New to stick burning, what part of the tree do I want?

[jmtyndall]

So I've been watching a ton of videos, reading a lot and getting ready to start using my offset stick burner. Taking some advice from on here, I scavenged craigslist until I saw someone offering free seasons fruit wood and jumped on the deal.

Went over there and realized I was staring at what was potentially the biggest pile of wood I've ever seen in my life. Looking at this pile I realized all the wood I've seen people using is split logs, pretty good size like from the trunk or main branches. I also noticed that 80% of this pile was branches 1-3" in diameter.

Beggars not being choosers, I loaded up my car, thanked the lady for her kindness and went on my way. So I'm wondering, did I pick up mostly firewood, or are the sticks just as good as logs for my smoker? Do I need to be more choosy when I buy/scavenge wood next time?

Thanks!

 

[jmtyndall]

Just occurred to me that a picture may be helpful. Here's a soccer-mom SUV full of wood. You can see I got a decent amount of splits, but also the smaller sticks mixed in there too.

 

[mike243]

Small is ok, it will go up quicker so temps might spike so just keep a eye on it and enjoy the free wood.

 

[jmtyndall]

Do I need to knock the bark off before I burn these? Didnt think about that. Some of the splits are pretty heavy. May need an axe to split them further too

 

[JckDanls 07]

Size of splits has a lot to do with the size of the smoker... what stick burner will you be using ?? pictures of it ??

 

[jmtyndall]

My wife scored me a free Oklahoma Joe Highland. I think as far as offsets go, it's small. My completely uninformed and uneducated guess is that pieces around 3"x3" would be the target based on what I've been seeing people use in YouTube

 

[Fueling Around]

You are a lucky husband many times over.
Wife supports your smoking habit, scored you a decent stick burner, and let you use her vehicle to source quality wood.

She may not be happy after I point you to these websites.
https://bbqsmokermods.com/
https://bbqgaskets.com/

Search feature On Smoking Meats is pretty good.
There is a number of threads with enhancements done to OK Joe smokers.
I'm looking for a recent thread that has a great summary.

Myself, I prefer the smaller (under 3") diameter sticks. The bark is thinner so I don't remove.
You have to learn the sticks and splits size that works for you

I made a fuel basket for my offset (Pieces of Sheet metal) Brinkmann. I usually load with 6" length sticks and vary the diameter to steady the burn.

 

[jmtyndall]

Yeah shes pretty good. Supports the smoking habit as long as she benefits by way of lots of smoked foods. Shes become obsessed with smoked potatoes.

Thanks for the info. I used one of those websites for some parts on my vertical smoker. Have some silicone RTV left over that I used to seal the firebox to the smoke chamber and I'll also gasket the cook chamber door since I already know it's going to leak. After that I'm going to do a couple cooks and then see what other mods I might need.

 

[mike243]

I have never had a problem burning bark, in fact I encourage it when grilling, shag bark hickory bark thrown onto a grill when hot grilling any thing will give a great taste if you don't put too much. like any thing else you can over due any thing. on long cooks a lot of smoke needs to be regulated unless you cant get enuff smoke lol , I shoot middle of the road these days, tasting food before it is done completely can taste over smoked but will calm down some by the time its finished and not sure if rendering helps cut some of it down or what.

 

[xray]

Nice score on the smoker and the wood!

On some of those splits, I would split again with my hatchet if I were smoking it. I’ve found it easier to keep a small fire going by adding less wood more often rather than building a huge fire and choking it down.....but that’s just me.

The smaller wood will combust quicker. It’s also a good idea to prewarm some splits by placing them on the firebox.

But you got the smoker and the wood...play around with it and see what works best for you.

 

[jmtyndall]

Nice score on the smoker and the wood!

On some of those splits, I would split again with my hatchet if I were smoking it. I’ve found it easier to keep a small fire going by adding less wood more often rather than building a huge fire and choking it down.....but that’s just me.

The smaller wood will combust quicker. It’s also a good idea to prewarm some splits by placing them on the firebox.

But you got the smoker and the wood...play around with it and see what works best for you.

Thanks, I'll start with sizes as you suggested. A lot of these are longer than my firebox, so I'll have to cut them down anyways

If its well seasoned the bark is easy tobremove and the more you get off the better but don't knock yourself out.

BTW if you're looking for an axe to spit a little wood those Fiskers splitting axes work very well and they're light. Much lighter than a maul. There are a couple of sizes so choose the one more suitable to your needs.

Thanks, I'll look into the axe. Last night while unloading the wood a fair amount of the bark came right off. So I peeled it off and not stress too much about the rest.

 

[banderson7474]

My .02 is that I find it a little harder to light up when the log isn't split. Usually if I buy wood from lowes some of them are full 2-3 inch diameter logs and they don't seem to catch fire as fast as a bigger one that is split. I try to stay away from those now.

 

[jmtyndall]

Thanks for all the help guys! Did a burn in this morning and had pretty good success. I had a lot more thin white smoke (still see through) than thin blue smoke, particularly when I first added a new log. It seemed to burn a bit clearer if I left the firebox clean out door wide open as an inlet.

Also, I tried a 2" round stick and it definitely had trouble lighting. Maybe it isnt fully seasoned. Or maybe it needs some bark taken off. I'll keep experimenting

 

[Fueling Around]

Yeah shes pretty good. Supports the smoking habit as long as she benefits by way of lots of smoked foods. Shes become obsessed with smoked potatoes.
...

Again, a lucky man.
My wife isn't a big fan of smoked meat outside of sausage.

Here's the recent post with OJ Highland upgrades
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/pulled-pork-for-a-party.289568/

 

[jmtyndall]

Again, a lucky man.
My wife isn't a big fan of smoked meat outside of sausage.

Here's the recent post with OJ Highland upgrades
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/pulled-pork-for-a-party.289568/

Thanks for the link, good read and nice to see others have similar issues I do. For one I noticed I have to leave the little access door all the way open. Also I noticed that temp seemed to change pretty darn quickly which I'm not used to. My vertical is pretty slow to heat up and REALLY slow to cool down. Lastly I bought 2 nice thermometers to put up on the lid. They look real good but when I smoked chicken wings this weekend I tried to get the grill up to 350 degrees on those thermometers before setting up my electronic probe on the grate. Well I was burning a ton of wood and struggling to get that hot so I threw the electronic in there and found I had a grate temperature that was over 100 degrees hotter than the lid thermometers were reading (they are calibrated).

Anyways, I'll rely on the electronic and just use the lid to confirm even temps across the grates.