Made a rookie mistake.....

[corey21]

Purchased a truck load of wood yesterday from a stranger that said ohh my wood is seasoned. Light a fire this evening put three small split on a hot kindling fire and the stuff hissed at me for 2 hour.Stove top never did hit 300 hundred i had to maintain a hot flue so it would not goop up my pipes. finally let it go out well it did on its own walked away said some words not suited for hearth.com.

Just thought i would share this with everyone. The guy has no clue what seasoned wood is that was the first time purchase from him. Time to go back to my trusted person amd he has good seasoned wood.

 

[pen]

Yep, it happens. Just stack that up and it should be just fine for you next winter. If he's cheaper than your other guy, buy ahead and let it dry by your own standards.

pen

 

[corey21]

Yep, it happens. Just stack that up and it should be just fine for you next winter. If he's cheaper than your other guy, buy ahead and let it dry by your own standards.

pen

Im going to pick up a moisture meter today. That other guy sells at the same price the only difference he cuts splits and stack it and don't sell it till it seasoned.

i guess ill stack that load up for next year. lesson learned.

 

[PapaDave]

Corey, Corey, Corey. If only you'd listen to the wisdom of the Hearth. BE the Hearth. :coolsmile:
My first year, did the same thing, except I had no reputable supplier. I became my own supplier of DRY wood. Six years later, burning wood is SOOOOO much better.
Live and learn, eh?
We need a learning/knowledge/wisdom by osmosis gene or some such weirdness.

 

[tcassavaugh]

i think its probably something we've all, or at least most of us, have done at one time or another. like mentioned above, just stack it up and save it for next year. its hard to find a reputable dealer. i used one guy for years who always brought good wood....but it was always short offering it up as a cord but really a truck load. i finally used someone else but didn't get the quality......hard to find a good dealer. i saw an advertisement on craigs list that had a photo of cords and cords of wood....i thought i had gon to the promised land, the add said he was nearby and would service southern maryland but he was near chesapeake va (i think) and was too far away.....looked like a pretty good operatoin. been looking ever since......i might have found a guy that does a logging co and firewood.....used him this past season...think he's a keeper.

When you find someone that gives you a full load of wood, its seasoned and at a fair price.....don't lose his number.....

cass

 

[corey21]

Corey, Corey, Corey. If only you'd listen to the wisdom of the Hearth. BE the Hearth. :coolsmile:
My first year, did the same thing, except I had no reputable supplier. I became my own supplier of DRY wood. Six years later, burning wood is SOOOOO much better.
Live and learn, eh?
We need a learning/knowledge/wisdom by osmosis gene or some such weirdness.

Yeah and i been around here long enough to know about all this. One good thing i been getting ahead for next year for the last month or so. Last year i did not get much time to get ahead this year i made time so i could.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Corey, your experience is quite normal and that is really sad. Every dealer I've talked to say their wood is seasoned, which is meaningless. After they say it is seasoned, ash how it was seasoned and for how long. Their answers can be quite a joke. Like the guy who cut some oak tops near us. I questioned him when he said he was selling it immediately as the load he had on his truck was ready to go. "Well for God's sake man! This wood has seasoned for a year now." Right. The woods had been logged off a year ago and he was cutting the tops which had laid there for a year....and it was all oak. Seasoned? Right...

 

[madison]

The guy has no clue what seasoned wood is that was the first time purchase from him. Time to go back to my trusted person amd he has good seasoned wood.

Quite common, next time, before he dumps and runs, climb up and check it for yourself prior to paying....

 

[corey21]

i think its probably something we've all, or at least most of us, have done at one time or another. like mentioned above, just stack it up and save it for next year. its hard to find a reputable dealer. i used one guy for years who always brought good wood....but it was always short offering it up as a cord but really a truck load. i finally used someone else but didn't get the quality......hard to find a good dealer. i saw an advertisement on craigs list that had a photo of cords and cords of wood....i thought i had gon to the promised land, the add said he was nearby and would service southern maryland but he was near chesapeake va (i think) and was too far away.....looked like a pretty good operatoin. been looking ever since......i might have found a guy that does a logging co and firewood.....used him this past season...think he's a keeper.

When you find someone that gives you a full load of wood, its seasoned and at a fair price.....don't lose his number.....

cass

The thing is i have the trusted guys number i just decided to give this one guy a shot. Ill just stack his wood for next year.

 

[Woody Stover]

he was cutting the tops which had laid there for a year....and it was all oak. Seasoned? Right...

Hey, it's more seasoned than if it had still been on the live tree. "Seasoning" is a relative term. :lol:

 

[LLigetfa]

That other guy sells at the same price the only difference he cuts splits and stack it and don't sell it till it seasoned.

