Our loads are mixed British hardwood, and the exact species vary with what our suppliers have been thinning. That is not evasion — a mix genuinely burns better than any single species. Here is what each one brings, and why the combination matters more than the label.
Why a mixed load beats a single species
A fire has three stages and they want different things from the wood.
• Getting going. You want something that catches quickly and throws early heat to warm the flue — birch does this best
• The working middle. Steady, predictable heat for a couple of hours — ash, beech and sycamore
• Banking down. Dense wood that holds through the evening and leaves embers — oak
Buy a single species and you get one of those three done brilliantly and the other two done adequately. A mixed hardwood load gives you all three in the same bag, which is why it is what we sell and what most people actually want.
Ash — the one everybody asks for
And with good reason. Ash is the most forgiving firewood in Britain.
It burns steadily, gives out good heat, splits cleanly and is unusually tolerant of being slightly less dry than it should be — which is why it has the old reputation for burning green. Do not take that literally; it burns better than most species when imperfectly seasoned, not well.
For anyone new to a stove, ash is the species that makes you think you know what you are doing. It is typically the largest share of our seasoned hardwood.
Worth knowing
Ash dieback means a great deal of British ash is being felled. It is why ash is plentiful in firewood at the moment, and why we are careful that what we buy comes from managed woodland rather than roadside clearance of unknown origin.
Oak — slow, dense and long
Oak is the overnight log. Dense enough that it takes a properly established fire to get it going, and once it does it gives back a long, even heat with very little drama.
Two things to know:
• It needs a hot bed first. Put oak on a struggling fire and it will sit there. Put it on embers at nine o’clock and there will be warmth at seven
• It takes the longest to season. Two years air drying is normal for oak, against about one for ash. That is why oak commands a premium and why delays in oak supply affect what we can sell
Our chunky logs are cut with oak’s job in mind — the same 9 to 10 inch length but two to three times the diameter, so they hold through the evening.
Birch — the starter
Birch lights easily and burns bright and fast. The bark is oily enough to catch from a firelighter almost on its own, which makes it excellent for the first twenty minutes and less useful after that.
In a mixed load, birch is doing the work while the flue warms up. On its own you would be feeding the stove every forty minutes.
It is also the prettiest fire of the lot, if that matters to you. It does to some people, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Beech and sycamore — the reliable middle
Neither is dramatic. Both are dependable.
Beech gives good heat, burns clean and produces fine ash that is easy to clear. It is dense enough to last but lights more readily than oak.
Sycamore splits beautifully, stacks tidily and gives a good moderate heat. It seasons faster than most, so it is often the driest thing in a load.
Together they fill out the working middle of an evening, which is most of it.
The full picture
• Ash — Heat: High · Burn time: Medium–long · Best at: Everything. The all-rounder
• Oak — Heat: Very high · Burn time: Longest · Best at: Banking down overnight
• Beech — Heat: High · Burn time: Medium–long · Best at: The steady working middle
• Birch — Heat: Medium–high · Burn time: Short · Best at: Lighting and fast heat
• Sycamore — Heat: Medium · Burn time: Medium · Best at: Easy, tidy, dependable
• Hornbeam — Heat: Very high · Burn time: Long · Best at: Excellent when we have it
• Cherry & fruitwoods — Heat: Medium · Burn time: Medium · Best at: Pleasant smell, pizza ovens
Heat output varies more with dryness than with species. A dry sycamore log beats a damp oak one every time, which is why we spend more time on moisture than on species selection.
What should never go in a stove
This part is not preference, it is safety.
• Treated, painted or varnished timber. Old fence posts, skirting board, pallets that have been chemically treated. Burning these releases genuinely nasty compounds and can damage the appliance
• Chipboard, MDF and plywood. The glues are the problem
• Old furniture. Almost all of it is finished with something
• Driftwood. Salt corrodes flues and firebox liners
• Household rubbish and plastic. Obvious, but it happens
• Wet wood of any species. Since May 2021 it has been illegal in England to sell wood at over 20% moisture in volumes under two cubic metres
Softwoods — pine, spruce, larch — are a qualified no. They spit, burn fast and leave more resin in the flue, so they are poor as your main fuel. They are excellent as kindling, which is exactly what ours is made from.
Does the wood you burn change how often you sweep?
Yes, considerably. Sweeping frequency is driven by how much tar and creosote ends up in the flue, and that is driven by two things: moisture and how you run the stove.
• Dry hardwood, run properly — once a year is usually enough
• Damp wood, or a stove run closed down — twice a year, and you still risk build-up between sweeps
• Softwood as a main fuel — more resin, more often
• Open fires — more frequently than stoves, because they run cooler and draw more
A sweep costs around £60 to £80. Two of those a year is the price of a third of a cubic metre of logs, which is worth bearing in mind when comparing a cheap wet load against a proper dry one.
Your insurer may also want a sweep certificate. Worth checking before you find out the hard way.
What about briquettes, heat logs and coffee logs?
They have a place, and it is not as your main fuel.
Compressed briquettes are made from sawdust or waste biomass under pressure. They are very dry, very dense, and burn hot and fast with little ash. That makes them excellent for a quick burst of heat and poor at anything else — they do not hold like a dense log and they cost more per unit of heat than loose hardwood.
Our view: a bag in the cupboard for the nights you want heat fast is sensible. A winter’s worth is not.
For overnight heat, smokeless fuel does the job better and cheaper. A couple of bags alongside your logs covers the coldest nights and means there is still warmth in the morning.
The practical answer
For most people a mixed hardwood load is better than chasing one species, because you get the easy lighting of birch, the steady middle of ash and beech, and the long burn of oak in the same delivery.
If you want to steer it, the options are:
• Chunky logs for more overnight capability
• Short logs for small stoves, chimineas and pizza ovens
• A note on the order if you have a strong preference — we cannot promise a single species, but we will do what we can from what is in the yard
And if you are unsure, ring us. It is a two-minute conversation and it is free.