# fastest drying wood, OR wood with lowest moisture content...



## Big Donnie Brasco (May 29, 2013)

I am sure this dead horse has been beaten to DEATH on here but I am gonna ask again as I haven't seen a post about it.

As a lot of you know I am REALLY under the gun to get some DRY wood to burn for this coming winter. I have some hackberry, ash and oak that I have split and stacked, but I know the oak needs a few years!

In the next few weeks I am going to cut some dead-standing or down (off the ground) stuff, but what is your opinion about what drys the FASTEST or starts out with the lowest moisture content. I know these two may not be the same species, but if I am short on time this will give me some target species to target.

Thanks again for the free education!

BDB


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## steeltowninwv (May 30, 2013)

ash comes to mind....


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## albert1029 (May 30, 2013)

have cut a bunch of down or dead standing Black Locust that was below 20% at the center of a fresh cut...don't know if this is available to you in KS...Silver Maple seems to dry quickly...


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## bogydave (May 30, 2013)

Soft (Red) maple , ash, poplars

Donn't know the trees in  your area but live trees now, are as full of water as they get.
So any green, fresh cut stuff will take a while to dry.

Most of us cut in late fall & winter when harvesting live trees. (wood is driest it gets then)

Your plan for cutting "dead standing " is a good one for wood you'll burn this coming winter.
It will be as good as you can do for burnable in Nov .

Most everyone goes thru the learning curve for dry wood. 
The wood you have now will be better than any you could buy. It may not be perfect , but will burn & produce heat .
You may have to clean the chimney every 6 weeks or so but you'll get thru OK.

You have the right idea, just running out of time to get wood CSS & dry for this coming burn season.

I'm betting this will be the only year you are this far behind. 
A bit frustrating, but chalk it up as a learning experience.

Might try to get a cord or 2 of splits delivered now. (not oak)

One good thing you have going for you is Kansas has hot dry summers, so the wood should dry quicker than other places 

Good luck


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## StihlHead (May 30, 2013)

Standing snags are a good source of what should be fairly dry wood. I used to leave some snags in case we ran out of wood for the OWB and needed a quick source of dry wood in the later winter/early spring. Alder and grand fir mostly, both are light weight wood that will dry in a single season even if they are cut wet. Also as mentioned by Dave, cut when trees are dormant and they will have less moisture in them. Dormancy depends on the species. Most deciduous trees go dormant when they lose their leaves. Here Doug firs are dormant from November through February and that is a better time to cut if you need to dry them faster. Another tree in California are the live oaks, which have more oil than water in them and so they season in a single year (very heavy oak at that, they likely have the highest heat per unit volume of any wood grown in the US). If you can get conifers, they tend to dry faster than hardwoods. Ash is similar. I expect my cedar, fir and cypress to be dry by fall. Pine is another wood that dries fairly fast, though the heat from it is not that great. Whatever you get, split it ASAP, split it smaller, stack it perpendicular, keep it dry and it will dry faster.


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## Woody Stover (May 30, 2013)

Soft Maple is the drying king of the medium-output stuff, and I'm still stacking live wood for next season. I've found some down White Ash that is still in pretty good shape, but probably drier yet is dead standing with the bark starting to fall off. Also, look for trees that have most of the small branches and twigs gone. Those will have been dead several years and will be drier than something that just died within the last year or two. You might have to cull a little marginal punky stuff off these type of trees but you'll still end up with plenty of solid wood. You might even find some dead Oak where some of the smaller upper branches are pretty dry...


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## Jon1270 (May 30, 2013)

Here's a handy-dandy USDA document, with charts showing the typical green MC of most domestic species.

Among hardwoods, mesquite is hard to beat at 21% MC when live.  Osage orange is at 31%, flowering dogwood 33%, black locust 41%, and white ash 46%.  At the other end of the scale is buckeye, at 143%. 

That said, I have been tracking the drying of a split of elm, weighing it every week or so on a gram scale and calculating the MC.  It has gone from 76% when fresh-cut to 26% in about two and a half months, and the summer heat hasn't even gotten going yet.  So starting MC definitely isn't everything.


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## mywaynow (May 30, 2013)

Cut, split and stack the stuff in groups.  Keep each tree together until stacked and get a moisture meter.  They are cheap.  Check the stuff as it ages and you can burn the lowest stuff first.  You could always keep the mm with you while cutting and only take a certain level of moisture content wood.   One cut, check and decide if that tree is what you want.


