Wood fire spiting?

Question

I have an open wood fire. Often the wood "spits" out a spark or small piece of burning wood. What causes this? Damp wood? Sap in the wood? I keep it stored dry and the farm I buy wood at claims it is "seasoned".

Answer 1

it is just moist or sap in the wood, expanding and splitting bit off, you need a fire guard (mesh) or a decent hearth.

It is very normal though, i have some dampish wood sizzling now !!

Answer 2

Wood is rubbish fuel for an open fire.
More and more chimney fires are caused by exactly this reason.
The splints of wood that spark from wood fires (which WILL happen with any kind of wood you use) will float upwards through the chimney as well as outwards. The splints do not always fully burn and will collect on the lining of the flume. Eventually, you will have enough to burn long enough to set the whole chimney on fire, gauranteed !
No matter how often you sweep the thing, you cant get rid of all the splints because they tend to grip.
Hope you have good household insurance.

Answer 3

this is generally caused by pockets of sap or even air in the wood. If you are burning evergreen wood such as pine, cedar, fir, this is very common. Try burning hardwoods such as oak, hickory, madrone. These tend not to pop and spit as much, and smell pretty good burning too. Fruit woods are hit and miss, as many of them are pretty sappy.

Answer 4

It may be they have given you some evergreen wood like pine, spruce or larch - all of these will spark as they burn. What you should be getting is wood like ash, oak,birch or other hardwoods which have been kept as logs for a year. If not they will spit but should not really send off a lot of sparks.

Answer 5

Sassafras wood is probably the source. I t does that , and is the only one I know of that does. I like the noise but the spark screen or glass is a must Some suppliers will let you know if and what percentage their wood is sassafras.

Answer 6

I have a log fire - it's true some logs spit no matter how well seasoned. Just put a mesh screen in front until it stops spitting.

ps. I've never had a chimney fire in 28 years!

Answer 7

You dont say if you are using sticks. I used to find that wood i chopped into sticks and fresh on the wire would always spit, it stops after a while. Oak is good to burn, smells nice.

Answer 8

That's what wood fuel does and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. Seasoned wood will be drier and spit less but your only safeguard is to fit a fire screen.

Answer 9

its gases that build up pressure in the wood when burning , some wood does it more than others , hard woods seem to do it less

Answer 10

its the resin in the wood. make sure its dry before you burn it.