Paper logs..

[Woody girl]

I have just been given a paper log press. I plan to make some logs with shredded paper and have spent the last few hours shredding piles of paper to make some logs. It was suggested that I add sawdust for a longer burn and denser log. Does anyone have experience of using these? How well do they burn? I will be burning them in a charnwood multi fuel burner.

 

[tiger stacker]

Good luck they take a while to dry out

 

[Woody girl]

I'm not intending to make them untill I am able to dry them in the sun. So that will be in the spring and summer of next year. There is a lot of work involved and I am wondering if it's worth the time and effort to get a reasonable warmth factor. I don't expect them to be as effective as propper logs. But as I can no longer collect and process the big logs I used to due to no longer having a car and my spineal problem getting worse,I'm thinking this might be a viable alternative. I can get my friends kids involved in making them which i can't do with an axe and chainsaw!

 

[Toddy]

I know they're a lot of work to make, and more to dry, but it somehow seems do-able work, doesn't it ? Something that can be done bit by bit as materials come to hand and the weather's reasonable.
I know from friends who burn them that they are best used as a adjunct to normal fuel. Much like our parents generations used briquettes to keep a fire glowing all night without burning expensive small coal. We had neighbours who used to wrap up the vegetable peelings in layers of newspaper and pack that at the back and sides of the fire. It burned long and slow. Didn't smell (though smoke went right up the chimney, so we didn't smell it really anyway). I don't know what all that kind of soot does to the crud that collects inside chimneys or flues though
What does burning wax do inside the lum ? does it make it a mess that needs cleaned out more often ? If not, I think I'd collect all the scraps, from cheeses and candles and use that in my mix too.

I make up old fashioned faggots to burn at camp. Small sticks, prunings from the fruit trees, gathered heather, mugwort, winter stems from meadowsweet, reeds, bog myrtle, etc., and tie them up tightly.
They don't burn quite like a log, but by binding them together, and they dry bound, they do take a lot longer to burn than if the stuff was all loose and put into the fire.
Those might very well be do-able for you too
I craft stuff through the year, my scraps of everything from fungus to barks go into either tinder bundles or into the faggots.

Several years ago I posted a thread on tinder bundles, it's a good time of year to revisit it I think
https://bushcraftuk.com/community/index.php?threads/tinder-bundles.135268/

 

[Janne]

We used to make paper logs back in Sweden ( had a prescription for two daily newspapers).

Had a ‘press’ that took out the hard work, so that was not a priblem. The main issue was the amount of residual ash compared to burning wood.

 

[Woody girl]

That won't be a great problem as I can use the ashes on my raised beds along with the wood ash and coffee grounds that I get from the local cafe .

 

[Janne]

That is what I did too.

Paper ashes are a little bit different, I used to mix them up with sawdust.

 

[Woody girl]

I was thinking of adding sawdust to the paper mix as I have a woodworking friend who has more than he can deal with. I think this will make the bricks burn longer and hotter. A sort of paper and wood pellet mix.

 

[Janne]

Absolutely!

We used to have a Finnish soapstone fireplace ( Tulikivi) that need to be heated up genly, and i kind of felt that sawdust ( various woods) made a to hot flame, so I never mixed.

I did crack a Jøtul in UK. With wood.

 

[Tomteifi]

Hi Woody and any other interested members. I burn logs in a largeish 10.5kw multifuel stove in the winter. I have a woodwork shop where I collect lots and lots of sawdusts from different woods. I burn my sawdust in the log burner but I do it by filling small plain cardboard boxes (no bigger than a shoebox) and add a box or 3 during a days burn with logs. They burn very well, quite slowly and hot and do not suppress the fire which is what would happen if you just add sawdust alone. Its the fact that the sawdust is confined in a box that helps it burn better instead of smouldering and smothering. Try it and see! Merry Christmas all a safe and happy bushcrafting new year!

 

[Robson Valley]

My Dad bought a hand-crank device which would roll up 3-4 newspapers into a tight log.
Then you tie those tight with a single turn of soft iron wire and into the fireplace.
Fairly useless for heating and smouldering in appearance.
Seems he was forever knocking off burnt/ashed layers of newsprint paper.
Nice idea but the fuel value and efficiency just didn't seem to be there.

Most of my winter heating needs are met with a wood pellet stove.
To keep my upstairs kitchen at 19-20C all winter, I burn on average
4545 kg (10,000lbs) in each of the last 10 winters.

 

[Woody girl]

I've tried hand rolled paper logs. OK for starting a fire off but not a lot of use to actually produce proper heat all the time on their own. You need to burn them in conjunction with real logs. I did eke out a small supply of logs one winter with those for a week a couple of winters ago. Had to buy in some coal to keep properly warm. I'm sad to say I'm back to coal again this year as the weather was so good I spent most of the summer out in the hammock or on the motorbike .. often both! Didn't do my usual log hauling . Now the car is gone it's a bit of a job to get logs on the bike! Hence looking at an alternative. I've got plenty of kindling wood ready to be used so now I just need to make a log alternative. Need to renew my log store too as it's about 20 yrs old and a wee bit rotten and wobbly. This is when I miss having a handy chap about the place. It was easy to pick up a few pallets and make a new log store or whatever else I needed. Still when life gives you lemons.... make lemonade.

 

[Tengu]

I have one of those paper block making things. Cant really say how ergonomic they can be.

The blocks sure make lots of ash...I imagine they would be good to keep a fire in all night.

Nan used to make zig zag newspaper strips to start a fire, not much use on own, but good to assist kindling.

in a situation in which you were short of kindling or fuel, and had lots of paper, could be handy.

 

[Janne]

The ash is some sort of clay (?) they use in the paper making I think.

 

[Erbswurst]

When I was a student I tried to heat the apartment with telefon books.
It didn't work. They burned, produced lots of ash but didn't heat.

Today I avoid to put paper in the stove.

By the way: I discovered that if you count 10€ per hour by making your own fire wood in your own forest you get out the same price, as if you order and pay delivered fire wood. Regarding prices in Berlin, which surely aren't very low.

 

[Woody girl]

If i had my own forest.... or even an acre of woodland I would not be making paper logs! I used to work in woodland reclamation. So much free firewood. I used to load my reliant van to the gunnels and take it home to burn. I would spend days splitting logs and loved the work.

 

[Paulm]

That's just what I was doing a couple of days before Xmas, a nice old seasoned oak limb that had been down for a decade or three. A bit of splitting to do next, might need to find a bigger axe !

Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

 

[Woody girl]

So that's where my old chainsaw kit went!........ oh wait... it's under the spare bed. Find me a log someone I'm getting withdrawal symptoms

 

[Robson Valley]

Wood ash, from the hardwoods in particular, is quite high in hydroxide (alkaline) so can be a source of water extraction for soap making.
Mineralized to a fair degree, sometimes an artisan pottery slip additive,too.

 

[Woody girl]

Wood ash, from the hardwoods in particular, is quite high in hydroxide (alkaline) so can be a source of water extraction for soap making.
Mineralized to a fair degree, sometimes an artisan pottery slip additive,too.

I've not tried making soap from wood ash or lye though I have tried using caustic soda. A very interesting science experiment that sadly went a bit wrong as far as a bar of soap went . I made it in a demijon and couldn't get it out!!!.whoops. it realy should have gone into the moulds much sooner. Duh!