3 year old birch, punky

[bogydave]

Friend in Willow had some birch trees cut in late fall of 2009, 4' to 6' logs piled up nice.
Brought some home today of the top of the pile.
Typical for our birch here if not split, stacked & covered, most real punky, few near rotten.
Cuts fast , splits or breaks apart easy. One more years & wouldn't have made wood at all, compost maybe.
Will make it outside fire pit wood. Need some more anyway

I have some in the wood shed cut the same time, all split & stacked under a roof for 3 years.
Good solid wood.

Split stacked & dry birch will last many years. Left in the log or the rounds out in the weather 2 years it turns punky fast.
Moral : Split & stack your birch ASAP

 

[woodchip]

I like your moral with birch!

I usually strip some bark before bring any dead birch home, just to check it's ok inside.

Birch is the only wood I know that can look ok on the outside, but basically brown dusty earth inside, no trace of grain/wood/anything remotely woody.

Still one of my favourite woods, easy to saw and easy to split here.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That's sad Dave, but birch is birch no matter where it grows. They should have known better.

 

[bogydave]

Even some of the 16" birch rounds stored under their car port & dry, the inside of some of the rounds was getting punky.
The spruce rounds in the carport, look good, dry & well seasoned.

I'll let them have the rest of the logs for a big bon fire. Not worth the effort to bring in home, then cut & split , even for the outside burn pit.

 

[onetracker]

good solid advice bogydave

....borne of experience.

i don't come across much white birch, but when i do, i'm defintely going to split it asap.

 

[midwestcoast]

That's really too bad. The woodlot at my dad's place always has lots of downed Birch. I don't think we ever found one that wasn't punky or rotted. In there, most of them get punky before they even fall.

 

[peakbagger]

When I drop a birch that I cant split right away, I run the chainsaw down the length of the trunk, twice if its big and make sure that I cut though the inner bark. I have left birch logs two years like that and the bark usually peels right back. It makes it easier to hand split as the bark acts like a barrel hoop for the first split.

 

[weatherguy]

Sounds like your typical birch, I get quite a bit and I always make sure to cut and split it then put in off the ground on racks asap. I had a truck load of yellow birch last year cut into 4' lengths I scrounged, I unloaded my truck and ended up unloading some oak rounds on top of the birch and forgot about it til this spring, I dug it out and tested it and to my surprise it was all solid. Not sure how that happened , it would have been a shame to lose the wood.

 

[firefighterjake]

When I drop a birch that I cant split right away, I run the chainsaw down the length of the trunk, twice if its big and make sure that I cut though the inner bark. I have left birch logs two years like that and the bark usually peels right back. It makes it easier to hand split as the bark acts like a barrel hoop for the first split.

+1 . . . I do the same thing with the chainsaw . . . seems to help out.

 

[bogydave]

Sounds like your typical birch, I get quite a bit and I always make sure to cut and split it then put in off the ground on racks asap. I had a truck load of yellow birch last year cut into 4' lengths I scrounged, I unloaded my truck and ended up unloading some oak rounds on top of the birch and forgot about it til this spring, I dug it out and tested it and to my surprise it was all solid. Not sure how that happened , it would have been a shame to lose the wood.

+1 . . . I do the same thing with the chainsaw . . . seems to help out.

Yea, If you break thru the water tight bark & let some moisture escape from the sides of the log or rounds it helps.
Still, birch seems to rot faster than other wood. Don't know the science behind it.
The wood we left a moose camp CSS, the spruce is solid after a 2 years but the birch is getting punky. (uncovered , stacked under trees.)
Maybe being the rain & under snow all winter has something to do with it or the chemical make up attracts moisture
Maybe birch is closer to being a sponge than other wood.
I've picked up some rounds that I can shake the wood out of the bark & have a birch bark cylinder.
Spruce bark cracks, rots & falls off, not birch.
Birch bark might make good canoe using spruce sap for sealing seams

 

[nate379]

Split a bunch of yellow birch at my brother's in Maine and boy that stuff is a PITA to deal with. Twisted, stringy and gave the heavy duty 25 ton splitter a run for it's money. Most of the other wood was maple which was nice to deal with.

 

[Realstone]

Split a bunch of yellow birch at my brother's in Maine and boy that stuff is a PITA to deal with. Twisted, stringy and gave the heavy duty 25 ton splitter a run for it's money. Most of the other wood was maple which was nice to deal with.

That's odd Nate cause I've always found birch to be one of the nicest to split. Was it a yard bird?

 

[nate379]

No, out of the woods. I didn't count how much we did, maybe 1/2 a cord out of the ~5 cords of wood we cut and split. I know the "Alaska birch" we have up here can be hit and miss on splitting. I've gotten a few trees that were nearly unsplittable and others that popped apart with ease.

That's odd Nate cause I've always found birch to be one of the nicest to split. Was it a yard bird?

 

[peakbagger]

Yellow birch can be easy to split when young but its a survivor and can grow real old. When its old it tend to be stringy and miserable. I know of a few folks who over designed their splitters to handle old yellow birch as for many years, you could get it cheap as it would stall a standard splitter.

 

[firefighterjake]

Had a piece of yellow birch yesterday that I could not split . . . but it was twisted and on a crotch. I split off a couple of pieces before giving up . . . that will be one of the camp fire "all nighters."

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Pine does the same thing