Ash seasons quickly?

[rudysmallfry]

So I recently scored a ton of what I thought was red oak but am being told it is ash. I was also told that I can burn it right away since ash seasons quickly. That stuff won't be in my stove until at least next season, but is there any truth to that?

 

[Beer Belly]

We had a couple of Ash taken down not long ago....it was not in the best of health. It's been split and stacked about 2 months, it's still a little higher on moisture than I like (18-22%) on a fresh split, but we let it sit next to the stove for a couple hours before throwing it in, and it's burning okay.

 

[Woody Stover]

If it was dead standing it should be pretty decent by next winter but great the following winter. If it was live it won't be as dry, obviously...
I just cut up a dead-stander that fell down. Lots of the smaller branches gone and the bark is loose in spots. Still metering out to 24% and I'm hoping it can get down to <18% by fall, I don't know.

 

[Ralphie Boy]

If you're in a hurry for wood, make the splits smaller. With sun and wind the smaller splits should be ready next fall.

 

[TimJ]

what seasons faster......................silver maple or ash

 

[swagler85]

Here is a link and discussion recently posted by Dennis

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/they-say-ash-is-good-to-burn-right-after-cutting.93517/

 

[Woody Stover]

what seasons faster......................silver maple or ash

Red Maple seasons faster than Ash or Cherry in my experience (limited) so I would assume Silver does too. I just scored some Silver so I'm about to find out...

 

[Backwoods Savage]

what seasons faster......................silver maple or ash

Maple.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

So I recently scored a ton of what I thought was red oak but am being told it is ash. I was also told that I can burn it right away since ash seasons quickly. That stuff won't be in my stove until at least next season, but is there any truth to that?

Geeze Rudy, I keep hearing that same crap over and over and over no matter where I go. My guess is at some time somebody made that statement and all the lazy people latched onto it. After all, now they won't have to cut wood until it is needed. Sorry, but that is how many still do it.

But to answer your question, no. There is no truth to it. Ash is indeed one of the lowest moisture woods that we can choose from but it is still too high moisture to burn right away. Best I'd do would be a year but we are very fortunate here in that we can leave it 3 years or more in the stack. It really burns nicely then! Oh, and by the way, we have not cleaned our chimney for 4 years now. There is no need. Why? It is from burning that great dry firewood. Most of it has been ash.