Cedar shakes?

[Other Fire]

I could possibly get a couple trailer loads of old cedar shakes for
free. Would this be good fuel for my kiln? I did a few google searches
but couldn't find anything. I read about some that are treated, but
this isn't really a wildfire danger zone (Madison, WI) so I don't know
the chances that they are. I usually use kiln-dried dimensional lumber
cutoffs which are about 1" to 3" square.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Eric

[Eric Friedericks]

PS. My kiln is similar to Euan Craig's fastfire, but made with all hard brick.

[Lee]

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 2:51 PM, Eric Friedericks
<ejfrie...@gmail.com> wrote:
> PS. My kiln is similar to Euan Craig's fastfire, but made with all hard
> brick.

Eric,

Euan and I both fired sugi/Japanese cedar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptomeria and also hinoki, which is a
hard cedar. As a wood, cedar should work. I could say much about
shakes cuttoffs. I think it would be worth a try.

--
Lee Love in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a
faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant
and has forgotten the gift." -- Albert Einstein

[Lee]

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 3:54 PM, Lee <l...@mashiko.org> wrote:

>   I could say much about
> shakes cuttoffs.   I think it would be worth a try.
>

This should read "I couldn't say much about shakes cutoffs.

--

[jmar...@aol.com]

Hello Eric, From what I know of Cedar you are going to get a lot of quick heat from it. I do not know about the wood being treated and what effect that would have. If you are using mill ends now I have a feeling you are using the wood as heat and not so much as "painting with fire."  I would imagine a mix of the two would work out great. If you can get some Oak you could use that at the end of the firing for "soaking" the kiln. Oak is not know so much for explosive heat rise, but it builds up some really nice coals. Since you built your kiln out of hard brick I would imagine you after the glaze effect of a slower cooling process which can do some wonderful things.  I hope this helps.  Keep in touch.  Jerrold Martisak of Salem, Oregon

---

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[Shazieh Gorji]

hi eric,

i have used small pieces of scrap cedar, obtained from the lumber
yard. we called them cedar chips...dont know if its the same thing-
they were small 6" by 6" pieces, untreated. we mainly used them at the
earlier end of the firing to gain heat, like salem oregon sugested. we
would use them in frequent stokes to gain heat in the kiln, as cedar
burns fast.

i have also used it to start up a wood stove,but not so much to
maintain heat, rather to sinply get the stove going for the oak and
walnut. it burns very fast...is a good source of upping the
temperature...small amounts of wood...2 minute stokes.
hope that helps:-)

shazieh

--
Shazieh Gorji
www.shaziehgorji.blogspot.com

"Everyone sees the Unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart,
and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has
polished it more sees more - more unseen forms become manifest to him"
- Jalaluddin Rumi

[Paul Herman]

Eric,

We have used cedar and it burns pretty fast, smoky and doesn't coal up
much. The ash tends to produce rather refractory yellow ash glaze. I
imagine we might use it still if it was easily available, but we
haven't run across any lately. Not the best wood, but good enough to
use. Old shingles sound like they might be a considerable hassle just
to handle and process.

I went and cut a pickup load of pine today, that's what we have been
using mostly.

Best wishes,

Paul Herman

Great Basin Pottery
Doyle, California US
www.greatbasinpottery.com/

[Eric Friedericks]

Thanks for the input. It is actually two loads of old shingles from a house, not cutoffs. I think if they seem to be unpainted and in decent shape, I'll have him deliver them here. Free is better than $100 that it would take to get my regular stuff. Hopefully it is worth any extra hassle. Seems like all forms of energy are getting more expensive. I make biodiesel and people used to pay to have their grease taken away. Not anymore.

Anyway, wish me luck. I light the kiln Thursday morning.

Eric

[Ken Pincus]

Hi Eric. We wood-firers use what we have, what is easily available and cheap or free...don't we!

I was basically given about 2 cords of large cedar rounds last year, split them and have been heating my studio with cedar in a small wood-burning stove all this winter and up to now. This was my first time ever to use cedar as a heating wood, and I found it does a great job heating the studio. 

But a kiln is a different animal, and depending on kiln design, I'd be concerned that the cedar will burn up so fast and leave such a little coal bed that you might not have the BTUs you need to get up to temp.  Mixing the cedar shingles with other harder wood sounds like a great way to go.

 

Ken Pincus

Skyline Cat Kiln, Portland, OR

----- Original Message -----

From: Eric Friedericks

To: Wood...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 5:44 PM

Subject: *WoodKiln* Re: Cedar shakes?