Ever heard of this trick?

[RedNeck Wrangler]

An old timer told me, the trick to burning white birch is not to split it but to score it down through the bark the entire length of your logs with your chain saw. He said that it would increase it's burn time. He said he learned it from an old timer many years ago. Anyone ever heard of this?

 

[jpl1nh]

Never heard of that before but it makes sense. Doubt it would increas the burn time but it would break through the otherwise watertight casing of birch bark which makes it so hard to season birch without spiltting it, even on smaller rounds. Is Alton Bog in NH?

 

[BrotherBart]

Is Alton Bog in NH?

Maine.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

By scoring it, you do create a sort of vent for evaporation, but the fact still remains that you need to get rid of the moisture in all wood, including birch. And the best way to open things up to get rid of moisture is to split it. However, if you plan on not burning this birch for at least a year, then you could get by without even scoring it! It will dry within a year just by cutting into firewood length.

EDIT: Yes, I have heard of this method, but as you can tell, I still don't think too much of the idea.

 

[rich81]

i like birch