Dicing some massive chunks, likely 10-20 year old pieces, how will it burn?

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rippinryno

Feeling the Heat
Nov 23, 2015
261
united states
Hey guys, I've got 10 or so chords of 1 year old wood that I'm going to give 1 more year to season. In the meantime I've acquired a semi flat bed of 5 massive chunks of what i believe is maple, but I could be wrong. These things are huge! Some of it is punky, some of it is still solid, i notice when i split it and after cutting into it my shavings are a red color, similar to cedar, but this is definitely not cedar. My question is, as I'm doing the ridiculous labor of dicing these up so I can get them split, I'm noticing some is punky and old so I'm throwing that to the side. Will the rest of this, if it feels solid, be good to burn? I mean much of it is a mixture of some softer corky stuff with the hard dense red stuff i find throughout, but in general is soft. My plan is to split it as I burn it or store it very shortly before burning it. It's old like I said, but i want to be sure i'm not wasting my time with these things, 'd like to get heat from it, but at the same time iv'e got good wood i could be burnng if this stuff isn't worth it.
 

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Hey guys, I've got 10 or so chords of 1 year old wood that I'm going to give 1 more year to season. In the meantime I've acquired a semi flat bed of 5 massive chunks of what i believe is maple, but I could be wrong. These things are huge! Some of it is punky, some of it is still solid, i notice when i split it and after cutting into it my shavings are a red color, similar to cedar, but this is definitely not cedar. My question is, as I'm doing the ridiculous labor of dicing these up so I can get them split, I'm noticing some is punky and old so I'm throwing that to the side. Will the rest of this, if it feels solid, be good to burn? I mean much of it is a mixture of some softer corky stuff with the hard dense red stuff i find throughout, but in general is soft. My plan is to split it as I burn it or store it very shortly before burning it. It's old like I said, but i want to be sure i'm not wasting my time with these things, 'd like to get heat from it, but at the same time iv'e got good wood i could be burnng if this stuff isn't worth it.
Doesn't matter how old wood is. It will always burn as long as it's dry. Even punky stuff burns if dried out. Just not as many btus and less burn time(less density). Soft punky stuff often firms up and hardens when dried out completely. But the real deterrent for me when it comes to punky wood is it can become crumbly and messy. Pics look like you have lots of BTUs there, lotsa heat.:)
 
I couldn't turn down the free unloading of a ton of wood (or 5 ton), just requires more work, luckily i've got saws to go around. I'm putting this in a building right after i split it, anything nasty or crumbly stays out there. Another great thing about having to cut all this down is that I'm left with tons and tons of shavings to help start my fires for the winter. I've got bags full of them so far.

I recently picked up a husqvarna 50 special on CL for $60, it needed the chain sharpened and the brake handled jb welded on, so far i've not had to break out the farmboss, the husq is a beast!
 
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