Red Oak 2 years drying - still some bubbles?

I made a post about this with my red oak at 20% last year, I let it sit another year. That wood is now reading 12% on the meter. Earlier this season I burned some and still had some moisture out of the ends that lasted for a few minutes. Now that we haven't had rain in a while now I'm not seeing anything out of the end grain so I'm on board with what BK has to say about it sucking up rain water in the end grain. The few pieces I burned last year burned great, started fast and allowed for the stove to be turned down without any trouble.

I don't think you'll have any trouble burning it this year if it's burning good other than a little moisture coming out of the end for a few minutes.

oldspark said:

"Weeks" indoors, not in a hundred years!

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You mean you don't store weeks of wood around your stove like the Woodpecker?? :lol:

How much wood would that be in January stay 2 weeks ahead, something like 1/2 cord in the house. I will stick with the woodshed

cptoneleg said:

oldspark said:

"Weeks" indoors, not in a hundred years!

Click to expand...

You mean you don't store weeks of wood around your stove like the Woodpecker?? :lol:

Click to expand...

Weeks indoors near the stove to get fully dried, yea right, I think it was you who said the woodpecker was nuts and he has now proved it.

oldspark said:

Maybe I have the only MM in the world that works right, If you read enough posts about them you will find that almost all the people that have them think they work well. I was surprised how well my cheapie works, BK confirmed this with his oven drying tests, not sure why some think they are total crap.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to me, "some think they are total crap."I dont think they are total crap.
Used them when I worked a lumber yard in PA (summer job)
From what I've read here,
if you test 1 or 2 splits & say the whole pile is dry, it may not be.
If water boils out the ends, some say it's dry enough because the MM said it is.
I have no idea what % moisture my wood is, I'm not convinced a MM would tell me, but if it really burns & lights well, it's dry enough.
Right now I believe my wood to be dry enough to burn, & meter reading or not, it's burning well.
My thought was " they are a reference, not an absolute", How well it burns is a test I'd trust, not 19% MM reading & water sizzling out the ends.
Who knows maybe me & my wood are all wet, (well frozen now)

So if water sizzling out the ends for a few minutes but the wood burns really well after that is it dry, I think that was BK's point, just a small amount of surface moisture not green wood.

I've got about 7-8 cords of red oak that I've been splitting and stacking all summer and still going at it now. It was all cut early last summer and spent the winter in the round. Stuff is heavy as hell when I split it. I stack it up and put a fan on it...when freshly split it'll almost put the fire out for about an hour while all the water boils out of it and turns the glass bloack...after a few weeks of fan drying the stuff burns hot and hard and will clean the glass right off, even on an overnight burn.

Don't know why my oak doesn't take 3 years to season, but I'm glad with my results. This is probably the same weird thing that makes my wood easier to split after sitting in the round for awhile and far easier to split warm than frozen.

So that you aint gotta burn that sizzling wood - you do know thats gonna clog your chimney and burn your house down :bug: , right? - I'll trade you all the dry Aspen you want for that lousy Oak, straight up.

Cause I'm nice and considerate that way. Despite what Gamma says

bogydave said:

oldspark said:

Maybe I have the only MM in the world that works right, If you read enough posts about them you will find that almost all the people that have them think they work well. I was surprised how well my cheapie works, BK confirmed this with his oven drying tests, not sure why some think they are total crap.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to me, "some think they are total crap."I dont think they are total crap.
Used them when I worked a lumber yard in PA (summer job)
From what I've read here,
if you test 1 or 2 splits & say the whole pile is dry, it may not be.
If water boils out the ends, some say it's dry enough because the MM said it is.
I have no idea what % moisture my wood is, I'm not convinced a MM would tell me, but if it really burns & lights well, it's dry enough.
Right now I believe my wood to be dry enough to burn, & meter reading or not, it's burning well.
My thought was " they are a reference, not an absolute", How well it burns is a test I'd trust, not 19% MM reading & water sizzling out the ends.
Who knows maybe me & my wood are all wet, (well frozen now)

