Seasoning in the round?

boisblancboy said:

Just curious, but does anyone know how fast wood dries when just cut in the round vs split? Obviously its slower, but just wondering how much slower on average I guess. How much faster than just leaving the wood in logs?

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Depends whether you mean in the winter or the summer, because......

In my situation, Birch is about the only good wood choice here.
It has to be split to season or it gets punky inside after 2 years. I have some of that, the inside of the round
started to rot but about 1-1/2" of the outer side is good wood. I'm burning it, but it's what I got.
I didn't split it for a few years, just stacked/covered it up in rounds.
The spruce, I can leave in 12" rounds for years, if it stays dry & it's fine. It dries in about 1-1/2 years in big rounds & a few months in the small rounds.
Diameter, type, length, bark on/off & weather are all factors.

It really depends on the wood. That sugar maple will take probably 4 times longer to season if not split. On the other hand, soft maple will dry pretty darned good in a year or two years just by felling the tree and not cutting it up. We had some that I cut down and two years later it was starting to turn punky throughout the whole tree!

Another good one is white ash. You can cut it and leave it lay right on the ground for a couple years and it won't turn punky. It also will be dry enough to burn.

What about smaller rounds like 1 1/2" to 3"? I'm helping a friend clear some land for a pole barn and cutting to lenght most every thing 1 1/2" and larger. While time consuming, it leaves him less to deal with,

I would venture a guess of a 10% head start. Meaning if you cut some of the same size and species wood into rounds and leave the other wood in log length, then 1 yr later split and stack it all, the round cut wood would have 10% less moisture.

I've got 6+ cords of Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine, and Juniper stacked in the round right now. All bucked to 17" length. Rounds from 4" to 20" in diameter. I certainly don't expect to season it that way. This year, it'll all get split and stacked, then next year moved into the shed for burning during '11-'12 season. So, ~1 year bucked in the round & ~1year split. For softwoods this oughta do me...but 2 years split would be even better. What I've got going for me is a very dry high desert climate. Rick

I think the question is like how long is a piece of string. Wood does dry through the end grain. How much depends on species and the length you buck it. I buck my wood up as soon as I can but I wait until the snow is gone to split it. I also spit everything that can be split.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_nX0X4MOKcKI/Sbz5P3zdAKI/AAAAAAAAAKg/PhaIw_js9Z4/s640/100_0321.JPG

Love the pictures guys, thank you so much for sharing, looks like you have a lot of mother nature around you. I've been lobbying my wife to move to Vermont or Maine for a while, she thinks about it but her family is all within 5-20 minutes from us (more of a reason to move I'd say :lol so I keep on. Might have to go it alone if she doesnt come to her senses soon :cheese:

LLigetfa, is that a sawhorse you are using there to support those pieces? I remember seeing some footage of Richard Proenneke, the naturalist, using one to build his cabin in Alaska. Did you make it?

Back on topic: Good advice, I have quite a few large rounds on the ground that I will be sure to move to a better location soon.

boisblancboy said:

Just curious, but does anyone know how fast wood dries when just cut in the round vs split? Obviously its slower, but just wondering how much slower on average I guess. How much faster than just leaving the wood in logs?

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I wouldn't count on it. It might, it might not. It has to be split eventually anyway, so do it as soon as possible.

My experience has been that shorter rounds dry faster than longer rounds because evaporation takes place through the end grains.

One thing that might accelerate drying . . . buck to half the normal size. If you're normally fitting 16 inch length rounds into the stove, buck them up to 8 inch length rounds instead and then load the stove with them side by side. A bit more sawing, but an 8 inch round will dry faster than a 16 inch. At the very least, your wood will be drier and thus combust more completely given the same amount of drying time.

I think most of us leave an inch or two or three for error. My stove CAN take 18-18.5 inch splits, so I aim for 16-17 inch splits. Less hassle when loading, especially if you are tired and have blazing hot coals.

We live where the clouds come to die...so I'm a splitting sombaste.

I was splitting some rounds of pear that came down in an early snowstorm in October, and I expect were cut to length some time before November 1. I can see about 1 inch of dried wood at the end of each round, differentiated from the wet center wood by its lighter color. So, round pear wood seasons about 1/3 inch per month in the winter here. Does that mean my 16 inch rounds would season in 42 months? Seems like it shouldn't take that long..

Vic99 said:

My experience has been that shorter rounds dry faster than longer rounds because evaporation takes place through the end grains.

One thing that might accelerate drying . . . buck to half the normal size. If you're normally fitting 16 inch length rounds into the stove, buck them up to 8 inch length rounds instead and then load the stove with them side by side. A bit more sawing, but an 8 inch round will dry faster than a 16 inch. At the very least, your wood will be drier and thus combust more completely given the same amount of drying time.

I think most of us leave an inch or two or three for error. My stove CAN take 18-18.5 inch splits, so I aim for 16-17 inch splits. Less hassle when loading, especially if you are tired and have blazing hot coals.

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Back 30 some years ago when I measured seasoning time in weeks, I was scrounging logs from a local Birch plywood plant. I cut short rounds off the two ends to burn first since they had already dried some through the end grain and I cut everything short for my top load stove. One bonus was they were easier to split.

LLigetfa said:

Vic99 said:

My experience has been that shorter rounds dry faster than longer rounds because evaporation takes place through the end grains.

One thing that might accelerate drying . . . buck to half the normal size. If you're normally fitting 16 inch length rounds into the stove, buck them up to 8 inch length rounds instead and then load the stove with them side by side. A bit more sawing, but an 8 inch round will dry faster than a 16 inch. At the very least, your wood will be drier and thus combust more completely given the same amount of drying time.

I think most of us leave an inch or two or three for error. My stove CAN take 18-18.5 inch splits, so I aim for 16-17 inch splits. Less hassle when loading, especially if you are tired and have blazing hot coals.

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Back 30 some years ago when I measured seasoning time in weeks, I was scrounging logs from a local Birch plywood plant. I cut short rounds off the two ends to burn first since they had already dried some through the end grain and I cut everything short for my top load stove. One bonus was they were easier to split.

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LLigetfa, I have always enjoyed your posts. One question is why do you order your wood by the truck load when it looks like you have plenty to spare onsite? I know you have the know how. Just tired of doing it since you had to do it for a living? Or do you get a really good deal since you work for a sawmill?

I haven't worked commercially as a feller in decades but it's like riding a bike. I changed careers and now work in IT for a pulp and paper company. That said, if I had any decent wood on my 18 acres, I would harvest it but I have mostly Poplar and Aspen that's not worth the effort to go after. I can certainly afford to buy wood and at $100 a cord for Black Ash, dropped in my yard, I won't bother dragging Poplar out of the bush. If my financial situation were to change, I always have all that Poplar to fall back on.

In years past I would cull out on average about 2 cord of Poplar a year but I don't really care for it as a firewood, not even in the shoulder season. Now if I have a choice of dropping a tree back into the bush versus into my yard, it goes in the bush and lays to rot. If I have to drop it in the yard and clean it up, it goes for firewood. Now if I had a FEL I would open up roads and take more wood out with it after I retire.

Thanks for the history. I am an IT guy too. I just got my FEL, a Bobcat T190 so I am going to start clearing some trails.

Jags said:

And I don't think you will live long enough to see any large rounds of White Oak dry while still in the round. Some wood will rot before drying in the round, so thats no good either.

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+1 and then some