The best wood to use for a great flame pattern is either ash or beech. These will season within 6 months (generally) and give a bright yellow flame when burning.
Oak is a fantastic smouldering wood and is the best for overnight burning.
The problem with damp wood is this will use a vast amount of energy drying the timber and this will not transfer to heat. The dryer the logs the hotter they burn.
Seasoned wood?
You must use seasoned wood on a woodburner as the stove is controlling the air to fire which enables you to slumber the appliance. If the wood has moisture in it then the fumes when cooling will condensate and create tar. Basically the more moisture in the wood the more tar you will get.
There is a train of thought suggesting that if you burn unseasoned wood very hot then you can get away with building up tar and this is probably true until the wood is burnt out and smouldering.
Processed logs:
Hotties are a well known processed log and is only 2% moisture content. We use these to get a very hot fire base when the flue we are burning is wet from rain and the fuel would not light well.
These fuel types burn hotter than wood because of the moisture content and we sometimes take these to customers houses to show how hot their stove can actually get (always when they have been trying to light wet wood).
Peat:
This is a great burning product but generally a tad more expensive in this country than logs. Peat is usually cut into blocks and small brick size pieces. These can be kept dry in storage ares and will burn very well and give off good heat.
Paper logs:
We often make paper logs. W have a bucket in the kitchen and all our wast paper (junk mail) we tear into strips and put in the bucket with water and a small bit of bleach. Eventually you have a paper mâché product which we pour into the brick maker. This then gets pressed to extract the water and leave a small block of wet paper (brick size) that we remove and leave on slats to dry out. The best place is a greenhouse or shed bad our weather may not stay dry for long enough.
Elephant grass:
This is a really nice product. The logs flame well and they burn superbly giving off great heat. We have found there is a lot of ash remains after burning.
Logs picked up on a walk:
There are apparently laws on how much wood you can take from public areas. Pease check with your local council re their regulations. Really!!! Yes I can't tell you to grab all the fallen wood you can for free and store for a bit to ensure dry and use on your stove as that would be irresponsible of me.
Old fence posts or fences:
Beware any products coated in paint or creosote. Do not burn any of these on your stove.
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