Seasoning 16" Rounds vs Splits
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StihlKicking
Feeling the Heat
I burned some 5 year old white oak in my fireplace this winter. It had been stacked in completely dry conditions the past 5 years. The splits were perfect, there were a few 5-6” unspilt rounds in the stack. Moisture still boiled out of the ends of these. Not sure if this applies across all species of wood in all locations.
Sawset
Minister of Fire
I think the comments in this article are interesting:
"White oak, on the other hand, has such a tight cell structure that water can't pass. That's why white oak works so well for whiskey barrels and outdoor furniture."
And for exposed wood on boats.
https://www.woodmagazine.com/materials-guide/lumber/understanding-wood-grain
I burned quite a bit of white oak this year. 3yrs stacked like all the others. After a while I kind of dreaded using it, because it seemed to burn slow and cold, like it was a little high in moisture, no sizzle, just weak. Everything else would take off like a match. Next year it will have another year to cure. We'll see.
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Eureka
Feeling the Heat
I’ve always had good luck with softwoods (pretty much whatever is under 20m BTU/cord) like boxelder, basswood, pine, spruce, etc under 10” getting dry in under 12 months but I’ve got a great drying area in the open. Mixed results with anything more dense but it usually doesn’t dry reliably unless split at least in half. Seems like there’s only a few woods around here that won’t last at least a couple years bucked and left in the round. Birch, willow, smooth-barked poplars, and soft maples to name a few.
StihlKicking
Feeling the Heat
Typically white oak burns really well for me if css for 3 years. As matter of fact the 5 year old white oak splits burned great, hot and long. It was the 5 year old unspilt rounds that retained moisture.
On another note I did have trouble with some green ash this year, it burned just as you described above , very weak and smoldery. Most of the time I consider green ash a premium firewood.
I see some people in this thread are burning soft woods, or coniferous species. Maybe in different parts of the country "soft" wood means different things so I may have my definition mixed up. Since I was a boy I've been advised against burning soft woods in my woodstoves because of creosote buildup. Have I been misled?
I've never even seen anybody advertise selling soft woods as firewood around the Northeast.
I've never even seen anybody advertise selling soft woods as firewood around the Northeast.
You have been mislead by the proverbial "old wives tale", you burn what you have and as long as its dry and have an airtight stove you can burn softwood. If its an old smoke dragon with crappy air control the stove can "run away" The bigger hassle is the density of softwood is far less than hardwood. This means a lot more trips back and forth to feed the stove and more volume of wood you need to store. Hardwood is readily available in most of NH so its the preferred wood to burn.
I always split rounds and limbs down to about 3". Unsplit wood can hold moisture for quite awhile.
Mostly true, for east coast softwoods. In some parts of the west we have more choices. In the rockies folks have access to alpine spruce which grows slowly and is quite dense, much more than lowland spruce. Out west there is also tamarack, doug fir and lodgepole pine. These are excellent fuels. I have been burning cherry hardwood for the past month, normally I burn doug fir. The hardwood coals a lot more which is nice for slower release of heat. It also creates a lot more ash. But I prefer doug fir and get some good long burns without more frequent refills. The doug fir ignites faster and gets the stove up to temp quicker. I burn thick splits which extend the burn time.
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Eureka
Feeling the Heat
I use the term softwood pretty loosely because of it’s use in my local wood market, which isn’t scientifically correct. Softwoods are technically only coniferous trees but around here it can include low BTU stuff like basswood, cedar, boxelder, poplar, etc.
I’m burning Green Ash rounds around 4” with the bark still on after a year in the shed, no problems. But it had died shortly before the loggers got to it. The only problem with Green Ash for me is that it tends to off gas more rapidly than some other woods. I think this is because it has an open grain like oak. Just my two cents worth.
Granite Statah
Member
Curious to see what these look like after they're popped open. Some birch and beech that were too big for my boys to lift onto the splittah, probably in the 20" dia range. We got an early snow in Nov and that was pretty much it....wait until spring. I took this shot last weekend. At least I can see the tops now.
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