Want to SEE how long it takes Oak to season?

[TradEddie]

Those splits were felled in late February 2011, split immediately then stacked in double wide rows under a tarp (open at ends and sides) in a small clearing in my woods, well "protected" from both sun and wind. I moved then to the rack you see there in March this year, facing south west, open to sun and the prevailing wind. I've noticed shrinkage before, but as someone said, at the start of seasoning, I wasn't expecting to see it drop several inches in a 4 foot rack from wood that was already split two years, no matter how non-ideal the previous storage was.
I've misplaced the meter, will have to get back to you all on that later.

TE

 

[Woody Stover]

That reminds me; I've got a stack crash lying out there on some Sugar Maple that I need to pick up. I've since gone away from the half-wide pallets on bricks....the bricks sink in to the soft woods soil too much. Now I use full pallets with more support under them like concrete blocks or big Sass half-round splits, even if I'm only going to stack single-row. Once I'm far enough ahead, all rows will be double-stacked.

 

[weatherguy]

Back in the days of the old Forum, three software generations ago, there were heated arguments about whether stacks shrank or not. Silly really. Yes they do.

A cord of Oak when stacked is often less than a cord when I measure it three years later. But burns really nice.

That's easy to see, second year I stacked my rack about 6 inches over the top, after a year and a half it was a few inches below the top of the rack. Also had a large stack fall over from shrinkage.

 

[dylskee]

shrinkage.

Shrinkage........ "I was in the pool, I was in the pool!"

 

[TradEddie]

Results:

Red Oak c/s/s thirty months, shaded and sheltered storage, 6" split - 23% in the center of a fresh split.
Cherry c/s/s twenty months, same size split, same storage - 18% in center.

TE

 

[NortheastAl]

Results:

Red Oak c/s/s thirty months, shaded and sheltered storage, 6" split - 23% in the center of a fresh split.
Cherry c/s/s twenty months, same size split, same storage - 18% in center.

TE

Good info to go on. Proves the point of three year old C/S/S oak being just about right.