Click to expand...

im with you on this. i cant go around testing all the hundreds of splits i have seeing if there reading whats right to go in the stove. i just let my wood sit for at least 2 years and after this year all of it will be 3 years and probably even 4 years by the the next year. i do know that my wood takes off right away and in 20 minutes its so hot in here i got to start crankin her down pretty quick. so the test is when i put the wood in the stove and if it lights off right away and it gives me a ridiculous amount of heat.

mayhem said:

I've got about 7-8 cords of red oak that I've been splitting and stacking all summer and still going at it now. It was all cut early last summer and spent the winter in the round. Stuff is heavy as hell when I split it. I stack it up and put a fan on it...when freshly split it'll almost put the fire out for about an hour while all the water boils out of it and turns the glass bloack...after a few weeks of fan drying the stuff burns hot and hard and will clean the glass right off, even on an overnight burn.

Don't know why my oak doesn't take 3 years to season, but I'm glad with my results. This is probably the same weird thing that makes my wood easier to split after sitting in the round for awhile and far easier to split warm than frozen.

Click to expand...

I would say the fan is speeding up your drying time. I could build a kiln and season mine in a couple days if I wanted. ;-)

ecocavalier02 said:

bogydave said:

oldspark said:

Maybe I have the only MM in the world that works right, If you read enough posts about them you will find that almost all the people that have them think they work well. I was surprised how well my cheapie works, BK confirmed this with his oven drying tests, not sure why some think they are total crap.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to me, "some think they are total crap."I dont think they are total crap.
Used them when I worked a lumber yard in PA (summer job)
From what I've read here,
if you test 1 or 2 splits & say the whole pile is dry, it may not be.
If water boils out the ends, some say it's dry enough because the MM said it is.
I have no idea what % moisture my wood is, I'm not convinced a MM would tell me, but if it really burns & lights well, it's dry enough.
Right now I believe my wood to be dry enough to burn, & meter reading or not, it's burning well.
My thought was " they are a reference, not an absolute", How well it burns is a test I'd trust, not 19% MM reading & water sizzling out the ends.
Who knows maybe me & my wood are all wet, (well frozen now)

Click to expand...

im with you on this. i cant go around testing all the hundreds of splits i have seeing if there reading whats right to go in the stove. i just let my wood sit for at least 2 years and after this year all of it will be 3 years and probably even 4 years by the the next year. i do know that my wood takes off right away and in 20 minutes its so hot in here i got to start crankin her down pretty quick. so the test is when i put the wood in the stove and if it lights off right away and it gives me a ridiculous amount of heat.

Click to expand...

I can get silly too. I bought hundreds of MM's and stick one in each split so I can just punch the button and know when its ready.

oldspark said:

ecocavalier02 said:

bogydave said:

oldspark said:

Maybe I have the only MM in the world that works right, If you read enough posts about them you will find that almost all the people that have them think they work well. I was surprised how well my cheapie works, BK confirmed this with his oven drying tests, not sure why some think they are total crap.

Click to expand...

If you are referring to me, "some think they are total crap."I dont think they are total crap.
Used them when I worked a lumber yard in PA (summer job)
From what I've read here,
if you test 1 or 2 splits & say the whole pile is dry, it may not be.
If water boils out the ends, some say it's dry enough because the MM said it is.
I have no idea what % moisture my wood is, I'm not convinced a MM would tell me, but if it really burns & lights well, it's dry enough.
Right now I believe my wood to be dry enough to burn, & meter reading or not, it's burning well.
My thought was " they are a reference, not an absolute", How well it burns is a test I'd trust, not 19% MM reading & water sizzling out the ends.
Who knows maybe me & my wood are all wet, (well frozen now)

Click to expand...

im with you on this. i cant go around testing all the hundreds of splits i have seeing if there reading whats right to go in the stove. i just let my wood sit for at least 2 years and after this year all of it will be 3 years and probably even 4 years by the the next year. i do know that my wood takes off right away and in 20 minutes its so hot in here i got to start crankin her down pretty quick. so the test is when i put the wood in the stove and if it lights off right away and it gives me a ridiculous amount of heat.

