Everyone seems to agree that today's high efficiency stoves require well seasoned wood. How long does it need to sit before it is ready to burn?
tjones said:Everyone seems to agree that today's high efficiency stoves require well seasoned wood. How long does it need to sit before it is ready to burn?
BrotherBart said:However long it takes to get a moisture content twenty percent or less. How long that is depends on where you store it, how you store it and a lot less on what kind of wood it is than a lot of people think.
There ain't no such thing as seasoned wood. There is just wet wood and dry wood.
BrotherBart said:in a couple of years I just may heat all season with pine.
Battenkiller said:BrotherBart said:in a couple of years I just may heat all season with pine.
That's quite a leap from a diet of straight oak, eh? ;-P
BrotherBart said:However long it takes to get a moisture content twenty percent or less. How long that is depends on where you store it, how you store it and a lot less on what kind of wood it is than a lot of people think.
There ain't no such thing as seasoned wood. There is just wet wood and dry wood.
kwikrp said:an old time farmer once told me it is not seasoned until it is split and stacked through all 4 seasons. Maybe thats what is refered to as being "SEASONED" Just a thought !
tjones said:Most of my wood is mesquite with a little oak mixed in with it. Just cut it last month and hoping to burn it this fall. Wanted to get the Lopi Liberty but the consensus on the forums is it is too big for my house of 1500 sq ft. I was hoping that by getting the larger stove I could turn it down and get longer burn times than with the medium size Endeavor.
BrotherBart said:Mesquite is gonna burn hot, fast and explode with popping. Go for all of that scrub oak that is around in Texas.
Mesquite is wonderful for BBQ but crap for firewood.
BB - Who is Texas born and bred for 40 years. And is the cook for the deer camp down there every year. Everything cooked with wood. Including breakfast. Biscuits are a groan on a wood fire but nobody complains about'em if the gravy ain't lumpy and the yolks ain't broken on the eggs.
BrotherBart said:Battenkiller said:BrotherBart said:in a couple of years I just may heat all season with pine.
Of course I don't burn beer cartons, old clothes and other such crap in the new stove like I did with the old one.
BB, This is a stupid question, but I am graduating my sophomore year of burning. I have to do a lot of cold startups during the year, after much screwing around, I found an empty 12 pack box stuffed with newspaper to be a good way to get her going. Is this bad? If it is, I will cease and desist. Your wisdom would be much appreciated. Don't want to be starting a chimney fire! Thanks, Bro.
Having “dried” a bunch of white oak and a bunch of silver maple and a lesser bunch of white pine over the years, I can tell you for sure that the less dense maple and pine dry much faster than the oak, even when stored in equivalent conditions, at least where I live. I used to split and stack them together so I’d get a mix of wood to pick from as I raided the stack, but I often had to leave the oak in place for an extra few months at least, and just pick out the ready-to-go maple and pine from around the still-too-wet oak splits. These days I tend to segregate the stacks into two general groups of species so that I can more easily let the slower wood dry longer.
Mesquite said:BrotherBart said:Mesquite is gonna burn hot, fast and explode with popping. Go for all of that scrub oak that is around in Texas.
Mesquite is wonderful for BBQ but crap for firewood.
BB - Who is Texas born and bred for 40 years. And is the cook for the deer camp down there every year. Everything cooked with wood. Including breakfast. Biscuits are a groan on a wood fire but nobody complains about'em if the gravy ain't lumpy and the yolks ain't broken on the eggs.
I disagree with you. I have been burning mesquite for heat for a lot more years than most folks have been burning period. It does burn hot that is for sure. In my stoves (current as well as past), I have never had seasoned mesquite burn "fast" nor pop to any degree. I have burned a lot of other woods in the past which I found to burn faster as well as pop like an SOB. Green mesquite will pop but that's not seasoned firewood!! Mesquite is not crap for firewood. When it's readly available, you make do. It heats my home at the ranch quite well and has for almost 50 years. It is good for BBQ and smokin' meats.
Yeah, I was born here in Texas too and have never left. Been here my whole life which is probably longer than you have been around!! Raised on a ranch and cooked for deer camps too. Biscuits are easy on wood fires. Once you do enough of 'em you learn how to manage it.
Just my 2 cents.
Sen. John Blutarsky said:BrotherBart said:BrotherBart said:in a couple of years I just may heat all season with pine.
Of course I don't burn beer cartons, old clothes and other such crap in the new stove like I did with the old one.
BB, This is a stupid question, but I am graduating my sophomore year of burning. I have to do a lot of cold startups during the year, after much screwing around, I found an empty 12 pack box stuffed with newspaper to be a good way to get her going. Is this bad? If it is, I will cease and desist. Your wisdom would be much appreciated. Don't want to be starting a chimney fire! Thanks, Bro.
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