Cutting BBQ wood with a chainsaw

themidniteryder · Dec 9, 2012

Luckily all the wood I have used was small enough to cut with an electric miter saw. As posted in another thread here in the "Wood for smoking" section I mentioned I own a small engine repair shop and I never even though about bar oil being a no-no on BBQ wood. I thought this would be a good place to add a thought on saw chains. Stihl produces some of the best chains in the world, but they pre-oil each link at the factory. I know we all want the best chain for our money, but I would recommend staying away from the Stihl chains for BBQ wood. In fact I "wood" go a step farther and recommend that any chain be run through several light cuts dry before adding veggie oil to the bar oil tank. A CLEAN bar oil tank and system at that. Better yet, buy a cheapie electric saw and dedicate it ONLY to BBQ wood running veggie oil. Hope this helps the old hands as well as the newbies.

cliffcarter · Dec 9, 2012

All my BBQ wood is cut with a chain saw and I have never had any problems with oil on my cooking wood, this is a non-issue IMHO.

garand555 · Dec 9, 2012

cliffcarter said:
All my BBQ wood is cut with a chain saw and I have never had any problems with oil on my cooking wood, this is a non-issue IMHO.

Same here. I go through too much wood to use anything but a chainsaw.

LanceR · Dec 10, 2012

Like others I see this as a non-issue. The vast majority of the oil leaves with the chips and I really don't think the remainder poses a health issue. I suspect that if this were looked at in a controlled study the conclusion would be that you would have to eat smoked foods in such quantity and at such frequency that potential carcinogens from the smoke particles etc would put you at risk long before the oil.

With that said, the electric saw idea does have especial merit for low volume users.

We heat a large house with wood so although I'm not a wood cutting professional I do go through 18-24 face cord of 24" wood depending on the winter and I used biodegradable oil for years. I used Husqvarna's soy oil based biodegradable bar oil but they discontinued it and the local shops don't carry an alternative and I'd check the labels carefully anyway as some are blends.

If you use veggie based oil one thing you may need to do if your saw sits for a long time between uses is hit the bar with a spray of carburetor cleaner or something similar as the oil gums up when exposed to air for a long time. A quick spray, a gloved hand to pull the chain around the bar a time or two and either a 5 minute rest for the cleaner to evaporate or a couple of throw away disks cut off the log to clean the bar and you should be good to go.

Lance

themidniteryder · Dec 10, 2012

You are probably right about it being a non-issue. having seen this topic in may places it seems there is no middle ground, you are either ok with bar oil, or insist on veggie oil. As far as the husky oil, I just checked and Stens aftermarket carries a biodegradable non-toxic bar oil that is vegetable oil based. A little over $30/gallon though.

LanceR · Dec 11, 2012

The Husky stuff wasn't cheap either. I'm pretty fussy about what hits the ground around the farm. I figure it is either going to be in our water or a neighbors....

Lance

rickw · Dec 19, 2012

I agree, it's a non issue. I've been using a Stihl for years now and haven't seen any negative affects.

flammenwerfer · Dec 23, 2012

I too have never experienced any taste issues by using a chain saw that is lubed with petroleum stuff for chunks/logs of wood used in smoking but have been trying to start collecting saw dust for use in cold smoking and have noticed that the saw dust (unlike logs) does seem to collect, attract and retain some of the oil from the saw. This is coupled with the fact that using a little sawdust smoker (AMAZSMOKE) very small amounts of contaminants would seem to be more of an an issue? I have really gotten into the cold smoking with the little saw dust smoker and am trying to learn more about it, is this a real concern? Does anyone have thoughts tips or tricks about how they make and/or collect their cooking dust? I have access to a lot of woods and want to start building a dust stockpile....

