Lesson of the day

[bluedogz]

Had some time yesterday, so went out to start splitting some 18" rounds of black cherry that have been staring at me for almost 3 years.

First one- cracked it in half, set the MM on it- 30%!
Second one- 32%!

So, yeah... "seasoned" my patootie.

 

[NordicSplitter]

I know the feeling. I have come to the conclusion anything 8" in diameter or larger...SPLIT RIGHT AWAY! Ain't worth the disappointment a couple of years from now..

 

[red oak]

Yep - does not dry much until it's split, except for the ends. 8" is about my cutoff too, anything larger gets split, unless it's a particularly stubborn piece.

 

[paul bunion]

Out of curiosity, did you have them up off the ground or protected from rain and snow at all?

 

[Grisu]

After I had branches of 3" or less sizzling on me although they had been 2 to 3 years in the stack I split everything above 2". A small electric splitter is great for that purpose.

However, I have to admit my unsplit pine rounds dried somewhat over the winter. The wood was certainly quite a bit lighter than similar size splits the year before. Also, much less water to leak out during splitting.

 

[Woody Stover]

Were they covered? Even on my two-year stacked Cherry, which was top-covered, some splits I threw in the stove would hiss and even bubble slightly out of wet spots on the end, some as large as 1x1/2". Not too big a deal but I'm convinced that Cherry is a sponge to some degree, more so than other woods. I would go ahead and split/stack it and see how fast it dries; That 30% may be free moisture as opposed to moisture within the cells, and might dry pretty quickly. Just a theory, and I'm no wood scientist...

 

[bluedogz]

Yeah, these were not covered at all, just stack on a pallet. Unfortunately, finances demanded the sale of much of my processing equipment, so I hadn't been able to do any meaningful splitting until now.

I'd be ecstatic to discover that I'm only measuring free moisture and this stuff will dry faster. Here's hoping as I split & stack...

 

[kennyp2339]

If it can be split then it gets split.. anything larger then 2-3 inches gets wacked in half.

 

[privatejoker75]

I try to get a truck load, bring it home, then split it asap. Repeat until i have enough for winter and then work on "bonus wood" which stays bucked until next spring (or if i need emergency wood late winter)