Help me Decide About Past-Prime Wood

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WarmGuy

Minister of Fire
Jan 30, 2006
519
Far Northern Calif. Coast
My neighbor has a big pile of fir and pine rounds. He's moving, is giving it to me -- as much or as little as I want.

BobFirewood.jpg


Some wood has been covered by a tarp, some not, and some of it has been directly on the ground. It's all been there 2-3 years. We live near the ocean in far northern California.

Some of the wood is in great condition -- no significant decomposition, and some rounds are significantly past their prime.

I'd like some help on where to draw the line as to which wood is worth the effort of splitting (all by hand) and burning.

For example, here's a piece that is in great shape:

NotPastPrime.jpg


And here's a piece which is just a little past its prime.

SlightlyPastPrime.jpg


Here's one that's more punky:

PastPrime2.jpg


And here's another example of what's in the pile:

PastPrime.jpg


Any words of wisdom or rules of thumb to help me decide? Thanks.
 
If you whack it with a maul and it hangs together it will be OK, its free its close how can you go wrong.
 
none of that wood looks too far gone. i think it is all worth taking.
 
Time for Cityank to chime in and tell us its not dry enough. :cheese:
 
Wood Duck said:
none of that wood looks too far gone. i think it is all worth taking.

I've seen people burn far worse looking wood than that.

As long as it's bone dry, it would find it's way into our log basket ;-)
 
I'd just take it, so long as I had room for it. Even a round that's been in direct ground contact and is partially punky can be split to salvage what's still sound. I did a bunch of that with a load of down dead Juniper I got. In the end, I'd say it was worth the effort. Of course, you can always just toss a piece of punky wood right into the stove. Looks to me like a whole bunch of useful fuel there...in fact, what you've shown us looks better than the Juniper I "trimmed". Rick

ETA: Get it split and stacked up off the ground in a good sunny/windy location...best shot at preserving it.
 
Yup. It's free for the taking. Just don't expect it to give you a long fire. A hot one for sure but not a long one.
 
nothing wrong with any of that wood. It don't have to be pretty to burn good.
 
It's all good . . . I often keep my punky wood aside (along with my chunks (small pieces) and uglies (twisties, crotches, etc.) and either burn them in the shoulder season or use them for campfires. If things are really punky I may split off the punk and keep the more solid wood -- very little of my wood is just tossed back into the woods to be tree fertilizer -- at least not until it's ash.
 
Past its prime if it's like a sponge

if it still resists being stabbed with a screwdriver (still fairly solid) it should still burn well enough .

might want to use it all up first and on a day you can feed the stove a little more often.
already cut up in rounds is nice
should be nice and dry
 
I just got about 4-5 cord of free pine logs for carving stock. The guy was desperate to get it off the lawn of the home he's trying to sell. I looked at it and some of it was real nice, so I made several trips with my truck with the primo stuff. There was still a lot left, but the idler pulley on my serpentine belt blew up and I decided to leave the rest of it on the ground.

The guy called me and said he could deliver the rest on his trailer if I wanted it. A lot of what was left was pretty bad, worse than some of the stuff in your pics. I told him I'd take it all if he delivered it for free. The good stuff I'll cut into usable carving blocks, the rest I'll split for firewood. Like OS said, if it holds together after I whack it with the maul, I'll stack it under cover, the rest I'll just put into a burn pile. Wouldn't surprise me if there's a couple weeks worth of free heat in that wood by the time I'm done.
 
billb3 said:
Past its prime if it's like a sponge

Plenty of stuff here that's punky but dry after a summer in the greenhouse.

I'll never turn down free heat ;-)
 
That's good to hear -- I'm going to try to get as much as possible. My plan is to split, move, and stack one truckload per day. I've done three days so far. This shed:

FirewoodMoving012-1.jpg


will hold another four truckloads, and I'll put the rest on this rack:

LongRackFeb2007.jpg


Thanks for the advice!

- Al
 
Wondering if the reflector is there so you don't plow into the stack of wood late at night?
 
firefighterjake said:
Wondering if the reflector is there so you don't plow into the stack of wood late at night?

Would help steer one in the right direction if walking out on a dark night with just a flashlight. Rick
 
firefighterjake said:
Wondering if the reflector is there so you don't plow into the stack of wood late at night?

Yes, exactly.

This scrounge is working out very well. I've gotten a truckload every day except Friday - seven so far, and probably another five to go. The wood is generally easy to split; for some of the rounds I have gotten one burnable log per swing.

My system for big rounds is to bite off a chunk, and then "walk" around the circumference. Each split weakens the next section.

Here's the process for this round with the red arrow:

splitter-1.jpg


Here it is half done:

RoundPartSplit.jpg


And here it is when it's done:

RoundAllSplit.jpg


I am going to be totally spoiled for scrounging in the future.
 
I think you've got a winner there. None of the photos looked too bad. Take everything, definitely.
 
oldspark said:
Time for Cityank to chime in and tell us its not dry enough. :cheese:


????Is that directed at me......if so why???????
 
I use the same "peel the onion" technique on my rounds of similar size.

Also, I've got alot of pine that looks worse than that on the ends - and that pine was up off the ground, simply not facing the sun. Stuff grows mold/fungus on it like there's no manana.

If it's solid, burn it. If it flakes off or is spongy, try to get rid of those parts. If the whole thing is flaky or spongy, toss it
 
cityhick said:
oldspark said:
Time for Cityank to chime in and tell us its not dry enough. :cheese:


????Is that directed at me......if so why???????
LOL no at cityYank, he is always telling us how wood needs to be at 10% moisture or less. :coolsmile:
 
Well I'm done, and I'm glad I followed your advice. There are a few rounds I left behind because they would have been too much work to split.

Total: Two weeks, 15 truckloads (about three cords).

Before:

BobsPileBefore.jpg



After:

BobsPileAfter.jpg


ShedFull.jpg


LongRackPartial.jpg
 
WarmGuy, that was a lot of work but you'll appreciate it this winter. Also, I like your shed. That looks like super low cost but very effective. Nicely done.
 
It is easy to get and free,split it and stack it and burn it when it is dry.It will be fine for fall,spring or when you are home during the day
 
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