Poor wood quality

[jatoxico]

Very interesting! In that case, does it need to sit roughly a full season before burning like fresh cut? With winter here it's just not going to get a leg up in that department correct?

For every rule there's an exception but dead standing oak and many other hard woods still usually needs a couple years. Locust can be wet but can be dry because it simply does not rot and can stand dead for a long time. Pines can be pretty dry dead standing. Just split up a bunch of dead birch. Slightly punky outside, feels light but heart wood measured 34%.

So the take home message is I don't assume dead standing = dry and if its wet it may take just as long as green or nearly so.

That's why I like a moisture meter. You can measure the moisture content of different splits from different parts of the tree or places in your wood pile. If everything you burn has been seasoned for 3 yrs then its unnecessary but for those of us who are not there yet its handy.

 

[Jotul118]

For every rule there's an exception but dead standing oak and many other hard woods still usually needs a couple years. Locust can be wet but can be dry because it simply does not rot and can stand dead for a long time. Pines can be pretty dry dead standing. Just split up a bunch of dead birch. Slightly punky outside, feels light but heart wood measured 34%.

So the take home message is I don't assume dead standing = dry and if its wet it may take just as long as green or nearly so.

That's why I like a moisture meter. You can measure the moisture content of different splits from different parts of the tree or places in your wood pile. If everything you burn has been seasoned for 3 yrs then its unnecessary but for those of us who are not there yet its handy.

I am going to have to purchase one of those, any suggestions (within fiscal bang for buck?)

I have a lot of locust and although it's on the dryer side, moisture content wise, compared to many other species, its density demands a bit more "on the pile" time. I just love adding it to the mix! It's just seems to burn, burn, burn!

I was always weary of burning pine, poplar, etc., because of creosote anxiety, but I am quickly learning that if it's dry it's great "shoulder season" fuel.

It will a fun project having a pile for this and a pile for that.

Does wood season at an accelerated rate in dry, warm, sunny weather compared to dry, cold and sunny?

 

[billb3]

It is mostly maple, birch and ash. I have a small yard with mostly shade from trees on my neighbors yard. The only place to stack is under the tree shade. It gets a good amount of air flow by not much sun. I do not cover my stacks. That is the biggest issue. I have to overcome my dislike using tarps.

I have 3 rows of stacks on pallets 24' long 5' tall about 1' space I between each stack. I'm about 3 years ahead with wood supply. With my methods of storage and space available softer wood can not hold up.

Those two pieces look fairly rotten.
Nice healthy fungi - not something you really want to see growing on wood - indicative of wet decomposing wood.
Like they were scrounged dead fall or dead trees for a while before cut down/picked up, whatever the history is.
I don't get much heat out of those even when dry.
I'll burn them though but they have to be dry. Although I wouldn't want to be burning them while it is real cold with the reduced BTU content. I'll top cover any wood that doesn't stand up to constantly getting wet - beech-pine-birch, just about any round wood that's not split seems to succumb to the constant wet and humidity here.
I'll even top cover with OSB or panels of MDF from failed cheapo furniture. It may not last very long outside to the elements, but MDF is fairly heavy when soaking wet and the wind has more trouble blowing off the tops of the stacks.
Doesn't look any worse than tattered tarps.

 

[paul bunion]

Does wood season at an accelerated rate in dry, warm, sunny weather compared to dry, cold and sunny?

Yes. Temperature factors in.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

With my conditions and method of stacking in the shade, off the ground on pallets, without top cover. The wood does season. But the outside of the wood goes through wet and dry cycle over and over eventually breaking down the wood fiber after a few years. When burning, the punky part of the wood smolders more than it burns. It's more maintenance to keep the fire going that way. I have about 1/8 of a cord now I'm burning that is this way. It has been stacked for 4 years and the outer most part of the wood has gotten punky.

Last year I started making different stacks based on the different dry time of wood. This way I can better maintain my fuel quality. I can try the corrugated roofing. With that I can overhang the edge of the wood by a few inches.

Definitely you want some overhang. Our roofing is 10' and we typically like to cut our saplings at 10' but our stacks will run a tad under 9' to give some overhang.

Most definitely you would gain a tremendous benefit by top covering. Occasionally we'll experiment and then sometimes we'll re-do some experiments. A few years ago we got the urge, after reading many posts, to once more do some stacking and not top covering the wood. To shorten the explanation of what happened, we'll just say that we'll not be doing that experiment any more as we did not like the results. And we had stacked this wood right in the open where it would get full sun and lots of wind. It was also single row stacked. Terrible results.

