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Norway's Culture of Firewood

By Rain Noe - February 20, 2013

in Object Culture

A better boob tube?

A better boob tube?

This past weekend some friends and I rented a cabin upstate. As we divided into tasks of food shopping, cooking, bloody-mary-making et cetera, I greedily snatched up the best task for myself: Hauling in the firewood and starting a blaze in the hearth. The wood was already split and corded—I know, lame—but while there were many felled trees on the property, I'm ashamed to say that your correspondent has never even touched a chainsaw, nor split his own logs with an axe.

This cityboy would never cut the mustard in Norway, where more than a million households have fireplaces or wood-burning stoves. And Norwegians presumably do most of their own wood-chopping: Author Lars Mytting's book Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning was a bestseller and, as the Times reports, even spawned a 12-hour-long single-episode television show.

The program was called National Firewood Night, and here's the kicker: The first four hours were all about cutting, splitting and stacking firewood. The last eight hours were continuous footage of wood burning in a fireplace. And apparently it was riveting. Whereas an estimated one out of three Americans tuned into the Superbowl, one out of five Norwegians caught some part of Firewood.

"I couldn't go to bed because I was so excited," a viewer called niesa36 said on the Dagbladet newspaper Web site. "When will they add new logs? Just before I managed to tear myself away, they must have opened the flue a little, because just then the flames shot a little higher.

"I'm not being ironic," the viewer continued. "For some reason, this broadcast was very calming and very exciting at the same time."

Perhaps more interesting is that reality television seems to spawn controversy regardless of the subject matter. "We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking [of the firewood] in the program," Mytting told the Times. "Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down."

Even still, this American thinks it's better to argue about wood than Kardashians.

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LL

11 years ago

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"It should really be banned globally!"

One more person trying to rule the live of others...and commit murder like a Stalinist.

Earlier this month a gardener i know was to put to waste trunks and other minor wood and foliage, the choice was to prepare it for mulch or to burn it.
Since the energy is so expensive because the greens want it that way the end choice was to burn it.
Nice isn't it?
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spelukative

11 years ago

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Ray, If you research the latest in wood-burning technology, you will find that what you've said is not entirely accurate. It's true, old inefficient wood stoves' released 15-30g of particulates out the chimney per hour, and outdoor wood boilers were even worse. The current generation insert I purchased releases only 0.58g of particulates per hour, and near zero CO output thanks to secondary burn cycles and a new generation catalyst that catches most of that. Multiple credible sources will confirm this if you do the research. Regarding older wood stoves, they may put out more CO per tree, but no more than that same rotting tree on a forest floor - the process is accelerated. That whole Montreal situation is not so cut and dry. There are many things that the politicians do not attempt to consider - such the installation of truly modern stoves being a potential solution.
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Ray Jepson

11 years ago

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Burning wood is incredibly polluting. Especially in terms of local particulate pollution (the worst for breathing problems). It should really be banned globally!

Some communities have already banned it. I believe new homes in Montreal are not allowed wood burning fireplaces. Phoenix, AZ too (they are constantly getting fined by the EPA for dirty air).

Having said that, I love a campfire. I probably have stared at one for 6 hours straight and would have continued had it not been for mosquitoes!
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spelukative

11 years ago

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I grew up in the sticks of upstate, and the only heat we had during winter was wood derived. If you live in a rural area, it can be a true lifestyle if one takes part of the lifecycle of the trees of surrounding forests. We almost always cut up and split trees that had recently fallen - mostly because it was easier - and even then a significant amount of time was spent in getting the wood prepped and seasoned for the upcoming (or occuring) winter. Now that I bought an older house in the 'burbs, I made sure to put a fireplace insert (stove) into the fireplace that was available. This increases the heat output efficiency drastically, as an open fireplace's efficiency doesn't get above 20%, whereas the new stove I purchase is over 80% while keeping particulates to near zero. Gotta love the wood - even though I'm not cutting it up myself at this point.
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gmoke

11 years ago

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WPIX in NYC used to run a burning Yule log uninterrupted on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. They may still do.
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Sarah

11 years ago

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Part of the problem in the U.S. is that most new construction does not have a fire burning fireplace. Everything is gas! We love having a fire burning fireplace, but we had to buy (and rehab) an old house to get it. And, honestly, it is mostly for ambiance - the thing is highly inefficient.

We also split and cord our own wood - there seems to be a revival of urban homesteaders that enjoy these tasks.

I think it is fascinating that Norwegians are so into wood burning that they have a SHOW. So, how should you stack the wood? Bark up or bark down?
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bob

11 years ago

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I really wanna watch that 12 hour episode about burning wood- right after I warm up by watching "Empire" by Warhol
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