Hey all feel free to move the post if needed; been searching and couldn’t quite find it, so forgive me if it’s in here somewhere. Looking for the drying time of red elm? Came into some recently and will be getting it/splinting sometime this spring. It was cut green. Thinking 1-2 years? My summers are hot and windy. June typically mild but July on tends to be 90s or triple digits. Maybe a perfect opportunity to try my first kiln job. Thanks.
Drying time
- Thread starter MMH
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usernametaken
Burning Hunk
2 years for green cut in our climate but you are likely a lot drier there.
Most of the elm I scrounge is dead standing. Six months to a year depending on time dead and diameter. The odd small trees and branches are 20 percent MC at felling.
Most of the elm I scrounge is dead standing. Six months to a year depending on time dead and diameter. The odd small trees and branches are 20 percent MC at felling.
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
18 months according to this chart, depending on climate
Firewood BTU & Drying Chart
The only sortable firewood BTU chart on the internet, with average drying times!
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DuaeGuttae
Minister of Fire
How long does it take you to dry the woods you regularly burn? Juniper, pine, and mountain mahogany, right? I'd expect that red elm would fall somewhere between juniper and mahogany.
I haven't got any experience with elm, but I'd expect drying times in Nevada to be much faster than what most people experience on this forum just due to your arid climate and high levels of solar irradiance. We moved from Virginia to Texas Hill Country a few years ago, and it's a very different wood seasoning experience down here. Even our unsplit live oak branch wood can season in a year. In Virginia we had to split oak small and give it two summers. (It would have been better to leave it bigger and season it longer, but we were pushing storage space in our small suburban lot.)
It would be an interesting experiment to do a kiln if you wanted to. I'd check pretty frequently, though, as the high sun intensity would dry things out fast. We have a back room of an otherwise unused barn that heats up remarkably. We've just started putting wood in there as a sort of kiln.
Do you have a moisture meter?
I haven't got any experience with elm, but I'd expect drying times in Nevada to be much faster than what most people experience on this forum just due to your arid climate and high levels of solar irradiance. We moved from Virginia to Texas Hill Country a few years ago, and it's a very different wood seasoning experience down here. Even our unsplit live oak branch wood can season in a year. In Virginia we had to split oak small and give it two summers. (It would have been better to leave it bigger and season it longer, but we were pushing storage space in our small suburban lot.)
It would be an interesting experiment to do a kiln if you wanted to. I'd check pretty frequently, though, as the high sun intensity would dry things out fast. We have a back room of an otherwise unused barn that heats up remarkably. We've just started putting wood in there as a sort of kiln.
Do you have a moisture meter?
I have a meter yes; the pine and juniper can be seasoned in 6-12 months usually. The mahogany, not so sure I’d guess at least a year maybe more but it’s so hard I can’t get a meter into it. I usually try and cut stuff I know is dead that’s barkless or with the bark copiously falling off. I found the same for the elm 12-18 months, I’m guessing I could do 8-12 in my climate. If I do a kiln (which I think I might just to test etc) I’m thinking it wouldn’t take more than 30 ish days depending on which month.
I don't know about red elm but I have heard that elm, and that could mean American elm, that is dead standing and barkless can readily split and makes very good firewood. And that if it's split green (which will be very difficult), it will not be very good wood. But I have split some green American elm (with hydraulic splitter) and I think it burned well.
Yeah I’ve read that red elm is actually pretty descent wood (everyone has their own opinions), but btu 19-21.6 (I see 21.6 more often) and pretty rot resistant (read this in a few places). I’ve got a coworker who lets met use her splitter so think it’ll be okay.
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