I've mentioned some of the following before, but wanted to sat it apart in it's own thread. Since we're moving into the slow time of the year here I figured it'd give folks something to mutter about.
My perception of storing and drying wood is that the drying process doesn't truly start until the wood is cut, split, and stacked (piled in the case of SandW ).
I've been reading about folks storing wood in log lengths for several years and in stove length rounds for an extended period. It seems most often of the conversation is storing in log length. This has me wondering about the future quality of wood stored in log lengths.
Having recently processed some standing dead oak (>1 year dead) and some clear-cut oak logs (down on the ground for not quiet a year) I have ran into some punky wood...especially with the standing dead wood. It seems to me that it would be natural for a long log to hold in more moisture within the bark envelope and cell structure of the rings than short, stove-length rounds would hold in. It seems to me that holding the moisture inside would give bacteria, bugs, etc., more of a food reserve to draw upon for an extended period of time and thus promote a faster breakdown in the wood fiber. Being as the cellular structure appears to run with the axis of the log, cutting the logs in stove length rounds should let the punk-contributing moisture escape quicker, lessening the formation of punky wood.
In the instance of the standing dead oak mentioned above, most of the logs had an inch of punk on their outer edges while the smaller 3"(?) limbs only had maybe an inch or so of non-punky wood in the center of them.
If I can get some 16"-20" sized *green* oak logs (maybe trying pine would give quicker results) I may try an experiment where I leave a log in a 4' length, cut another 4' log into three 16" rounds splitting one of those rounds into firewood sized splits and see how the outer edges turn out in regards to punk. Gotta get the log first, though...
Seems to me that leaving wood intended to be used for firewood in log lengths would be similar to wrapping a stack of split wood with a tarp...it seems neither should dry well and both would promote mold and mildew. I know that I've gotta take into consideration that I'm in the hot and humid deep south and also that I'm a rank newbie, so...just thinkin'....
I guess my curiosity is whether storing wood in tree length logs promotes more punk to form than:
(1) Storing wood in stove length cut rounds.
(2) Storing wood c/s/s.
Here is an excellent web page dealing with wood structure down in the microscopic range that I stumbled upon while surfing...
Structure of Wood: Society of Wood Science and Technology - Teaching Unit No. 1
Anyhow, anybody wanta comment? Has anybody already ran an experiment like I'm proposing?
Just some (probably very jumbled) thoughts,
Ed
My perception of storing and drying wood is that the drying process doesn't truly start until the wood is cut, split, and stacked (piled in the case of SandW ).
I've been reading about folks storing wood in log lengths for several years and in stove length rounds for an extended period. It seems most often of the conversation is storing in log length. This has me wondering about the future quality of wood stored in log lengths.
Having recently processed some standing dead oak (>1 year dead) and some clear-cut oak logs (down on the ground for not quiet a year) I have ran into some punky wood...especially with the standing dead wood. It seems to me that it would be natural for a long log to hold in more moisture within the bark envelope and cell structure of the rings than short, stove-length rounds would hold in. It seems to me that holding the moisture inside would give bacteria, bugs, etc., more of a food reserve to draw upon for an extended period of time and thus promote a faster breakdown in the wood fiber. Being as the cellular structure appears to run with the axis of the log, cutting the logs in stove length rounds should let the punk-contributing moisture escape quicker, lessening the formation of punky wood.
In the instance of the standing dead oak mentioned above, most of the logs had an inch of punk on their outer edges while the smaller 3"(?) limbs only had maybe an inch or so of non-punky wood in the center of them.
If I can get some 16"-20" sized *green* oak logs (maybe trying pine would give quicker results) I may try an experiment where I leave a log in a 4' length, cut another 4' log into three 16" rounds splitting one of those rounds into firewood sized splits and see how the outer edges turn out in regards to punk. Gotta get the log first, though...
Seems to me that leaving wood intended to be used for firewood in log lengths would be similar to wrapping a stack of split wood with a tarp...it seems neither should dry well and both would promote mold and mildew. I know that I've gotta take into consideration that I'm in the hot and humid deep south and also that I'm a rank newbie, so...just thinkin'....
I guess my curiosity is whether storing wood in tree length logs promotes more punk to form than:
(1) Storing wood in stove length cut rounds.
(2) Storing wood c/s/s.
Here is an excellent web page dealing with wood structure down in the microscopic range that I stumbled upon while surfing...
Structure of Wood: Society of Wood Science and Technology - Teaching Unit No. 1
Anyhow, anybody wanta comment? Has anybody already ran an experiment like I'm proposing?
Just some (probably very jumbled) thoughts,
Ed