Thanks, Ken K

garand555 · Dec 24, 2012

flammenwerfer said:
I too have never experienced any taste issues by using a chain saw that is lubed with petroleum stuff for chunks/logs of wood used in smoking but have been trying to start collecting saw dust for use in cold smoking and have noticed that the saw dust (unlike logs) does seem to collect, attract and retain some of the oil from the saw. This is coupled with the fact that using a little sawdust smoker (AMAZSMOKE) very small amounts of contaminants would seem to be more of an an issue? I have really gotten into the cold smoking with the little saw dust smoker and am trying to learn more about it, is this a real concern? Does anyone have thoughts tips or tricks about how they make and/or collect their cooking dust? I have access to a lot of woods and want to start building a dust stockpile....

Thanks, Ken K

Well, I would think it could be more of an issue there. It's going to be all about the concentration. Figure that one drop of oil per lb of wood is going to give you a ratio of weight of roughly 10,000 lbs of wood to 1 lb of oil. 2 drops per lb gives you a ratio of roughly 5,000 to 1. 3 drops per lb, 3,333.33.. to one, etc... At ratios like that, especially if you're using a stick burner that is going to convert a majority of that oil to CO2 and H2O, I'm not going to worry. It's not like you're talking about how much plutonium is on your wood here. OTOH, if you're talking about 100 drops per lb, now one percent of the weight of what you are putting in your smoker is oil. Maybe that's not enough to do anything, but it is certainly enough to raise an eyebrow and make me not want to do it, especially if I were using a smoldering saw dust pile that is probably not going to lead to complete or mostly complete combustion.

So, the question is, how much oil actually gets on the sawdust?

LanceR · Dec 24, 2012

flammenwerfer said:
I have access to a lot of woods and want to start building a dust stockpile....

Thanks, Ken K

It isn't sawdust exactly but If you have access to woodworking tools, a power hand planer, freestanding planer or jointer will make a heap of shavings in a hurry depending on what depth you set it for. You can adjust the cut to get shavings from very fine to pretty coarse chips.

I still have most of a trash bag of hickory shavings of the shaper shavings left over from making the cabinets for a hickory kitchen I built over ten years ago. I use it a lot for cold smoking and also pack some in a foil pouch for use on the grill and when I use my ECBs with charcoal and I don't have small chunks around. I use big chips in my Cookshack and split logs in the offset firebox unit.

If you have a table saw that either has a dust collection chute or that drops the sawdust directly under the machine you can make and collect flavor sawdust pretty easily. I have a 12" commercial saw and have a sacrificial face on both sides of the fence so I can run the blade right up against the fence when I need to. If I have a board of something in the scrap bin or on the shelf I want to use for flavor wood I set the fence right next to a blade witha low tooth count (makes coarser sawdust), blow the saw clean with compressed air and start shaving saw blade width cuts off the board until I have the sawdust I need for the smoke.

I'm a finish carpenter and stair builder and our woodlot is a well mixed mature northern hardwood stand so I have ready access to most of the common smoking woods except the southern woods like pecan and mesquite.

Lance

atcnick · Dec 24, 2012

I use organic chain oil

-Nick

flammenwerfer · Dec 24, 2012

The electric chainsaw I use for my BBQ wood is a little older and the blade oiler oozes pretty freely, I noticed when collecting mesquite dust little globs of oil/dust in my collection pile. These were about the size of a bean but very time consuming and not entirely fool proof to cull all of these little globs out of the dust.

Maybe working over a sieve or a mesh of some sort? Hence my curiosity about how others produce and collect their dust. I tried using a radial arm saw but the blade/kerf width just does not produce as much dust as a chain blade.

Ken K

flammenwerfer · Dec 24, 2012

Thanks for the insight Lance, I think I am going to toy around more with the electric saws you have given me some good ideas. Alas I never assemble or keep the various dust collection bags and apparatus on my tools...see if I can buy a replacement parts on line. The planer is brilliant idea for the shaving sizes of chips.

