Hybrid Willow For Logs?

The last couple of years I've been planting a few trees in the corner of our "large" 2 acre field with the view to making this into a little coppice for firewood and somewhere for the kids to make dens when they're older.

In this little corner there is about 30 native trees, cherry, hazel, sweet chestnut, cherry, etc. But in my fencing frenzy of the last month or so (I'm going to draw up a plan so everyone will know what area I'm on about when I talk about it) I've sectioned off a long strip about 10m wide and 80m long (approx) down the one field to make this coppice area bigger, now needing hundreds of trees.

The trouble is what to plant.

I want to be able to coppice this on a short rotation if possible and divide it up into sections that will be coppiced each year.

My Potential plan for the coppice area (a very rough plan)

I've been reading about hybrid willow and it seems to be the fastest growing tree about that coppices well and is relatively good for firewood and charcoal making. The beauty of growing it like that is the logs only ever reach about 4" in diameter so there is no splitting required.

What I want to know is has anyone else had any experience of growing hybrid willow for logs and what does it burn like on a high efficiency wood stove? Or should I go for slower growing native trees like sweet chestnut and hazel?

Axe Workshop And Charcoal Making Course

This is going to be a long post but I'll let the pictures do the talking!

On this blog I'll concentrate on the charcoal making and on my other blog I'll talk about the axe side of things.

Setting up camp in heavy snow was interesting!

A snowy tent

It didn't dampen our spirits though!

Starting to pack in the wood for the charcoal burn

The compost toilet - almost looks picturesque

The barrel full for the charcoal burn, tightly packed in

Tipping the barrel over the fire (that's why the wood is tightly packed into the barrel)

Some time to roast some chestnuts

Watching for the smoke to change

Stopping the burn with soil

The charcoal the next day cooled and ready to bag up

The group next to a "cord" of wood we'd set up

A great weekend learning some new skills and practising old ones.

It was also a great opportunity to camp in conditions where I normally wouldn't bother! I wasn't cold once so I must have dressed right.

The snow made the course more interesting if anything, hunting for fire wood became harder as was keeping the fire going. I also learnt a little more about making charcoal, it was a completely different way to how my brother and I were making it in a 45 gallon drum a few years ago and it reinforced the knowledge I already had about it.

I love weekends like this! If anyone is interested I really recommend their course - http://www.survivalschool.co.uk/.