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## Ashful (May 30, 2013)

Of the three you listed, Donnie, ash is the winner.  In fact, ash may be one of the fastest drying hardwoods.

Most softwoods (poplar, pine, fir) also dry in less than a year, but.... they're softwoods.  Burn times on poplar are probably only 60% of that with oak.

Every standing dead tree is unique... get a moisture meter for those.


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## Lumber-Jack (May 30, 2013)

I second the motion to get a moisture meter if you don't have one already.
Where I live now i don't have a lot of room to stockpile years and years worth of wood and wait for it to season like so many people need to do. Even to try and get 1 year ahead would have been a challenge for space. So my solution was to find the perfect source of wood that was already reliably dry (< 20% moisture content). I finally found the perfect source of dead standing trees in my area that are < 20% MC, so now I basically just need to cut what I need for the winter in the fall. I probably couldn`t have figured out which trees were good without using a moisture meter.
You likely don`t have the same type of trees there in Kansas, so you`ll have to figure out your own source, if you can.


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## lukem (May 30, 2013)

Ash and black locust are about the best if cutting green trees.  I would focus your attention on standing dead trees right now.  The tops on them are probably stove-ready....the middle may be OK for this fall...and who knows what you'll find in the bottom.  I always like standing dead elm...dry as a bone...no bark.


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## foamit up (May 30, 2013)

Here in Maine because of so much moisture i cover all wood stacks with black plastic just on the top. It sheds the rain and creates heat under plastic when the sun shines. This dries the wood faster.


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## WeldrDave (May 30, 2013)

I get a lot of Maple down here, and it works well. if you can find some and split it down, it will dry "enough" this summer for the winter.
I personally like the rounds 6" to 8" but I get the big stuff and split it up, I try to use that last.
It's not the hottest burning but it'll keep you warm and burn fine.  Try to get it as early as you can, also store it in a sunny and windy spot as best you can.   Good luck


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## CageMaster (May 30, 2013)

dead ash split to a "reasonable" size, stacked in the sun and wind will burn this fall


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## Big Donnie Brasco (May 30, 2013)

All GREAT info! Thank you!
I will be on the hunt for dead stuff, get a moisture meter and also try and get some Osage Orange cut ASAP!

Any recommendations on a relatively inexpensive yet decent moisture meter?

Thanks again!

BDB


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## Ashful (May 30, 2013)

Big Donnie Brasco said:


> Any recommendations on a relatively inexpensive yet decent moisture meter?


 
Lowes, $30. I think it's made by General.  Many of us use this model.


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## WeldrDave (May 30, 2013)

Joful said:


> Lowes, $30. I think it's made by General. Many of us use this model.​


 Excactly! the other "big" home store has it too, they even have one for $19.99, don't know how much good it is though.


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## Backwoods Savage (May 30, 2013)

If I needed firewood this coming winter and had none right now I'd look for 3 types of wood (but you maybe have different trees there). My first choice would not be ash but instead would be soft maple. For sure I believe you could get that ready to burn by fall.

Second would be dead elm. Dead enough that the bark has fallen or at least most of it had fallen off. Perhaps not the entire tree would be burnable next winter but at least the top half would be. This is a good rule of thumb for any standing dead tree.

Third would be ash. If dead, so much the better. But you would still be well advised to split the wood small, stack it loose and stack it where it can get the most wind and hopefully a little sun but aim for wind as the most important. I do believe you folks out there do have some wind so you are in luck there.

Another wood could be some popple. Again, split it small and stack it in the wind to dry.


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## Big Donnie Brasco (May 30, 2013)

Thank you!!

We have been known to get a little wind in Kansas from time to time!


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## Backwoods Savage (May 30, 2013)

Donnie, I have often wondered how much fun it would be to go border to border on a bicycle with the wind at my back. I do notice that rather than west to east, the folks who ride for records in Kansas always go from south to north. I also not so fondly remember last June when we went through during the Race Across America we had an awful wind and, of course, it was south to north while we were going west to east. It was an awful day with 50+ mph wind and 100+ degree temperature. I took one racer to the hospital in Greensburg and he was dehydrated.


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## Woody Stover (May 30, 2013)

Joful said:


> Lowes, $30. I think it's made by General. Many of us use this model.


I don't know if I'm accidentally turning it on or what, but mine eats batteries like crazy....


