white oak drying time

[johnsopi]

I cut some white oak in the spring 07 the bark is falling off all ready. I was not going to burn it till after 08-09 winter. But
question is, does the bark falling mean that it is ready to burn?

 

[babalu87]

Bark falling off has nothing to do with the wood being dry, it has more to do with the health of the tree when it was cut down.

The gypsy moths ran rough-shod over my property for two years straight and killed about 25% of my Oak trees. The bark started falling off this year and the trees are still standing, the wood on every one I have cut down is soaking wet and will need a minimum of one year facing SW stacked in single files to be ready for burning.

 

[bruce56bb]

yep, at least 1 GOOD year of drying time for white oak.

 

[johnsopi]

I did not think that oak could dry that fast, and had not planned to use it for a couple of years.

 

[wg_bent]

Yes, White oak takes a long time. More than a year.

 

[Todd]

Most of the time White Oak will take over 1 year to dry. I have some that is 2 years old and still registering 30% on the moisture meter. Red Oak doesn't seem to take as long.

 

[karl]

This is what amazes me. This my first burning season with a stove. I have used a fireplace for all of my life but that was more for decoration than heat. I have several neighbors who heat with wood. One of them just split his winter wood in the past week or so. The other guy has had huge rounds laying in his yard for a year or two. He hasn't even started splitting them yet. With this being my first season heating with wood, I did the best I could. I got about 3 1/2 cords split and stacked by June. I have another couple of cords I split in August. The Augest wood was standing dead and fallen trees that were pretty dry to begin with. I put these in single rows near the house in full sunlight. This is what I'm burning right now. It's working pretty well.

I asked one of the guys if his wood would be dry enough to burn and he said he loved green wood because it burnt slower. Everybody in here says a year or two for good seasoned wood. Everything else I have been told in here has been correct, so I'm splitting wood for next year right now, plus I shoud have some of this years left over. I just can't believe how many people are burning really green wood. I have seen pickup trucks full of split wood all over town and it looks really green.

 

[jqgs214]

That green wood will burn slower, cooler and dirtier too. Wonder if he knows that? Karl your doing the right thing. Stay ahead.

 

[DiscoInferno]

Most of the time White Oak will take over 1 year to dry. I have some that is 2 years old and still registering 30% on the moisture meter. Red Oak doesn't seem to take as long.

Always seemed the opposite to me - I've burned white oak after only 1 year seasoning, but red seems to require 2. Maybe it's just that red oak starts out with more water than white oak. I've got 3.5 cords of red oak I put up in may 07 that I sure hope I can burn come winter 08-09. It's certainly not ready for this year. But I have some white oak from Dec 06 that is down to 20% and I will probably burn this year.

 

[bjorn773]

The oak I am currently burning is 2 year old white oak. I burned most of it last year. In the stove I don't notice much difference, but in my smoker I sure do. I have a heck of a time getting that stuff going and usually mix it with apple to get it going. Then again, apple sure makes a tasty pork butt!!

 

[Heartwood]

I posted a question related to this thread elsewhere, but haven't heard anything, so I'm posting it here as it's directly related.

If I have oak splits of 15% moisture, and I mix in splits registering 25%, do the experts out there consider that this averages out to the same as burning wood of overall 20% moisture content in terms of creosote buildup, etc? Sure would help me make use of what I have.

 

[Todd]

I posted a question related to this thread elsewhere, but haven't heard anything, so I'm posting it here as it's directly related.

If I have oak splits of 15% moisture, and I mix in splits registering 25%, do the experts out there consider that this averages out to the same as burning wood of overall 20% moisture content in terms of creosote buildup, etc? Sure would help me make use of what I have.

I've been told by Woodstock that 25% is ok. I burned some at 25-28% this year just to see if there was any sizzle or hissing and there was none, it burned fine. Those cheap moistue meters could be off to.

 

[johnsopi]

My neighbors who heat with wood never cuts or spilts has wood he need it. Right now he has maybe 1/4 cord spilt and stacked. But
smoke that come out of that stack is some thing to see. A true smoke dragon.
The way he clean his chimney is he hits it with a broom and the creosote drop down the pipe into the stove. The other thing is he never looks for wood, friends and family just haul it over and dump it in his yard. It has been working for him for many years.

 

[tradergordo]

Around here most of us are interested in efficiency, safety, and clean burns. Burning wet wood is not efficient - you will have to burn a lot more to get the same heat, if in fact you CAN even get the same heat. Wet wood tends to smolder, and burn at lower temps with no secondary combustion, this causes creosote to form in the chimney, which is a safety hazzard. And finally wet wood does not burn clean - this is a problem on many different levels - for one thing, it causes major air polution which is unhealthy to breath, it can really annoy your neighbors, and it gives woodburning in general a bad name which tends to hurt all woodburners to some extent, and gets other people so worked up that they organize political movements to ban wood burning.

I say burn clean or don't burn at all.

 

[BrotherBart]

Red or white oak either one take exactly from the day I split it and put it on the stacks to the day it is cold and it is on the next stack in line to be ready to burn.

 

[WarmGuy]

John, you can weigh a few pieces each month and when the weight stops decreasing, it'll be as dry as it's going to get.