Confounded by damp Cheerywood! :-/

[Woody Stover]

I lit a fire last night, and it took a while to get the cold stove rolling. When the top front split didn't seem to be catching and flaming in a top-down start, I opened the load door to have a look, and saw some moisture hissing out the end of the Black Cherry split. This wood sat in rounds for three years, rotted sapwood could be easily brushed or scraped off, some was moist, and I split it last fall, not real big. I jabbed a few with the moisture as I was splitting, and don't recall any readings that were much over 20%. Now, I read here a lot that Cherry "dries fast," so I thought for sure that everything would be down to at least 18% by the time I started burning it.
The split that was hissing last night was selected because it was not real big and I figured that would be dry for sure. It was showing moisture along the edges where it was starting to burn, which makes sense. Then it stopped hissing or showing moisture after the moisture you see in the pic was gone. This load was mostly Cherry, and none of the other splits showed any moisture or did any hissing.
I seem to recall that other Cherry in the past has hissed a bit, even after being split a couple years, so I thought at the time that maybe Cherry has a tendency to absorb water from rain that blows into the side of the stack. Not sure if that would happen more on Cherry than other species--maybe that would have to do with the wood structure of Cherry...?
I've also been burning some hard Maple that sat in rounds for two summers, at least, and was split toward the beginning of summer. I also have some BL where the rounds sat for maybe five years, and was also split last fall. That might be one of those, the small split in front, under the Cherry. It appears to show a small moist spot as well. Another thin one is behind the Cherry.
Once I got the load going, the burn progressed well, and high temps were attained. I thought that if wood was wet, you would see the effects further along in the load, maybe lower temps or less flaming in the box...that is doesn't get expelled from the centers of all the splits in the load.
My window has gotten a bit gunky a few times, so I've wondered whether the Maple or Cherry maybe were not quite fully dry.
The pics are in chronological order, first pic was earlier in rhe burn, second was later and as you see, wetness was subsiding. Has anyone seen examples of this seemingly residual/reabsorbed moisture that you figured should've been gone?

 

[shortys7777]

It really should be split and stacked to fully season. I have some hissing maple right now because apparently I left the tarp on to long and it wore out letting water in a few places. It gets going with some dry oak and I throw some lumber cut offs in. Takes a little longer to get to cruising temps but it's what I have right now so I deal with it.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Based on those cracks, it's moisture that seeped into the wood and is being cooked out. Left inside to dry for a week, I would betcha you are at about 14% MC.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'll have to crack open a couple of the bigger ones today and get a read, before I bring 'em in and move up some more wood. I'm bringing up some proven dry Red Maple and White Oak, and will leave the recently split old-round Maple and Cheery out until next year.
When I was splitting, I don't think I tested a lot of them, just jabbed a few and called it good. Size of the rounds could have made a difference, or who knows what? I mighta just happened to jab some drier ones. But usually in that situation I'll try to test the stuff that I think will be the wettest or what I'm working on--bigger rounds or whatever.
Yeah, when I posted the pics, I noticed the cracks and said "C'mon, how wet can this really be??"
But I'm still unsure how much wood can dry next to the stove. Like a lot of people, when I do that, it seems to work, but I guess I'd really need to meter it to see how much it actually helps. I mean, if you have to burn damp wood in the stove for a while to cook out moisture, how much can just sitting next to the stove do? It's barely getting warm, except the ends where the radiation is hitting...
And Cherry appears to have a different wood structure than, say, Oak, where the longitudinal "straws" are more pronounced.
The Cheery has been under cover since I split it last fall, unless like shortys7777 said, some water got past some of the metal roofing I had over it...stuff is kinda old and might have a couple rust holes or whatever.

 

[mpaul]

Why are you leaving your wood in rounds until just one season before use? Everything I have read / learned here says that wood needs 2-3 years to dry and wood left in rounds doesn’t dry out.

 

[brenndatomu]

Why are you leaving your wood in rounds until just one season before use? Everything I have read / learned here says that wood needs 2-3 years to dry and wood left in rounds doesn’t dry out.

