkultur-ing as well.

[hpmer]

Wow, combined together that three year old clump would make a much larger diameter tree than a single stem in the same time period! Of course it wouldn't be anywhere near the same density so wouldn't burn as long, but now I really see how the output can make sense.

Thanks for the pix, Matt.

And what makes them a pain to harvest? I imagine too many uprights in a small space, or is it something else?

[matthewwalker]

Well, it's not terrible. I just get up on the stump and use the loppers on the smaller stuff and then the chainsaw on the larger trunks. What I really meant was that bucking up those little pieces into the proper length is a big task that seems like a lot of handling for every finished piece of fuel. I stack the lengths in a saw buck and then use the saw to cut them to length, but you know, you cut cord wood to length and it's one cut for 20 pieces after you split it. With coppice it's 20 cuts for 20 pieces, and a lot of picking up and throwing little sticks. It's fine, but the reality of heating solely with wood for me is that I need 4-5 cords a year to heat my place, even with an efficient RMH. That's a whole lot of little sticks.

[hpmer]

Makes sense, thanks. Still think it looks quite promising in my situation. I'm going to give it a go and see how it works for me. I use my stoves for cooking and so need a lot less material so this seems like a really good fit.

[oxbowfarm]

I have some willow coppice in my creek, and a few black willow that I have experimented with pollarding.

In terms of the labor requirement, if you build a set a modified buck it can save some picking up time. I've experimented with tying the ends into a bundle before I cut, but then you have to untie it. I've thought about trying a ratchet strap or something, or some mechanism to squeeze it and have some kind of strap with hooks to quickly put around and some kind of quick release? So you could squeeze the ends together, apply the strap, unsqueeze, cut it off the long ends, then carry your bundle to the wood stack and release the strap. I don't actually do this, but it seems in my head to be possibly more efficient.

[stoker]

Nov 20, 2015 18:54:13 GMT -8 oxbowfarm said:

In terms of the labor requirement, if you build a set a modified buck it can save some picking up time. I've experimented with tying the ends into a bundle before I cut, but then you have to untie it. I've thought about trying a ratchet strap or something, or some mechanism to squeeze it and have some kind of strap with hooks to quickly put around and some kind of quick release? So you could squeeze the ends together, apply the strap, unsqueeze, cut it off the long ends, then carry your bundle to the wood stack and release the strap. I don't actually do this, but it seems in my head to be possibly more efficient.

I feel sure there must be an efficient way to do it, something like that.
If the strap is cheap and safe to burn then you could leave it in place, and just load the bundle into the stove as a single item. I've read of someone feeding his rocket stove on bundles like that, tied with string: it worked fine for him (though I forget whether the bits in the bundle were round sticks or pieces split from logs).