Good rule of thumb for burning or....? All my grey has been css for 9 plus and its red maples, hickory and sugar maple. Split a big ole split and dry so is there a correlation?
if its grey its good?
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Not really, sun bleaches on out side, but can be still too high a mc inside. I highly doubt that the hickory will be ready little short time wise on the harder maples also. Only way to tell is to resplit down the middle and check with a moisture meter. The inexpensive one from Harbor freight works well enough for me. Also depends on your climate conditions for the past 9 months in your local.
iodonnell said:
Exterior color has little to do with the inside MC in my opinion, the sun will fade the color rather quickly.
I have some ash that is top covered from the day I cut/split it over 2 years ago and the outside is still close to the day I split it. I have a heap of oak that I cut in November of last year and the pieces on the outside of the heap look many years old due to the sun fading them out.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
As others have said . . . the sun will fade the wood to gray pretty quickly. I have a stack of wood I put up a little less than a month or so ago and it is already turning gray from the sun . . . whereas I have a stack of wood that was bucked and split over a year ago, but is not very gray as it was sitting in the shade. That said . . . I always like the look of faded gray, weather checked firewood -- it just looks more natural.
Stump_Branch
Minister of Fire
Its a so so litmus test for having wood delivered. If at least its started to turn, theres some visual evidence. Doesnt mean its ready, but at least you can see it wasnt split yesterday. Like some who season in log length..
golfandwoodnut
Minister of Fire
I think it turns grey more from the rain hitting it than the sun. It is the weathering process. As others have said I have seen grey wood not seasoned and clear wood that is seasoned.
golfandwoodnut
Minister of Fire
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
In my stacks the wood on the outside turns grey, but wood on the inside (I have large, round stacks so some wood never sees the sun or much rain) looks bright even after a couple of years. I think the inside wood is about as dry as the outside, grey wood, it just isn't grey. I can't tell if it is sun or rain that turns the wood grey. Usually the pieces that get sun also get rain.
madrone
Minister of Fire
A lot of my wood dries under an open-sided shed, and never greys no matter how dry it gets. Some of the wood kept outside the shed turns grey before it's ready to burn.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Our rain usually comes with an east, NE or SE wind so the east side tends to get more rain. We have some stacks now that were stacked in April 2009. The west side is gray. The east side is still light colored.
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