I don't encourage anyone with little or no experience with woodburning to expect the same results here. In May of this year I cleared about 8 trees in my backyard to make room for a garage. Of those trees were a few maple, walnut, elm and a hickory. When the walnut was split I could hold it up and watch the water run out of it as a constant small stream of water. Since I didnt have a lot of room with all the building materials and heavy equipment in the backyard I decided to stack the freshly cut elm and walnut up by the house in a single row which would receive a lot of sun during the day. As it turns out it was an extremely hot summer with almost no rain since June (we are in a severe drought here). I remember days in October when it was in the 80's and 7% humidity.
Tonight it is supposed to drop in the mid 20's . For this area that is a pretty cold November night especially considering it has been in the 70's for about 6 days. Anywho I decided for sheets and giggles I'd throw a medium split of walnut and a medium split of elm (both cut in May) on the dwindling fire. About an hour into the burn I have had the air turned all the way down and front of the insert is 575. For my insert that is a hot fire considering there are only two splits in there. Its as good a burn as I can get with scrap dimensional lumber that has been in the sun all summer. I don't bother with a moisture meter anymore as I consider my insert results to be more useful empiracal data for me. So it definitely can be done. I wouldn't expect the same from red oak, although I would try it if I had some freshly split. I was one heluva firewood seasoning summer.
Tonight it is supposed to drop in the mid 20's . For this area that is a pretty cold November night especially considering it has been in the 70's for about 6 days. Anywho I decided for sheets and giggles I'd throw a medium split of walnut and a medium split of elm (both cut in May) on the dwindling fire. About an hour into the burn I have had the air turned all the way down and front of the insert is 575. For my insert that is a hot fire considering there are only two splits in there. Its as good a burn as I can get with scrap dimensional lumber that has been in the sun all summer. I don't bother with a moisture meter anymore as I consider my insert results to be more useful empiracal data for me. So it definitely can be done. I wouldn't expect the same from red oak, although I would try it if I had some freshly split. I was one heluva firewood seasoning summer.
