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Fire Pit Logs
That Don’t Spit
At Your Guests

Dry hardwood only — ash, oak, beech, sycamore and birch. No softwood, no resin, no embers in anyone’s lap. Cut to 8–10 inches so it drops straight into a pit, chiminea or brazier.

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The Spitting Problem

Which Woods Throw Embers

In a closed stove, spitting is a noise. On an open fire pit with people sitting two feet away, it is holes in coats and scorch marks on decking. This is the whole reason we do not stock softwood logs.

AshBarely a crackle
The safest thing to put on an open fire. Low resin, low moisture, sits and burns.
BeechBarely a crackle
Behaves beautifully once dry. Part of our seasoned mixed and hardwood loads.
OakBarely a crackle
Slow, dense and steady. Wants a decent ember bed under it before it gets going.
SycamoreQuiet
Quiet and even. Not glamorous, but nothing wrong with it on a fire pit.
BirchThe odd pop
Bright, fast and lovely to look at. The odd crackle from the bark, nothing more.
Sweet chestnutSpits badly
Spits hard even when properly seasoned. Fine in a closed stove, poor near people.
Pine & spruceSpits very badly
Resin pockets that pop and throw embers. This is what burns holes in coats.
LarchSpits very badly
The worst of the lot for spitting. Never put it on an open fire near anybody.

Relative spitting behaviour of properly seasoned wood, based on resin content and how the grain holds moisture. Wet wood of any species spits more than this.

Resin is the culprit. Softwoods carry it in pockets through the grain, and when a pocket gets hot the resin flashes to gas and pops the surrounding wood outwards, throwing an ember with it. Larch and pine are the worst offenders; sweet chestnut does the same thing for a different reason.

None of that matters much behind a stove door. Around a fire pit it is the difference between a good evening and somebody’s jacket.

We sell five woods.
All five are quiet. Ash, oak, beech, sycamore and birch — the top five on that list. Not a marketing decision so much as the fact that it is what Dorset tree work produces.

The other half is moisture. Wet wood of any species spits, because trapped water turns to steam and does exactly what the resin does. Dry hardwood is quiet hardwood.

About Seasoned Mixed
Plan The Evening

How Much For Tonight?

An open fire has no air control and radiates heat in every direction, so it eats roughly twice what a stove does. Most people underestimate it and end up poking a dying fire at ten o’clock.

1What kind of fire
2Hours it stays lit
4hours
3Which firewood
Four To Never Burn

The Cheap Wood That Isn’t

Every one of these turns up on fire pits because it is free. On an open fire in a garden you and everyone round it are breathing the result directly.

Pallets

Often heat-treated, sometimes chemically treated, and you cannot tell which by looking. The nails are a separate nuisance in the ashes.

Fence panels & decking

Almost always tanalised or preservative-treated. Burning it releases the preservative, and you are sitting downwind of it.

Painted or glued wood

Chipboard, MDF, old furniture, skirting board. Formaldehyde, solvents and lead paint on anything old enough.

Anything damp

Not dangerous, just miserable — it smoulders, it smokes, it spits, and it never really gets hot. Most bad fire pit evenings are this.

Seasoned hardwood stacked in the yard
Getting It Right

Four Things That
Make The Difference

None of this is complicated, and all of it is the difference between a fire that everyone sits around until midnight and one that smokes, sulks and gets abandoned at nine.

Build it small first — kindling, then thin splits, then full logs. A big fire built too fast smokes for twenty minutes and annoys everybody.
Keep the pile dry — a fire pit’s worst enemy is a log pile that has sat under a tarp on wet ground all week. Off the ground, covered on top, open at the sides.
Let it burn down — do not throw water on it unless you have to. Water on hot stone or cast iron cracks it, and a wet fire pit stinks for days.
Ash on the garden — cold wood ash from untreated hardwood is a decent potash feed for fruit bushes. Just not on anything that likes acid soil.

There are no smoke control areas in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole at present, so a garden fire is not a rules problem. It can still be a neighbour problem, and dry wood is the answer to both.

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Fire Pit Questions

Before You Light It

What is the best wood for a fire pit?
Dry hardwood, and ash above all. It is low in resin so it does not spit, it lights easily and it burns steadily rather than in a rush. Beech, oak, sycamore and birch are all good too — which between them is exactly what our seasoned mixed load is made of. Avoid softwood on an open fire entirely.
Why does some firewood spit and crackle so much?
Two reasons: resin and trapped moisture. Softwoods like pine, spruce and larch hold pockets of resin that heat up, turn to gas and pop, throwing embers several feet. Wet wood does something similar with steam. On an open fire pit that means holes in clothing, scorch marks on decking and a genuine risk to anyone sitting close, which is why we do not sell softwood logs.
How much wood does a fire pit get through?
More than people expect — an open fire radiates heat in every direction and has no air control, so it burns roughly twice as fast as a stove. For a decent fire pit, budget around a net bag every hour and a half to two hours. A four-hour evening is about two to three net bags, and it is worth having one more than you think you need.
Is seasoned or kiln dried better for a fire pit?
Seasoned mixed is the sensible buy for most fire pits. It is ready to burn, it is the cheapest per cubic metre of anything we sell that is ready, and on an open fire you are not chasing the last few percent of moisture the way you would in a pizza oven. Kiln dried lights faster and smokes less at the start, so it is worth it if your fire pit gets lit at short notice.
Can I burn pallets, old fence panels or offcuts?
No. Pallets are often heat-treated or chemically treated and you cannot tell which by looking. Fence panels, decking and sleepers are almost always treated with preservative, and painted or glued wood releases genuinely unpleasant things when it burns. On an open fire pit you and your guests are breathing it directly. It is not worth the saving.
Do I need to worry about smoke and my neighbours?
It is worth thinking about. There are no smoke control areas in Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole at the moment, so a garden fire pit is not against the rules — but a smoky fire on a still evening in a dense street is the fastest way to fall out with people. Dry wood barely smokes once it is going. Damp wood smoulders for hours. That is almost the whole of it.
What size logs work best in a fire pit?
Ours are cut to 8 to 10 inches, which suits most fire pits, chimineas and braziers without any splitting. If your fire pit is small or you like a neater fire, ash splits down by hand very easily. For a big open pit you can burn them exactly as they come.
Do you deliver fire pit logs across Dorset?
Yes, free across BH1–BH18, BH21–BH24, BH31 and SP6 — Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Wimborne, Ferndown, Ringwood, Verwood and the rest. Net bags and barrow bags are carried round to where you want them, and a ton bag is craned off and set down rather than tipped at the kerb.

Dry hardwood, no softwood, nothing that spits.

Seasoned mixed from £12 a net bag. Free delivery across Dorset, pay on the day.

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