Experienced Oak Burners and Seasoning

If you got 22% several splits that were at room temp, re-split, and measured on the fresh face, I would say you'll be OK for next season.
This is really a question for the "Wood Shed" forum, though...

If the wood was at room temperature when you split a piece, and it reads 21%, then it should be below 20% next fall/winter.

Yeah, cold wood will read low moisture %. Get several of your biggest splits and warm them inside for a day, then re-split and test, jamming the pins into the center of the fresh face.
A mod will have to move the thread..

Kind of rare to be able to buy wood that has been split for a year, good if you found someone doing that.

How are you for the next year? 2020-2021? I'd get fully that far ahead, at least.

I wouldn't give up on that for next year - you should be able to drop it a few points over the summer. A couple accurate room temp readings might help. I'm not really sure how much % reading difference there would be between outside temp & inside temp wood, haven't tried that myself - curious what you find there.

It is commonly recommended that your test split or splits should be left indoors overnight to get up to room temp. Testing several splits would be a better way to get a average as well. If you do some research here you will find that many moisture meters are calibrated to read wood moisture content correctly when the wood is at or near 70F degrees. Let us know what you find.

I bet its 23-25%, just a guess but it's not super cold now, either was should be down to 20 next year.

jnalexis said:

@maple1 I messaged my wife and asked her to bring in one of the biggest splits she could carry into the house. I’ll report back this evening with what I find. I can definitely say I tested probably about a dozen of the larger splits while re-stacking into the wood shed (split, Pin’s middle of fresh split face) and everything was between 20%-22%. So I feel it’s safe to say that is a constant for that part of the equation. Now just to see the change in temps effect.

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It might take a couple days for it to get to room temp.

jnalexis said:

I tested probably about a dozen of the larger splits while re-stacking into the wood shed (split, Pin’s middle of fresh split face) and everything was between 20%-22%. So I feel it’s safe to say that is a constant for that part of the equation. Now just to see the change in temps effect.

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I would think about 3% but I haven't verified that. Different species will also give different readings but I don't think the correction factor for that is very big, under 2%.

trguitar said:

If the wood was at room temperature when you split a piece, and it reads 21%, then it should be below 20% next fall/winter.

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Yeah, anything <22% should burn, but you may take a bit of a hit in heat output, might have to burn in the load longer, etc.
What stove is that? [You can put it in your signature, mouse over your name at the top of the page for the drop-down menu.]

Well I have brought my share of cold wood into the house to warm up for a day, then take it outside and split it, and then take a moisture reading. Geez, does that get old fast. I have no idea how accurate this conversion table is, but it is from Delmhorst a respected moisture meter manufacturer. It is from their website, so should be OK for me to post it here.

To use it, find your cold measurement across the top right under Meter Readings, then look down the column and then across at the temperature to find the actual moisture content.

For example, let's say you are measuring 20% and your wood is at 20 The actual moisture content is 28%.
Let's say the wood temp is 40 The actual moisture content is 24%

When you look down the table to 60 you'll see 21% and going to 80 you'll see 19%. Their meters are calibrated for 70 and that would give you the 20% moisture reading.

I like this because at the very least I feel like it's getting me in the ball park without a lot of hauling in, waiting, hauling out and re-splitting, etc.

Here's the link for anyone that wants to check it out on their site.

https://www.delmhorst.com/correction-tables#temperature

Around here I like 2 years minimum and optimally 3 years for oak.

I'm on my 7th year now burning mostly red oak and Ash, about 3 cords a year. At the third year is when I use it and we would be 14-17%. I don't use the meter much but I did check and got many readings 20-24% the other week on most splits. It is a new meter that has 4 different settings depending on the wood type. So it will vary from 14-24% if you toggle the setting around. The wood feels dry, sounds dry, fires right up, and the glass is 100% clean. So I'm burning it! We did have a very wet year so I was a little suspect of the wood. My thoughts are with most hardwood you need 3 plus years in a good drying environment. The meter is a good tool but can give different results. The 3 year plan works best for me overall.

We don't have oak here, but I do mostly hard maple which I think is similar.

I also usually only go after windfalls or maybe the odd standing dead. There is a definite difference between 1 & 2 years, and even 2 & 3 years though maybe not quite as much as between 1 & 2. 3 years is pretty well absolute prime. That's drying time after splitting & stacking, not counting the time it is either laying on the floor or standing dead before I got to it. I also have a very good open exposed seasoning area.

I had white oak on pallets, two 5x6' rows with a top cover tarp and it was pretty solidly 18-20% after 18 months (two summers). The wood was mostly smaller on the ~2lb side though. That shed looks like it will season nicely.

ValleyCottageSplitter said:

I had white oak on pallets, two 5x6' rows with a top cover tarp and it was pretty solidly 18-20% after 18 months (two summers). The wood was mostly smaller on the ~2lb side though. That shed looks like it will season nicely.

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Two years exposed should be more than enough, nothing wrong with getting on the three year plan though, takes any doubt out of the equation.

jnalexis said:

@maple1 I messaged my wife and asked her to bring in one of the biggest splits she could carry into the house. I’ll report back this evening with what I find. I can definitely say I tested probably about a dozen of the larger splits while re-stacking into the wood shed (split, Pin’s middle of fresh split face) and everything was between 20%-22%. So I feel it’s safe to say that is a constant for that part of the equation. Now just to see the change in temps effect.

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jnalexis said:

Hey Everyone.

Looking for a little guidance to prep for next year. White/red oak is reading about 21%-22% right now. Do you think this will be ready for next season? Everyone around here sells cords that have only been split for about 1 year, so I just want to get my head straight if I need to start searching for dry wood.

Any insight from the folks here who season a lot of oak would be really appreciated.

Thanks again!

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Great shed by the way. Every month of May , I am splitting wood for the future seasons. I need more space to store in a cover area , I want to have always 3 to 4 cords drying in the full sun. I will build this style of shed as soon as the snow is gone. I can see it is made up of 2x4 and 4x4, won't take long to put this together .

Never used a moisture meter, but here's what all my stoves have told me over the past decade or more: red and white oak seems to burn best with at least a year more (cut/split/stacked) than all the other varieties I burn, from ash to apple, birch to beech, cherry to chestnut (nope, just kiddin'), hemlock to hickory, maple soft to maple hard, and pine to poplar. That mean 3+ instead of 2+ years.

I've had cherry season in under a year.

If that is an accurate 21-22% it should be ready for next year if it is not stored in a sauna.

My meter hasn't been more than about 5% different outdoor/indoor and I wouldn't use results from it and apply them to another device unless I knew for certain they both shared the exact same electronic internals and calibration.