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## Paulywalnut (May 30, 2013)

Woody Stover said:


> I don't know if I'm accidentally turning it on or what, but mine eats batteries like crazy....


is it a 9 volt Woody?


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## ansehnlich1 (May 30, 2013)

I split some soakin' wet elm that was downed by the power company a couple weeks back and it's dryin' real nice.


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## Ashful (May 30, 2013)

Still using the original battery in mine, but only a year old.


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## DexterDay (May 30, 2013)

Silver Maple was my fastest. Measured with MM.. Then cherry and ash (both almost tied). 

As you said, dead is better. But if alive? Silver Maple (soft) is king in my opinion. I burned quite a bit of it and had great results. I even spilt a lot in 6x6's and from Apr-May to burn season, it was fantastic!


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## Ashful (May 30, 2013)

The OP lives in Kansas, and _most _sites I check show the silver maple and red maple as not typically growing in Kansas.  Have you seen any silver maple in your neck of the woods, Donnie?


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## Big Donnie Brasco (May 31, 2013)

you guys are WAY better than the "googles" !!


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## Big Donnie Brasco (May 31, 2013)

Joful said:


> The OP lives in Kansas, and _most _sites I check show the silver maple and red maple as not typically growing in Kansas. Have you seen any silver maple in your neck of the woods, Donnie?


 

I'm not sure I would know a Silver Maple from a rose bush!!  

I am having a HELL of a time with tree id !!


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## thewoodlands (May 31, 2013)

Big Donnie Brasco said:


> I'm not sure I would know a Silver Maple from a rose bush!!
> 
> I am having a HELL of a time with tree id !!


 http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/maple-tree-identification.php

Keep it in your favs.


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## Jon1270 (May 31, 2013)

Big Donnie Brasco said:


> I am having a HELL of a time with tree id !!


 
Don't feel bad, there are hundreds of species and each one has a lot of characteristics in common with other species.  To make matters worse, trees can look very different depending on where they grow and how old they are. In winter, you don't have leaves to work with.  If wood is standing dead, you may not have bark to look at.  If you haven't cut it yet then you can't smell it, don't know what color the wood is or how hard it is.  You'll soon be familiar with the most common species in your area, and then you'll start learning more about the oddballs.


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## Big Donnie Brasco (May 31, 2013)

Just found out that I have Silver Maple ALL OVER my town  Every year we have the "Maple Leaf Festival"    DUH


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## WeldrDave (May 31, 2013)

Big Donnie Brasco said:


> Just found out that I have Silver Maple ALL OVER my town​


 Donnie, get as much as you can, "when" you can I burn the S#IT out of the stuff, maple trees here are plentyfull, I guess they like the soil ?  I have about 6+- cord sitting now. I got some right before Christmas and it'll be ready for this burning season, "just barley". Again, as everyone else has said, get it, stack it loosely, in a windy and sunny spot and you "should" have some decent burning wood for the winter.

"as mom says" snooze you loose...... getr  done.


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## BobUrban (May 31, 2013)

BDB - even a bike racer will be dehydrated enough to burn this fall if that darn Dennis would quit taking them to the hospital and getting an IV in em'

A bit of a pain but we all had to start somewhere - if you are cutting a lot of standing dead and you have a CSS system(we all do - just like opinions) incorporate into that system a bit of separation of tops and lowers. You can feel the wood that is getting dryer and it does not have to be perfect but if you stack these separately you at least know the driest stuff to start with and if you run out of that the other will have had more time, obviously. After your first year I have an idea that you will be so far ahead you can stack your wood in buckets of water - you are really into this and I say that in such a good way. Seems to be the way around here 

The first year is usually the toughest but that dead ash will burn and heat and you will be happy. Then in your second year with 2yr wood you will wonder how you even got it lit.


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## blwncrewchief (Jun 1, 2013)

I agree with many here mostly. Dead standing would be my first choice, although a MM is required for this most of the time since you may very well find that part of the tree is very dry and part of it is sopping wet. One big disagreement I have is the BL. If green mine does not dry in one season. I have two cords c/s/s last march/april that checked last week are still  28-34% stacked single rows. It would be iffy this winter at 18 months. Now some BL if dead/dying is much dryer but real live cut BL I never see dry enough in one year.

