by Ken D » Mon May 29, 2006 12:02 am
Hi, folks....If you can find a fruit wood in your growing area, better than oak....oak is very strong, but if that's what you like, then that's what you use.
Either use the oak sawdust, or pull the bark off your own scantling oak.
Any of the broadleaf trees can be used, but the bark is usually not the greatest. I have used willow, birch, alder, maple, cherry, apple, saskatoon, dogwood, aspen, cottonwood, all de-barked. I have purchased meqsuite, hickory, and 'gourmet' mix sawdust.
Alderwood and aspen are my top guns. When the wood first begins to smoke off, the smoke is blue/grey. As the embers develop, or the sawdust wanes, the smoke goes to white to pure heat. The blue smoke is the sweetest, and the white is the harshest. I try and get to the smoke chamber to add and subtract wood, as the colour change occurs.
Works for me..... your milage may vary.....during a hot smoke format, from atmospheric , to about 60 C.
Best, Ken D
Smithers, BC, Canada.