The great red oak myth.

Your meter doesn't work.

I guess that's possible but not the norm. I can get it there in 1-1.5 down here but I'm in central ms too

While it's true oak will burn after a year, it won't be at it's best. It will burn after two years, a bit better than the first, but if you wait three years or better, you will understand why. And yes, it is worth the wait.

All of my firewood has a 3 year plus turn around period and that includes pine, poplar, silver maple, and others. My stove tends to like 15% moisture content or less. Preferably less.

This year I'm stuck with the finer hardwoods. So far I've been using shorts and uglies, just a few smaller pieces at a time which are mostly oak. Their heat and long burn times truly make it worth waiting.

When did you drop the tree? I try to drop them while they are still dormant in March. When they start pushing sap, there real wet.

As far as seasoning oak. Virtually all I have burned for 15 years is oak. The first year, not knowing and not having anything but oak that was about a year old, the cap plugged half way through the season with a gooey mess. Ever year it got better, and was perfect when the oak was about three years old. What you have will burn, but you will have issues getting it started, smoldering fires, blackened glass and gooey stuff in the chimney. Besides some waisted energy blurring off the water in the split.

Did you test fresh splits? I just came in from checking moisture in several splits. This wood is about 1 yr old and a mix of different oaks. Testing a spot that was split last winter I was less than 18%. When I make a fresh split it all was 21-23%. some has been covered and some not but all read about the same. I'm going to bring quite a bit inside basement when the stove starts up . I hope it will help dehydrate what's waiting to burn ?

oh jeez

global warming must be untrue because it is cold today .

smoking must not be bad for you because a smoker lived to over 100


let's bust some more myths with an outlier

I personally think that wood seasons better after sitting through a cold winter. The moisture seems to freeze and cause cracking. Then the spring, summer, fall months allow air in the cracks. I have successfully burnt one year oak.

You busted the Oak myth, congratulations!

I've been able to get red oak under 20% in a year by single stacking in the sun. Some splits will be a little higher, like 23 or 24%, some will be in the high teens. I have some 3 year red oak for this winter. I'm not even going to bother checking the moisture.

Seems to depend on the tree somewhat, I had red oak that dried well, and some that just took forever. I'm sure cutting when the tree is dormant helps a lot

Burned red oak for years and found that it burned great for me after about 18 months of seasoning. My chimney sweep always told me that my chimney was very clean every year. I second your debunking of the 3 year myth.

I'm burning 3 year old red oak this year and looking forward to it, last year at the end I burned some and it did well.....
Even though you cracked the myth, I would still not burn it this year, you won't be reaping all the benefits of it.....
Let it rest another year at least, 2 if it were me.......

Lockpicker said:

You guys are funny

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What?!



kidding...

Lockpicker said:

You guys are funny. Been burning for years. 20% and under good to go. Ill be burning at least two and a half cords of it this year. .

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All hail the fire wood king.

Lockpicker said:

Thats the one great thing about this place. Nobody can ever admit it always doesnt work the way the "experts" say it should. Then resort to childish remarks. Otherwise this is a very good informative place.

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Experts? We're just a bunch of guys who heat our homes with wood. You think that because you got the Oak ready in 1 year that everyone else has just been spreading lies. The members here who share the 2-3 year drying time is from their actual experience. You haven't debunked any myths like you think.

Talk to the guy in another thread who cut a 75' pine yesterday for firewood this year. Then, gave out member crap because HIS wood is too dry.

The variables to seasoning wood is vast. If you where able to get it down to 18% in a year and a half that is awesome. For me it takes about 2.5 years. I'm not fabricating the story on seasoning time. It is true for me.

barmstrong2 said:

Talk to the guy in another thread who cut a 75' pine yesterday for firewood this year. Then, gave out member crap because HIS wood is too dry.

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Right, THATS the kind of guy ya wanna slap in the back of the head

I can do it with oak, but never with locust.

"normal" wind for lockpicker just might be more than what others get. I've also seen lots of wood stacks underneath trees in a wooded lot... not gonna dry out well there.

Double stacked in the sun & wind, yeah I believe it. Split size also makes a huge difference.

Lockpicker said:

I constantly read here that oak takes two to three years to season. Not true!!

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Never touched a moisture meter in my life, and probably never will. But for a fact, in my stove, certain species of wood after one year cut/split/stacked under similar conditions burn far less efficiently (= don't allow for secondary combustion to occur as quickly or as sustained) than other species. Most of them burn best after two years or more, but oak above all gives me the most problem after only one year. The other species I burn are maple, ash, birch, poplar,cherry, pine, spruce, apple, walnut and beech.

Wood is well "seasoned" for me if it burns perfectly well in my stove, yielding no smoke after I engage my bypass damper for secondary combustion. For me, one-year oak has a high failure rate in this stove to qualify as seasoned (though it worked fine in my fireplace and old smoke dragon). One man's myth is another man's fact of life