Click to expand...

I can get silly too. I bought hundreds of MM's and stick one in each split so I can just punch the button and know when its ready.

Click to expand...

I don't think that's silly :lol:
Each piece wired to a computer, then a light comes on when its ready. That might be silly. ;-P

oldspark said:

cptoneleg said:

oldspark said:

"Weeks" indoors, not in a hundred years!

Click to expand...

You mean you don't store weeks of wood around your stove like the Woodpecker?? :lol:

Click to expand...

Weeks indoors near the stove to get fully dried, yea right, I think it was you who said the woodpecker was nuts and he has now proved it.

Click to expand...

i dont think the woodpecker is all that far gone...i keep a half cord in my house because i can....and i do work in the lumber business.....no one in their right mind spends any amount of time and effort drying their wood by whatever method,only to let it get rained on to reintroduce moisture....and that is what happens,the wood gets wet again,the rest is pure bs.....

roddy said:

oldspark said:

cptoneleg said:

oldspark said:

"Weeks" indoors, not in a hundred years!

Click to expand...

You mean you don't store weeks of wood around your stove like the Woodpecker?? :lol:

Click to expand...

Weeks indoors near the stove to get fully dried, yea right, I think it was you who said the woodpecker was nuts and he has now proved it.

Click to expand...

i dont think the woodpecker is all that far gone...i keep a half cord in my house because i can....and i do work in the lumber business.....no one in their right mind spends any amount of time and effort drying their wood by whatever method,only to let it get rained on to reintroduce moisture....and that is what happens,the wood gets wet again,the rest is pure bs.....

Click to expand...

Maybe I misunderstood his post but it sounded like he was saying it was going to take weeks to get it dried off after it had been rained on, a couple of days in a room with a wood burner will have it dry as a bone again, if its green it a differant story.

"Wood from any processed batch will spend weeks indoors near the stove before becoming really ready" That is what he said.

oldspark said:

"Wood from any processed batch will spend weeks indoors near the stove before becoming really ready" That is what he said.

Click to expand...

And I interpreted that comment the same as you did.

Battenkiller said:

oldspark said:

"Wood from any processed batch will spend weeks indoors near the stove before becoming really ready" That is what he said.

Click to expand...

And I interpreted that comment the same as you did.

Click to expand...

ohh,i took it to mean freshly processed or fairly recenly processed wood,takes weeks indoors,sorry bout that

rod

I agree with BK... In another post I was complaining about my wood stacked to tight and it got rained on and now is wet... Well, a lot of it sizzles but I know its ok cause it still lights fast... When it doesn't light fast and foams I know it wasn't ready...
All of the wise tales about hitting 2 pieces together is So-so... I can pick up some oak and they sound ready but still hiss ... I can pick up other pieces and know they aren't ready ..1) sound is different 2) weigh a lot more
This year if the money is right I am gonna BUY (lol) some wood from a guy who debarks it... I am anxious to see if it will dry faster without the bark...
If so I will start buying 2 cords a year.. as I love the splitting etc ... I don't have space for oak to sit for 3yrs in yard...

rdust said:

I made a post about this with my red oak at 20% last year, I let it sit another year. That wood is now reading 12% on the meter. Earlier this season I burned some and still had some moisture out of the ends that lasted for a few minutes. Now that we haven't had rain in a while now I'm not seeing anything out of the end grain so I'm on board with what BK has to say about it sucking up rain water in the end grain. The few pieces I burned last year burned great, started fast and allowed for the stove to be turned down without any trouble.

Click to expand...

Update to strengthen BK's point about the end moisture from rain. We had rain the other day and I needed to bring in some oak the day after it rained, the same oak I've been burning from the same stack that has been great. Well the moisture from the end grain was back! It doesn't foam, sizzle or bubble but it's there, wood burns fine, ignites fine and the moisture is gone is just a few minutes.

That pretty much settles it in my mind.