Live cut in my experience would be silver maple by far if you need wood quickly. Although I will never recommend this another plus for soft maple is it burns so quick and well that a little extra moisture does not hurt it near as much as allot of the slower burning woods. Ash is good also if it is dead/dying. Live and healthy I find needs 2 years because at one year it will still be about 25%. Also many of the pines do as well as silver maple. If you are pushing the drying time get the MM and keep the wood together and do not mix it. I recommend not to mix it as we see many digging back through their stacks to separate it when they find some of it is fine to burn and some is still way too wet. Obviously once you get to 3 years this does not matter near as much.


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## chvymn99 (Jun 1, 2013)

Joful said:


> The OP lives in Kansas, and _most _sites I check show the silver maple and red maple as not typically growing in Kansas. Have you seen any silver maple in your neck of the woods, Donnie?


 


Big Donnie Brasco said:


> Just found out that I have Silver Maple ALL OVER my town Every year we have the "Maple Leaf Festival"  DUH


 
Yes, Kansas has naturally growing Silver Maple, plus a lot of them are yard trees.  Here in the KC area, any time a storm blows through, usually these soft maples are the first to lose their limbs.  The one identification, that I associate, with silver maple (especially mature ones) is that there bark will sliver or start to detach itself from the skin.

Good Luck.


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## Woody Stover (Jun 1, 2013)

Paulywalnut said:


> is it a 9 volt Woody?


Yep, 9V battery. I think I have a NiCad charger around here somewhere that will take 9V, may try that....


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## Big Donnie Brasco (Jun 1, 2013)

I am such a dumb@$$ ... I actually have TWO Silver maples in my yard, and there are THOUSANDS in my little town!!     DOH !!


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## Sprinter (Jun 2, 2013)

zap said:


> http://www.maple-trees.com/pages/maple-tree-identification.php
> 
> Keep it in your favs.


Thanks for this link. I've got about a half a cord of what I think is big leaf maple that has been stacked for a year and it's still at 35%. Worse than oak. I guess all the maples are different.

FWIW, around here, alder and Douglas fir are the best for seasoning. Probably none of that in Kansas, though. Cottonwood (poplar) is sub-par wood, but if it's the only dry wood you have, it would probably work for the first year.

I got this MM through Amazon last year and have used it extensively. http://www.amazon.com/DUSIEC-Handhe...qid=1370152808&sr=8-4&keywords=moisture+meter
About $15 shipped.  Still on the first battery


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## maple1 (Jun 2, 2013)

I'm way behind in my wood supply due to unforeseen circumstances of this past spring.

I've spent a few sessions over the past 2 weeks cutting white birch from around some of our fields - it grows like weeds. This is young smaller stuff, maybe 6" at the butt. Easy to get to & should dry fast. Have a couple cords so far. After that I'll go scrounging some windfalls - there's a mountain of spruce blowdowns down over a hill I should be able to get out with an ATV, for one thing.

It'll be a trade off - whatever dries faster will have less heat in it when it is dry, so you'll need more of it. That's pretty well universal. Better bet would be to find some standing dead or windfalls you can get to. Windfalls are nice because they're already down so you don't have to worry as much about a dead limb falling on you.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jun 2, 2013)

maple1 said:


> I'm way behind in my wood supply due to unforeseen circumstances of this past spring.
> 
> I've spent a few sessions over the past 2 weeks cutting white birch from around some of our fields - it grows like weeds. This is young smaller stuff, maybe 6" at the butt. Easy to get to & should dry fast. Have a couple cords so far. After that I'll go scrounging some windfalls - there's a mountain of spruce blowdowns down over a hill I should be able to get out with an ATV, for one thing.
> 
> It'll be a trade off - whatever dries faster will have less heat in it when it is dry, so you'll need more of it. That's pretty well universal. Better bet would be to find some standing dead or windfalls you can get to. Windfalls are nice because they're already down so you don't have to worry as much about a dead limb falling on you.


 

Good to get that birch but know that you have to get some bark off even if it is only 6" at the butt; split it. Otherwise, just like that bark used to stop water from coming into canoes, it will also keep the water inside the wood. This is why you need to always split birch and do it soon after cutting. Another thing some have done is to take the saw and score the wood in a couple places but this can be a dangerous act!! Beware.


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## brian89gp (Jun 3, 2013)

Silver maple.

In these parts they are a dime a dozen, probably the most popular yard tree planed for any house built from 1940-1980 or so.  Hardly ever find them in the wild.


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