This ^ ^ ^

 

[GrumpyDad]

I'll have to crack open a couple of the bigger ones today and get a read, before I bring 'em in and move up some more wood. I'm bringing up some proven dry Red Maple and White Oak, and will leave the recently split old-round Maple and Cheery out until next year.
When I was splitting, I don't think I tested a lot of them, just jabbed a few and called it good. Size of the rounds could have made a difference, or who knows what? I mighta just happened to jab some drier ones. But usually in that situation I'll try to test the stuff that I think will be the wettest or what I'm working on--bigger rounds or whatever.
Yeah, when I posted the pics, I noticed the cracks and said "C'mon, how wet can this really be??"
But I'm still unsure how much wood can dry next to the stove. Like a lot of people, when I do that, it seems to work, but I guess I'd really need to meter it to see how much it actually helps. I mean, if you have to burn damp wood in the stove for a while to cook out moisture, how much can just sitting next to the stove do? It's barely getting warm, except the ends where the radiation is hitting...
And Cherry appears to have a different wood structure than, say, Oak, where the longitudinal "straws" are more pronounced.
The Cheery has been under cover since I split it last fall, unless like shortys7777 said, some water got past some of the metal roofing I had over it...stuff is kinda old and might have a couple rust holes or whatever.

I used to burn wood so wet that it would sizzle and POP like crazy in our fireplace. It was just what was available when you need wood you call the wood guy for 'seasoned' wood. I still use the same guy and this year he brought me alot of oak, that was large and many pieces needed to be resplit. I was shocked to see the MC was on average 21%. Brought a few pieces inside to acclimate and the MC dropped to 18-20% after a fresh resplit. I then stacked them for the season. I have a small leak over the racks I built that I put some OSB over, and if I use that wood it will sizzle and pop for sure. So im working through another area and avoiding that stuff that is wet.

 

[RockCastile]

I've seen it mentioned in several other Hearth threads that cherry seems prone to a little sizzle even when measured below 20% mc. I burn a fair amount of it, usually cut/split/stacked at least a year and typically in the 16-17% mc range, and I routinely notice a brief bit of sizzle at start up.

 

[gzecc]

Split your wood. It barely seasons in rounds. You need to split and stack it anyway. Why wait? Everything but oak requires at least 12 months (one summer) to possibly be ready for a stove.
Two summers is optimal. Oak takes 3 summers unless split very small.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I lit a fire last night, and it took a while to get the cold stove rolling. When the top front split didn't seem to be catching and flaming in a top-down start, I opened the load door to have a look, and saw some moisture hissing out the end of the Black Cherry split. This wood sat in rounds for three years, rotted sapwood could be easily brushed or scraped off, some was moist, and I split it last fall, not real big. I jabbed a few with the moisture as I was splitting, and don't recall any readings that were much over 20%. Now, I read here a lot that Cherry "dries fast," so I thought for sure that everything would be down to at least 18% by the time I started burning it.
The split that was hissing last night was selected because it was not real big and I figured that would be dry for sure. It was showing moisture along the edges where it was starting to burn, which makes sense. Then it stopped hissing or showing moisture after the moisture you see in the pic was gone. This load was mostly Cherry, and none of the other splits showed any moisture or did any hissing.
I seem to recall that other Cherry in the past has hissed a bit, even after being split a couple years, so I thought at the time that maybe Cherry has a tendency to absorb water from rain that blows into the side of the stack. Not sure if that would happen more on Cherry than other species--maybe that would have to do with the wood structure of Cherry...?
I've also been burning some hard Maple that sat in rounds for two summers, at least, and was split toward the beginning of summer. I also have some BL where the rounds sat for maybe five years, and was also split last fall. That might be one of those, the small split in front, under the Cherry. It appears to show a small moist spot as well. Another thin one is behind the Cherry.
Once I got the load going, the burn progressed well, and high temps were attained. I thought that if wood was wet, you would see the effects further along in the load, maybe lower temps or less flaming in the box...that is doesn't get expelled from the centers of all the splits in the load.
My window has gotten a bit gunky a few times, so I've wondered whether the Maple or Cherry maybe were not quite fully dry.
The pics are in chronological order, first pic was earlier in rhe burn, second was later and as you see, wetness was subsiding. Has anyone seen examples of this seemingly residual/reabsorbed moisture that you figured should've been gone?
View attachment 310794View attachment 310795

I did a thread a number of years back about how wood sitting as rounds really dont season. I think that the rounds sat for 2 years and when split open the inside was like 34 to 38% MC. Not only that but BTUs get lost due to some rot and the outer ring getting punky. Cherry does dry fast but if rain is getting on it, it slows the process. It doesn't matter really what the outside looks like the checking and color, If the outer portion continues to get wet the inside has a hard time losing its moisture because the outside which is supposed to be dryer isn't.. there for the inside which is the hardest to get seasoned and have the MC pulled out is now seasoning at a super slow rate..

