# seasoning eucalyptus



## THEMAN (Feb 5, 2010)

Found someone on Craigs list that needed a "branch" that fell from their tree during a storm removed from their property and for your efforts you get to keep the wood.  Well this so called branch was more than a widow maker more like a family killer.  This thing was pretty large.  It had 3 large branches about 14ins in diameter each and about 17-20ft long.  So after a couple of days of cutting, loading the truck, hauling then unloading.  I have about a cord of fresh eucalyptus to split and stack.  My question is how long does eucalyptus take to season?  I understand that it is considered a soft wood, however it is pretty dense and hard when dry.  So I was wondering if it needed longer so season more like oak.  Our summers here are pretty hot 90-100f so I figure from now until Oct-Nov(9-10months) should be sufficient but I'm used to pine and well it dries pretty quick.  What say you?


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## Hunderliggur (Feb 5, 2010)

Send it my way and I will season it!  As a displaced Californian I miss the eucalyptus.  Split it early, when it is dry you probably can't.  It was imported from Austrailia for railroad ties but the twist in the wood makes it impossible to drive a spike through.  I used it for parrot branches when I was in CA and we pre-drilled all of the mounting holes.  Enjoy the smell.  Oh yeah - 9 months in central CA will dry just about anything!


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## r_d_gard (Feb 5, 2010)

I'm Australian and moved here about 3 years ago.  Eucalyptus is not a soft wood.  Whoever told you that is telling you porky pies.  I consider oak to be a soft wood, when compared to Eucalyptus.  You'll want to season it for at least 2-3 years, and that's split.  In OZ, they would season it for a lot longer.


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## lammi66 (Feb 5, 2010)

rayza said:
			
		

> I'm Australian and moved here about 3 years ago.  Eucalyptus is not a soft wood.  Whoever told you that is telling you porky pies.  I consider oak to be a soft wood, when compared to Eucalyptus.  You'll want to season it for at least 2-3 years, and that's split.  In OZ, they would season it for a lot longer.



+1 for Rayza. I have White Oak flooring in the kitchen and Eucalyptus in the living room and it is very hard. We did not have to predrill it, however the lights dimmed when cuttin it on the tablesaw!! Does anyone know where it falls in the btu/cord rating?


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## Wood Duck (Feb 5, 2010)

If your'e in the central valley where it is hot and dry, I'd expect almost any wood to dry in 9 months if you split it smallish. in two years even large splits ought to be drier than any wood east of the mississippi. i don't kow much about Eucalyptus, but how hard to dry can it be? Of course I just read the post from Rayza, so maybe I am wrong...


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## THEMAN (Feb 5, 2010)

Hunderliggur said:
			
		

> Send it my way and I will season it!  As a displaced Californian I miss the eucalyptus.  Split it early, when it is dry you probably can't.  It was imported from Austrailia for railroad ties but the twist in the wood makes it impossible to drive a spike through.  I used it for parrot branches when I was in CA and we pre-drilled all of the mounting holes.  Enjoy the smell.  Oh yeah - 9 months in central CA will dry just about anything!



Thats kinda what I was thinking, with our super hot low humidity summers it should be good enough to burn.  As for the BTU it has 32.5-34.5 mil btu/cord.  I burned some eucalyptus this year and man it burns hot and has some really good coaling qualities, thats the reason I jumped at the chance to get some free.  Here is a link to the BTU info http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/firewood.html

I figured it to be a hardwood but read somewhere on here that it was considered a soft wood.  I didn't feel like researching it, which is unlike me, but I still regurgitated it on my original post.

I read a few post on splitting the stuff and from what I read looks like I should be outside splitting the stuff now before it dries.  I split one round yesterday just to see how hard it would be and well it was difficult to get the wedge going once in it split ok.  Interesting thing about it is I grabbed my moisture meter to see just how moist it was and the center of the split read 32%  the further I went out on the split the wetter it got.  Just goes to show how dense this stuff is not even the water can penetrate deep in the center haha.


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## Apprentice_GM (Feb 7, 2010)

lammi66 said:
			
		

> rayza said:
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Yeah, this little ozzie doesn't think eucalytpus is a soft wood either, although it's not a handle on ironbark. If you guys wanted wood for railway ties you should have imported and grown ironbark, it's what we used before concrete - they have about the same hardness and affect on cutting equipment but concrete doesn't burn as well as ironbark does! 

The btu / cord rating depends on which species, there are hundreds of eucalytpus species. I burn some blue gum and red gum (globulus and blakelyi respectively) and they go great when seasoned for 2+ summers.


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