If you think your wood is dry by looking at the end cracking think again!

We have white ash here and never seen anything like that. I have cut ash and burnt it that day with no problems at all. Hell the ash I first cut was dryer than what it is now outside. Seems like it took on some moisture.

I have alot of maple limbs that are probably 1 to 3 inches round. they all have checked ends. been seasoning since last january. and when i burn em in the stove they still do exactly what that round is doing, boiling out water, STILL!

My standard for determining whether a piece of wood has ever dried out (which means it will dry out again quickly, regardless) is whether the bark has fallen off or is coming off.

End checking, particularly in the heartwood, doesn't tell you anything. Green wood cut in the dead of winter will show end-checks in the heartwood as soon as it's been exposed to direct sunlight for a week or two.

What phase was the moon in when you cut it?

One of the reasons I haven’t had an unsplit round of any diameter in the wood pile in years. Yeah they burn longer but renting a jackhammer to clean a chimney just isn’t in my plans.

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So I smack em together, I hear crack not thud, like a basball and bat sound, they feel light, so I burn em, then I hear the hissing, and see them darn bubbles coming out the end.I split some of the bigger ones, but it aint worth it trying to split them other ones, they just don't wanna dry out I guess, steam delivered smoke and creosote to them cold flue tiles - faggedabout it!

BrotherBart said:

One of the reasons I haven't had an unsplit round of any diameter in the wood pile in years. Yeah they burn longer but renting a jackhammer to clean a chimney just isn't in my plans.

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I'm getting there myself... I have seen rules of thumb like 3" or less is fine unsplit... I tend to split down to 2" - if I can stand it up, I'll split it. And those 2" pieces that I didn't still seem worse than anything else I have in terms of moisture hissing.

Curious what others do with the stuff in this size range. This year I processed a lot of it when cleaning up trees figuring it would dry fast and be useful for starting fires, but the opposite is true - lots of work to get any volume of this stuff, and it burns like crap.

-Colin

I don't split anything under 4 or 5 inches, but I also let it dry for two or three years, so it has time to dry out. No hissing on the rounds, but it does take a lot longer to dry if left unsplit.

I have rounds that are 26" 30" around + and ready for the stove. Rounds are great if you know how to season them. All my Oak and Hedge rounds are about 4 years old and older.

When it come to seasoned wood you have to be ahead of the game.