 

[Woody Stover]

Why are you leaving your wood in rounds until just one season before use? Everything I have read / learned here says that wood needs 2-3 years to dry and wood left in rounds doesn’t dry out.

Split your wood. It barely seasons in rounds. You need to split and stack it anyway. Why wait? Everything but oak requires at least 12 months (one summer) to possibly be ready for a stove.
Two summers is optimal. Oak takes 3 summers unless split very small.

Sure, I could've gone with the conventional approach, just bring up the driest wood I have which is White Oak and BL that's been split five or seven years, don't recall. But I don't always go by the book; I've found that there's a pretty wide range of what can happen with this wood stuff. Plus I like to always have Cherry on hand to burn, if I feel like it. I thought this was all I had on hand, and it seemed to meter just a hair over 20%, so I gave it a shot. I don't think every split is sizzling, but that one in the pic was actually bubbling out for a while, so that got me wondering.

Turns out I did have other Cherry I coulda used, on the front of a Red Maple stack. Stacked for a couple summers. DOH! 😴


A lot of times, I cut rounds but then don't stack 'em right away if I've got something more pressing. Or I'll have a deadstanding Oak or whatever that I don't drop right away, I might wait for the sapwood to get crumbly so that it's easily removed.
It depends, among other things, what specie it is regarding how fast it will dry in rounds. Red Oak could take many years in round form to dry, I haven't experimented with that much yet. I know that Red Oak is usually pretty wet inside.

Contrast to that, the dead Post Oak (a White type) that I've been aware of for years, at SIL1's house, and I was waiting for the sapwood to fall off. Tree (14") finally fell, but hung up. Bummer (danger.) But then it blew down in a big wind event last week...thank you! 😎 It fell on and bent over a couple saplings, and she urged me to come over and save them ASAP, which I done did do. The entire top that I cut felt pretty light for White Oak type, and metered at 16-18%. Giving back a couple points since it was upper-40s out, that's still easily burnable in her secondary stove so I put some on and below her porch stack. Anything above 20% (probably the remainder of the trunk) will be shedded, then tested next fall. Pretty confident it'll be good to go.

this year he brought me alot of oak, that was large and many pieces needed to be resplit. I was shocked to see the MC was on average 21%. Brought a few pieces inside to acclimate and the MC dropped to 18-20% after a fresh resplit.

Yep, like I said, wide range of outcomes can be expected the more you deal with wood..

I've seen it mentioned in several other Hearth threads that cherry seems prone to a little sizzle even when measured below 20% mc. I burn a fair amount of it, usually cut/split/stacked at least a year and typically in the 16-17% mc range, and I routinely notice a brief bit of sizzle at start up.

Yeah, I seemed to recall those posts as well, but searching before I posted this thread, I wasn't finding them.
I, too, am thinking there is something fishy about Cherry, like maybe it's capable of absorbing a bit more water than other species, if rain blows in on the stack or whatever.

Not only that but BTUs get lost due to some rot and the outer ring getting punky.

Yeah, I've been seeing wood that's been sitting in rounds a long time, that looks like it's compromised. Even the Black Locust, which is supposedly really resistant to rot, a few of those rounds looked a little less solid than they shoulda been I thought. Most of it was still great, but there were those few...
Now, this is kind of embarrassing...extreme example of what can happen. White Oak rounds that went uncovered for maybe three or four years before I finally scored some sheet metal and threw it over the top. Better late than never, but I think I tossed some serious BTU out the window on that deal! 😫 On the other hand, I bet some of this will smell just heavenly when I finally crack it open. 🤗


So with a day in the 40s, I rounded up some splits to jab; Right to left, two of the biggest Cherry from the same batch as the sizzler, a smaller BL also split in the fall, after sitting in rounds for at about seven years. And a Cherry from the new stash I found, fresh but split two years. Everything was 11- 17%. Adding 3 pts. for low outside temp, that's still all pretty dry... Shouldn't be sizzling I wouldn't think, unless it absorbed rain water.
The hard Maple rounds were also out there three summers, cut from a live but dying tree that was too close to the house. I split that a few months before the Cherry, and I think I was getting like 21 or 22%, and figured with several summer months more drying it would be pretty good. Now, it's true that as the moisture approaches the lowest point it will get to, drying the last couple percent takes longer. But a test split hard Maple also tested 16%. It's not in this pic.

 

[Jay106n]

My black cherry always hisses unless I have 2 summers on it