Lemme see if I got this right. White Hat guy sells seasoned, cut, split, and stacked for the same price yet you buy wet wood from Mr. Black Hat? Am I missing something?

 

[Oldhippie]

Here in the north central Mass, and just below south west NH there are a lot of guys that sell wood.. and for the longest time I'd find one that was pretty good and then he'd get a "real job" and I'd have to find another one. I finally found a really good guy. He's been in business for a long time, it's quality wood, I buy it green and let it bake in my yard and save almost $60 a cord that way.

It's a rough business.. very hard on the body, you need lots of equipment to really make a buck, tough on trucks, saws, etc..

I think it's about $200 per cord green here now and I'm looking at doing more of my own cutting and getting a splitter. I've got plenty of standing hardwood. But my body isn't getting any younger either, at 62 my wife started getting on me that I wanted to get a nice shiny new stove to replace the Monster in the Living Room. "How much longer are you going to be able to feed that thing... yak yak yak!!"

"yes dear"

 

[Loco Gringo]

Dang hippie. Mucho respect for your effort.

 

[corey21]

That other guy sells at the same price the only difference he cuts splits and stack it and don't sell it till it seasoned.

Lemme see if I got this right. White Hat guy sells seasoned, cut, split, and stacked for the same price yet you buy wet wood from Mr. Black Hat? Am I missing something?

The guy that sold me the wood said it had been cut since last may. But he just split it last week for me. I did bring some in the house i am starting to wonder if it was cause the recent heavy rain around here.

 

[katwillny]

Corey, Corey, Corey. If only you'd listen to the wisdom of the Hearth. BE the Hearth. :coolsmile:
My first year, did the same thing, except I had no reputable supplier. I became my own supplier of DRY wood. Six years later, burning wood is SOOOOO much better.
Live and learn, eh?
We need a learning/knowledge/wisdom by osmosis gene or some such weirdness.

Is that a Ty Webb Reference from Caddyshack??? LmAo

 

[Huntindog1]

when u get the moisture meter split the wood and test it and report back as would be interested in what the reading is. But if its hissing its got moisture.

If its not too much above 20% you can split it all one more time and stack small batches by the stove to dry quickly.

 

[Oldhippie]

Dang hippie. Mucho respect for your effort.

I cut what I can, and buy what else I need. Still cheaper than paying the oil magnate.

 

[corey21]

Dang hippie. Mucho respect for your effort.

I cut what I can, and buy what else I need. Still cheaper than paying the oil magnate.

I agree wood is a lot cheaper.

 

[Ehouse]

I'd think that after the mild season we've had so far, folks in need of hard cash will be selling some of their stash. Might be a good time to score some good split and seasoned stuff, if you can beat the syrup makers to it.

Ehouse

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Corey,

If there is a LOWES near you, they have one for $29.99 and it has been a great resource for me to use. I am very new to this too so I took it to a local lumber yard to compare their fancy $300+ calibrations to my cheapo meter readings and they were all pretty much the same within fractions of percentages.

I was having a real hard time getting performance out of our new stove, all it we needed was to measure the wood and now we know what is good to burn and what isn't yet. It will amaze you once you start measuring, some will be greener than you would think and some of what we had was too seasoned - it was drier than the pallets wood we have (less than 7% measured on some splits)

Best $30 bucks I ever spent!

 

[Wood Duck]

If you have the space and the cash buy a couple of years worth of wood and season it yourself. I bet in a year or two it will burn even better than the seasoned wood you are used to.

 

[corey21]

If you have the space and the cash buy a couple of years worth of wood and season it yourself. I bet in a year or two it will burn even better than the seasoned wood you are used to.

I have been cutting and splitting since December to get ahead. Next Friday a tree cutting crew is going cut some trees down Their Getting in the way of the power line.

 

[nyyfan]

Corey I have been in the same spot as you. Last July I found a guy very close to me that was selling just over a cord of 4 foot length wood that was cut the previous summer. The price was awesome and purchased it since I just had to haul it back home cut it to length, split and season it. I rented a splitter and I noticed some of the pieces still had some moisture coming out of the ends. I let it bake in the sun till Oct before putting it in the wood shed to go along with the 2 cords I already had. I noticed when I put it away that it was still a little wet and heavy, but said what the hell, I have some dry stuff to burn now so I will let this stuff sit under cover for a few more weeks and when I started burning it that wood is burning just great and now when I stack my wood I will definetley make sure I cover the top. I found his email address this week and sent him an email and he has some more stuff so I think Im just gonna bye 3 to 5 cords from him and then Im planning on getting a grapple load of 7 plus cords for the years to follow. Finding a good dealer is very tough and I noticed the time of year when you buy your wood could make the difference as well in price.