2 kinds of "wet" wood

[Adios Pantalones]

Suppose that you have fresh cut wood at some very high moisture content (over 100% is possible, depending on which definition that you use). You let this dry for a year and it's in a good burning moisture content.

Now- suppose you take that wood and submerge it in water until it's back at the starting content- will it take less time to dry?

I have heard this speculated several times. I have a mess o' pine that I have cut and split that has been down for 2 years. Lots of big nasty beetle holes, and water gushing out when split. Will this dry quickly now, as the fibers/cells are sort of disrupted?

Thanks

 

[burntime]

There is cellular (like fresh cut) and I forget the waterlogged one (like rain). Cellular takes a long time, the water logged kind is like a month or tow depending on how wet. I have both read this and unfortunately experienced it with a wet october and it was december before the wood was dry :~(

 

[savageactor7]

Here's my experience with wet wood.

In my woods trees go down in wet swampy areas and I can't recover them until the area dries up...sometimes that could mean 3 years. After that long wood gets punky but as part of a general housekeeping activity I'll drag 20 or more of these logs out in a morning...lets say in mid July. Just say'en not all that dead fall is punky but more than 50% is. So I cut and split these punky wood for campfires..or shoulder season. Once split that punky wood is good to burn indoors in 6-8 weeks of good seasoning, dead fall wet wood in 3 months.

I reported on here that I'll burn punky trash wood as a shoulder season fix....burn hot and goes out fast. Although its mostly for campfires I try to burn it all to get rid of it over the winter shoulder seasons cause I have no shortage of it and we want to keep the woods open to wheeled vehicle traffic which means more housekeeping.

My other live trees would not burn as well if I C&S;them in July and expected them to burn at maximum performance level indoors in the fall...but yes they would burn in a campfire with a little extra effort.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

That has sort of been my experience: hardwood loses density and effectively becomes more like a softwood. For the stuff that doesn't get punky- it still seems to wet/dry quicker.

The middle of these big pines is still reasonably solid (for a pine), but these beetles leave holes big enough that I splut a log and there was a salamander in there this weekend.

 

[savageactor7]

No kidding you split a salamander out of that pine...holy cow!

Just wanted to clarify all that wet trashy wood I drag out of the swamp and woods has to split or it's useless to burn...even the 4" pieces.

Another good thing about hauling those trees out is that all the branches are gone for some reason so when I do this kind of work it's a real easy take and most of the time is sitting on the tractor. Actually you could say I kind of enjoy it cause it's way out of my routine.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I wouldn't have seen the salamander except that I was looking for the beetles to squish.

I hear you on losing branches- they clean themselves up.

The stuff that was wet all still had bark on it. Whatever didn't was drier and had few if any insect holes. The beetles looked like the pics of Asian Lonhorned Beetles I've seen, but they're not as dark as the pics.

 

[brooktrout]

You have way too much time on your hands...and since that's the case, you can compare several sample splits of "wet" wood, "refried wet" wood, and "double-dipped wet" wood over an 18-24 month period. Let us know how it turns out. ;-)

 

[begreen]

I got some free big leaf maple rounds last year that were very wet from laying on damp ground. The rounds were over a year old, bark falling off and checked. I split them up in July and each split was wet and heavy. But I think the cellular moisture was long gone because by November they were dry enough to start burning. We heated our house all last winter with this wood and it was fine.

 

[Vic99]

Here in MA, last summer, we had a drought such that the 80 ft wide river in my back yard dried to a trickle no wider than your forearm. I cleaned up with lots of dead, barkless trees that had washed down river. Actually burned some of it mid winter. Moisture meter levels were acceptable. Although it was tough to figure out species, a lot of the wood was very solid and seemed to burn normally.

I also split open to find a salamander last month. Yesterday found a couple of slugs under bark after I whacked with the maul.

 

[gibson]

I have two cords of red oak that I have just stacked. Said to have been down since march or april 08. There are many smaller splits. Any chance it was be OK this winter? It has been hot and windy.

 

[brooktrout]

Oak will take longer- even stuff that's been down a few months. Better wait till next winter. Especially with a nice stove like yours.