# Types of firewood



## J00x

Can someone explain to me what the differences are with the types of local fire woods here in Portugal? Do some burn longer or hotter? Difficult to light?


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## Maggy Crawford

We burn mimosa or oak mainly but NEVER pine as it can clog up the chimney with resin.


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## paramonte

Some Types:

Azinho : the best, burns slowly and hot, available mostly in the Alentejo area; price range 14 to 17 cents/kilo depending on the area

Sobro: The second best (this wood comes from cork trees) burns slowly and hot, price rang: normally 3 or 4 cents lower than Azinho

Oliveira: wood from the olive trees. Burns a bit faster then the previous ones, but hotter. Normally preferred for masonry wood stoves for cooking. Price range: normally 3 or 4 cents lower than Sobro

Pine wood: controversial, some wood burners manufactures do not recommend using it because creates more creosote than the previous mentioned wood types. Others say that because pine wood burns faster, creosote creation is offset by this. Burns really fast, so compared to Azinho and Sobro not as good. Some say that if you burn pine you should clean your chimney more frequently. It is up to you. Pine wood is dead cheap : less than 10 cents a kilo.

Eucaliptus: ignates fast, burns fast , widely available dead cheap as pine.

Many others I haven´t used.


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## J00x

Thank you for the info and the tips that helps allot.


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## travelling-man

People have quite rightly warned about pine because of the tar like substance it creates & it's an absolute nightmare to get rid of but let me add unseasoned olive to that list........ If olive is properly seasoned it's fine but unseasoned olive will create the same problem. 

Or at least it did for me.


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## paramonte

All burning wood types creates creosote 
Pine creates more. Generally conifers do so. 

Burning wood for cooking and heating is part of the way of life of this country for centuries in the countryside.

The wide availability of pine made it one of the most used.

In open fires (Lareira) that people uses for heating (and in the past for cooking as well) the exhaust flue was in a straight line from the fire. If too much creosote is accumulated direct flames can ignite it, and an explosion may happen and has happen. Dangerous.

For inserts (recuperadores) or salamandras wood burners the flue is not in a straight line with the fire, to increase efficiency and to be able to control the fire intensity. So creosote ignition is less common but it may happen.

Bear in mind that any wood will create creosote, so the hazard is always there even if theoretically.

In my opinion if you have a recuperador or salamandra and you clean your chimney regularly the chances of such an accident are very slim, and for heavy pine users sweeping the chimney every 3 months. But this is my opinion, disclaimer here!!


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## J00x

Great thanks for the info everyone.


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