The wood for the 2020 project came from two main sources: from wood gathered from Lains Farm and donated by Mandy Atkinson-Willes (our landlady), and from the East Brothers Timber sawmill near Salisbury.

The wood from Lains Farm is predominately Horse Chestnut, but with some Beech, Ash, and old fence posts. That from the sawmill is mainly Sycamore, but with some Birch and Ash. Much of this is now stacked and stored for use in 2021.

We will also be trying offcuts of Opepe: an African marine hardwood with a high calorific value, and sourced from FSC-approved responsibly-managed forests.

At first we used three-foot lengths of timber, no more than three inches in diameter, but this proved too long for the stoke hole, as the wood tended to burn outside the tunnel. For the larger-diameter timber we bought a log splitter, which could only handle lengths of up to 20 inches, which we found to be an ideal length for the furnace. This produces thinly-split wood fairly quickly, causing us to only use shorter lengths.

We stack the split timber crosswise on wooden pallets to let the air circulate. Most of it we stack outside, close to the shelter, partially covered with sheeting or tarpaulins, although we also take advantage of the warm, dry atmosphere of our studio to dry some of the wood.