It might also be time to replace the old chainsaw and only use food grade/organic lubricant on the new specilized equipment. Thanks for the insight,

themidniteryder · Dec 24, 2012

How fine of dust or chips you guys looking for? I recently learned about the dust smoker and it sounds interesting for cold smoking, but know nothing about what it requires.

flammenwerfer · Dec 25, 2012

mydniterider, I also know nothing about cold smoking but am a rank novice running wild with a new toy (A-MAZN cold smoker). Aside from legitimate concerns about meat spoilage from the lack of heat, the ability to slap a smoke flavor to just about anything is really cool.. I have now been through preparing the ubiquitous smoked cheeses and veggies and keep coming up with new and previously inconceivable ideas within the world of hot smoke limitations...for example have you ever had a smoked deviled egg?...they are out of this world good and I want to continue to find new things that are complimented by the addition of the complex flavor of smoke. The little sawdust smokers make this possible.

Ken K

cooknhogz · Dec 25, 2012

Regular motor oil in my saws and never lost any sleep if it was going to effect how my BBQ tastes and I cut a lot of wood each year for my cookers. WOW, some guys are putting way to much thought into this.

LanceR · Dec 26, 2012

flammenwerfer said:
Thanks for the insight Lance, I think I am going to toy around more with the electric saws you have given me some good ideas. Alas I never assemble or keep the various dust collection bags and apparatus on my tools...see if I can buy a replacement parts on line. The planer is brilliant idea for the shaving sizes of chips.

The chips from a shaper, router or dado blade work, too. You'd be surprised how many chips a router can pile up when you don't care how clean the cut is. If you use a router with 1/4" bits you don't want to get going too fast or you can bend the shank (been there, done that).

Depending on what size dust or chips you want a router can be as versatile as anything else in the shop. If you took a clean tarp or old sheet and put it under the workpiece it would make collecting the chip pretty straightforward.

Lance

ssorllih · Dec 30, 2012

Almost all of my wood is cut by me with a 36 inch bow saw. It does two important things it provides some exercize to burn the calories from eating my work and requires a very small amount of maintanance. The local power company clears the right-of-ways and I just collect the leavings.

jim s · Jan 1, 2013

Hi Lance, I live in Bainbridge,NY and do some varied wood work. I'm real new to smoking and wonder if I could pick your brain on a couple of things. First off, I never see mention of Maple wood for smoking. My woods are pretty varied, but maple, oak ash poplar and hickory are common. Do I use dry or green wood ? bark/no bark? I was gonna use firewood logs, then bring them down to size on my band saw, but what size am I looking for ? Thanks, Jim S

LanceR · Jan 2, 2013

Jim, we're not too far from each other. Our farm is in Sennett, halfway between Auburn and Skaneateles.

If you look in your grocers cold case you'll see maple smoked bacon and probably maple smoked ham too so I suspect you've had maple smoked meat without realizing it. It is fine for BBQ.

As far as bark, some folks remove the bark, some don't. Some folks think it is bitter. I don't so I don't so I leave the bark on but if a hunk has a lot of bark for the amount of wood I toss it back on the firewood stack.

Use dry wood. Green wood tends toward more soot and bitter smoke.

Wood chunk size is dependent on your smoker and the amount of heat you want. Even though I have more sophisticated options I still use a pair of Brinkmann water bullet smokers (AKA ECBs or El Cheapo Brinkmanns) a lot and in those I usually use charcoal and fist sized lumps of wood for flavor. The offset made from a 120 gallon propane tank gets 12-16" firewood sized chunks. In my Cookshack Smokette I use ground wood chips and maybe a few thumb sized hunks to stretch the smoke out.

From my experience, in a wood burning smoker a smaller fire that is hotter for its size is generally preferable to a larger cooler fire for cooking. Cool fires tend to put out darker smoke and more soot when throttled back. For cold smoking I use a couple of small hunks smoldering next to each other with a little gap between them.

I've never been convinced to use walnut although some have. Other than that, any hardwood cut-offs you have laying around are good candidates. I use poplar for making paint grade moldings since it is available in long lengths and is dent resistant. As a result I have used a fair amount of it for BBQ and it does fine. The most common woods I use (in descending order) are red oak, hickory, cherry, apple and maple. The ash you mentioned is good too.

Lance

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