How to tell if wood is green or wet...or...I just suck at lighting fires?

[dblii]

Hi there folks,

I just received about 2 cords of Eucalytpus wood from a friend. I need to recheck with him on how he handled the wood exactly, but it's my recollection that it was cut down about 2 years back and split....I don't believe it was stacked...not sure though....

In either case, I went to light some of this stuff up today, and had zero luck. The edges of the wood was showing damp spots and was ... boiling on the ends.. It wasnt super bad, but my assumption was that the wood was in a better state.

At this point, I am not sure if the wood is green or just damp ( we are in a fairly moist coastal area )... in either case after babying the wood in the fireplace for 30 mintues...I couldnt get it to stay lit with the door shut and all the airsources opened up ( This is a BIS Ultra fireplace )... If I keep the door opened and feed it newspaper/kindling it would seems to do slightly ok, but even then it would really light up ...

So, either I suck at building a fire, or ...the wood is simply to wet or too green or both. How to know the diff between the two? I will be moving some of the wood into our house to see if it gets better over the next few weeks...my assumption is that if it doesn't then .. it is crap wood and I will have to look at the ugly two cords of useless wood for another year or so

-Don

 

[Eric Johnson]

If it's green, then it will take at least a year to dry properly. If it's just wet, then it should dry out pretty fast.

You can stick a chunk in the kitchen range for an hour under low heat and see it it's any better. Keep an eye on it, while you do.

Water boiling out the ends is not a good sign.

ANY wood will burn well when dried properly. That usually involves keeping it dry and ventilated. You can also buy a moisture meter for around $30 that should give you a good idea of the status of your wood.

 

[begreen]

It may be wet from lying on the ground. Eucalyptus burns nicely when dry.

 

[myzamboni]

Well-seasoned Eucalyptus burns like it was dipped in gasoline. There shouldn't be any issue with getting it to burn. Of courser there are many different varities of Eucalyptus, but I am speaking of the Bay Area Eucalyptus that you probably received (the bark falls off easily and the underlying wood is almost white in appearance).

 

[dblii]

Well, seems like our issue is solved. Instead of trying to light the fire with the eucalyptus, we through some oak on first. once the heated up the firebox and was going well, we through on the euc....it burns great in that way. We've been tossing on all kinds of logs over the past day with no die outs. Seems like the wood is a bit damp though and isnt easy to light so we are just working around it.

 

[jtp10181]

Sounds like it was seasoned but got damp at some point. The hot firebox will quickly get rid of the surface moisture and get the wood going.

 

[Henz]

buy a moisture meter!