 

[oldspark]

And we had stacked this wood right in the open where it would get full sun and lots of wind. It was also single row stacked. Terrible results.

Not sure how I have been doing it for over 30 years with no problems.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Perhaps the difference in our climate and for sure you get lots more wind than we do along with lower relative humidity. No doubt you too remember quads who used to post on this forum. He too never covered his wood but kept plenty of wood on his porch so that he did not have to burn wet wood as it had time to dry that surface moisture. You no doubt also remember that he always stacked his wood right on the ground. He simply left that bottom row or the bottom 2 rows and threw them on top of the piles that were meant for the following year so that they would have time to dry out. That will not work for everyone for sure.

 

[oldspark]

Well I travel for work and I have seen lots of wood stacked with no top cover so it must work in many places.

 

[oldspark]

I know some don't agree with the times for drying wood but this is from woodheat.org
"Some people like to cover the drying wood pile. I do not. I’m basically a lazy guy and putting old steel roofing, plastic sheets or tarps over the pile means that I would have to chase them when the wind blew them off.

The theory behind covering the wood is that it will dry faster because rain will not soak the pieces as they dry. My experience is that the wood is dry enough by the time I want to bring it to my wood shed. Of course I may have to delay my wood shed filling if my dry wood gets rained on. I may have to wait for a few days of sun after a rain to continue stocking my shed, but it’s a great excuse to put off a chore!

If it makes you feel better to cover your wood, do it. If not, just make sure you pile it in the shed after a few days of sun.

The most important rules for preparing good firewood are:

Cut, split and stack the wood in the early spring and let it stand in the sun and wind until it is seasoned. For many people seasoning will take about six months. for others, it will be a full year, depending on climate and wood species"

 

[gyrfalcon]

I know some don't agree with the times for drying wood but this is from woodheat.org
"Some people like to cover the drying wood pile. I do not. I’m basically a lazy guy and putting old steel roofing, plastic sheets or tarps over the pile means that I would have to chase them when the wind blew them off.

The theory behind covering the wood is that it will dry faster because rain will not soak the pieces as they dry. My experience is that the wood is dry enough by the time I want to bring it to my wood shed. Of course I may have to delay my wood shed filling if my dry wood gets rained on. I may have to wait for a few days of sun after a rain to continue stocking my shed, but it’s a great excuse to put off a chore!

If it makes you feel better to cover your wood, do it. If not, just make sure you pile it in the shed after a few days of sun.

The most important rules for preparing good firewood are:

Cut, split and stack the wood in the early spring and let it stand in the sun and wind until it is seasoned. For many people seasoning will take about six months. for others, it will be a full year, depending on climate and wood species"

This has also been my experience. I get almost constant wind, so stuff dries quickly, whether water-wet or sap-wet, and that also means any kind of cover is a royal pain in the XXX to keep from blowing right off.

 

[jatoxico]

I am going to have to purchase one of those, any suggestions (within fiscal bang for buck?)

I have a lot of locust and although it's on the dryer side, moisture content wise, compared to many other species, its density demands a bit more "on the pile" time. I just love adding it to the mix! It's just seems to burn, burn, burn!

I was always weary of burning pine, poplar, etc., because of creosote anxiety, but I am quickly learning that if it's dry it's great "shoulder season" fuel.

It will a fun project having a pile for this and a pile for that.

Does wood season at an accelerated rate in dry, warm, sunny weather compared to dry, cold and sunny?

Mine is from HF. Seems to work fine. For me its the same as stove top thermo's. They don't need to be super accurate just consistent, although the meter I got seems to work fine, I think it was like $10.

 

[tsquini]

Definitely you want some overhang. Our roofing is 10' and we typically like to cut our saplings at 10' but our stacks will run a tad under 9' to give some overhang.

Most definitely you would gain a tremendous benefit by top covering. Occasionally we'll experiment and then sometimes we'll re-do some experiments. A few years ago we got the urge, after reading many posts, to once more do some stacking and not top covering the wood. To shorten the explanation of what happened, we'll just say that we'll not be doing that experiment any more as we did not like the results. And we had stacked this wood right in the open where it would get full sun and lots of wind. It was also single row stacked. Terrible results.

I think next year I can run a similar experiment on top cover and no cover. We will see if we get similar results. I think I will continue to separate wood into 2 stacks. I like knowing the wood i'm going to be burning will be soft or hard.