Electric Heater Tactics

[Connor]

I recently purchased my first order of Oud wood. After some reasearch, I thought I would try something well priced in order to be better able to judge the complexities of more expensive material. Anyway, my 1/2 tola of Southern Thai arrived today.
Now...I have two burners. One is the original "Made in India" heater from Mermade (The one with a handle). The other is Mermade's brand new Golden Lotus burner.

Sadly, I have been trying to burn this wood for the better part of an afternoon, all to no avail. Even on high, and with the hotplates removed, I am either getting no scent, or a very pronounced and unpleasant burnt wood odor. This is somewhat surprising, as I am a longtime burner of things like Frankincense, Labdanum, Sandalwood, and pretty much everything else know in the aromatic community.

Could the wood be bad?
Or is some more detailed process involved in the burning of Oud that I am not aware of?
I know these heaters should work, as I have heard of many other successful reports.
Soon I will be trying some on my coals, but I thought It would be beneficial to try and aggregate information about using electric heaters here for myself and others to see.

 

[Thomas S.]

Hi Connor,

it is hard to tell what the issue is here. In order to try if the wood is faulty (I doubt it!) you should take a longer piece and gently warm that with a lighter (i.e. a direct open flame).
You will need to hold the wood about 2-3 inches away from the flame. Once you see the formation of bubbling resin you will also be able to perceive the scent of the wood.
But make sure you are not burning the wood (the heated resin can catch fire quite easily!).

For the heaters, I would recommend that you take a sharp pointy knife and slice the wood into smaller splinters. The overall size of a chip to be burned should be about the size of a fingernail, and as thick as a fingernail (i.e. the wood should be thin). If the wood is too thick, the resin and its scent won´t be easily released, or if it is released, it is only once the wood is already burned...

However, even with a smaller size of the chips, you will have to experiment with the correct setting of your burners.
Just remember: practice makes perfect ;-)

Kind regards,
Thomas S.

I recently purchased my first order of Oud wood. After some reasearch, I thought I would try something well priced in order to be better able to judge the complexities of more expensive material. Anyway, my 1/2 tola of Southern Thai arrived today.
Now...I have two burners. One is the original "Made in India" heater from Mermade (The one with a handle). The other is Mermade's brand new Golden Lotus burner.

Sadly, I have been trying to burn this wood for the better part of an afternoon, all to no avail. Even on high, and with the hotplates removed, I am either getting no scent, or a very pronounced and unpleasant burnt wood odor. This is somewhat surprising, as I am a longtime burner of things like Frankincense, Labdanum, Sandalwood, and pretty much everything else know in the aromatic community.

Could the wood be bad?
Or is some more detailed process involved in the burning of Oud that I am not aware of?
I know these heaters should work, as I have heard of many other successful reports.
Soon I will be trying some on my coals, but I thought It would be beneficial to try and aggregate information about using electric heaters here for myself and others to see.

 

[Connor]

Thank you for this advice! I just saw in another post that you recently purchased the same wood as I have. Knowing then that the wood is good, I realized I was using pieces that were too large! A sliver gives off the most intoxicating scent if it is slowly heated to between 30--45 on my Mermade heater (the older model).
Now that I have found a good technique for myself, I'm having a hard time being conservative with my wood, haha.

I can also report that Mermade's new Golden Lotus heater truly does not get hot enough for proper oud heating. Sandalwood and Palo Santo work great on it however!

I'm very anxious to try some more chips, but my budget is limited to ~$150 at the moment. Do you have any recommendations? I don't post very often, but I've always appreciated your advice around here.

Thanks again,
Connor

 

[Thomas S.]

Hi Connor,

glad to hear you found the correct sizing and settings for the chips!

Well, it is hard to recommend, but I think you can, more or less, try all the different woods from Oudimentary. I liked the Cambodi Special (which I have recently bought from them). The Indian Assam is also nice, but it is not highest quality- Indian wood of high quality is hard to come by nowadays. This holds true for most countries and regions since agarwood is highly sought after and farmed wood is in most instances not given enough time for enough resin formation inside the infected trunks. Also, the easy money one can earn with agarwood leads to cheating ( paintng the wood to make it look more resinated, r stuffing it with lead to make it appear heavier etc.) With Oudimentary, AgarAura and - last but not least- EnsarOud you have three vendors who will always check the wood they sell, and the stuff they have is always prime quality.

OK, that being said, back to inthe initial question: The Cambodi wood has a fruity scent, which reminded me of drying grapes (just shortly prior to the piont when you would call them "raisins"). It is sweet, like maple syrup, and it has some floral notes. It also has a wonderful "afterglow". This scent can set the mood for a cozy time with your beloved, or for an evening when you entertain guests over dinner.

 

[Connor]

I just wanted to update this thread and say that Oudimentary wood is pretty good!
I ordered a 1/2 tola of four of the highest quality offerings, and the Super Burmi has emerged as my favorite. It has a very high resin content, and seems to bubble for quite some time when compared with the others. On first impression, the initial waves of scent were very dry smelling, and possessed a nutty, spicy quality that was tempered with an alluring sweetness. This evolved to include notes of raw cocoa nibs, and a slight fruity tang of some sort. Throughout the heating, my chip presented a strong and familiar sinus-refreshing bite that is classically oud. At no point did this burn or irritate my nose, even at close range.