Wet and Green Wood.

[IntrepidStu]

From "Tom Browns Field Guide / Wilderness Survival" pg 79(bottom line):

"Generaly, wet wood burns 3 to 4 times longer than dry wood, and green wood may burn upto 8 times longer than dry wood".

OK, so what exactly IS "wet" wood. Tom recomends putting a layer of WET wood, followed by a layer of GREEN wood ontop of your fire at bedtime so it will last until the morning.
Can anyone give examples of wet wood (and please, dont say "oak in a plastic jug of water").

Cheers.
Stu.

 

[shaggystu]

ash in a metal bucket of water?

sorry, couldn't resist

stuart

 

[hiho]

my reply to that was going to be a pice of wood in a river.....

 

[bikething]

'green wood' meaning living wood staight off a live tree, and 'wet wood' being dead wood that's damp from being on the ground perhaps?

 

[robin wood]

'green wood' meaning living wood staight off a live tree, and 'wet wood' being dead wood that's damp from being on the ground perhaps?

I would go with that. Bear in mind that whilst it may burn much longer it is going to give out little heat, most of the energy is soaked up in boiling the sap off. My experience is that the best way to keep a fire in overnight is one or two big logs, dry if you want heat overnight wet or green if you don't. Lots of small logs will burn much more quickly whether dry green or wet.

In fact in our household, when splitting logs when we get a big one that wont go smaller than the firebox it is known as an overnight log.

 

[IntrepidStu]

Cheers Guys.
The aim realy is just to keep the fire going overnight so you dont have much to do in the morning. Tom also suggests burying your fire under 2 inches of soil (not sure if he means whilst the fire is flaming or simply the coals!! However, Im not sure that the wet soil in this country would keep anything warm!!

Stu.