Kiln dried question

[BeardMilk]

I work at a hardwood lumberyard and have access to basically unlimited amounts of cutoffs. Its all 4/4-6/4 oak, maple, etc., which is dried to 6-8% MC. Would this be too dry to burn in a cat stove like a BK Princess insert? If so, would leaving it sit outside for a while bring up the MC to an acceptable level?

I'm looking to put a stove in this year but really don't want to burn the house down.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Wow. Almost all of us on here would love your dilemma. I would leave that beautiful dry cut offs alone and maybe just keep some 20% or so firewood to add to it. Once reaching 6% I doubt if leaving it outside would change it much. Good luck. If I weren't 2000 miles away I'd come take that low moisture wood off you're hands

 

[English BoB]

I work at a hardwood lumberyard and have access to basically unlimited amounts of cutoffs. Its all 4/4-6/4 oak, maple, etc., which is dried to 6-8% MC. Would this be too dry to burn in a cat stove like a BK Princess insert? If so, would leaving it sit outside for a while bring up the MC to an acceptable level?

I'm looking to put a stove in this year but really don't want to burn the house down.

I will say yes.
If burnt alone.
mix with other wood.

 

[stevemd]

Several year ago I had access to the same king of lumber.in my experience leaving it outside wont raise the moisture content.It would be best if you mix it with regular firewood.I burned it alone but be VERY careful it gets hot quick any is easy to overfire the stove

 

[Wood Duck]

I can't believe that stacking it outside wouldn't raise the moisture content. However, the kiln-dried stuff will all be relatively small, so it might make sense to mix it with some large splits, in which case the dryness of the kiln dried stuff wouldn't be as big a deal.

I'd bring lots of kiln-dried wood home and stack it for a year. I think the ambient humidity in Wisconsin will moisten it up a bit.

 

[BeardMilk]

Thanks for the info guys. Sounds like the way to go is buy some split wood this spring and mix this KD stuff with it next winter.

 

[peakbagger]

A air tight stove with tight gaskets on the doors will really help. A loose smoke dragon would be more of a handful. Ideally you want to control the stove by loading wood in slowly rather than filling it up and controlling it with the air supply. Lot better chance of an overfire with full woodbox. I would expect all night burns is out of the picture.

 

[blades]

generally if stored for quite awhile the 6-8% kiln dried wood will stablize at some higher level depending on the ambient conditions it is stored in. It is not unusual to see 6-8% furniture grade wood( kiln dried ) rise to apx 12% by the time it is used. Course if you are in the desert all bets are off.

 

[fire_man]

I can't believe that stacking it outside wouldn't raise the moisture content.

Now how could anybody suggest that leaving dry wood outside in the rain could possibly raise it's moisture content? Isn't wood made out of a completely waterproof and water impermeable material that could not possibly absorb external moisture?
Sheesh .

 

[AmbDrvr253]

Have to agree, most here would LOVE to have ur "problem".

 

[CentralVAWoodHeat]

You will never have to cut kindling again! That is what I would do. Bust those up into some kindling sticks and rock and roll.

 

[Longstreet]

Watch your back around here. Having that kind of wood supply might drive other hearthers to rage.

 

[blades]

Now how could anybody suggest that leaving dry wood outside in the rain could possibly raise it's moisture content? Isn't wood made out of a completely waterproof and water impermeable material that could not possibly absorb external moisture?
Sheesh .

Moisture gets wicked in between the cells- not back into them

 

[CenterTree]

Can't recall ever reading a thread where we talked about trying to RAISE the moisture content of our firewood.

You got any 55 gallon rain barrels laying around?

 

[kennyp2339]

Actually the BK princess will handle the lower moisture wood better then an air tube stove, the thermostat air control is really sensitive and will control your output much better, load her up and go for it, just think ladies and gentlemen people that burn compress wood products burn in the same moisture range, there have been quite a few member's that have loaded there BK stoves to the gills with compressed wood blocks and did not have a run away situation or overheat situation, they instead had a really long time between loads of optimal heat output.

 

[blades]

Can't recall ever reading a thread where we talked about trying to RAISE the moisture content of our firewood.

You got any 55 gallon rain barrels laying around?

a customer of mine who sells firewood - had a customer of his request wetter wood as the oem of his stove told him his particular problem was wood that was too dry. There was a thread , wheather here or somewhere else, about too dry wood ( in this case it was oak)- personally I would partially chalk it up a very high draft rate although if using pallets or compressed blocks things can get out hand quickly. Pallets mostly because of the small cross sections of the fuel( pallets are not always that dry and they do use a lot of confirs in their construction) there is a firm close by that sells cut offs from the pallet mfg div.-while heat treated to kill bugs the moisture content in those pieces was still in the mid 20% or more class. The only run away /overfire I have ever had was with 4x4-6x6 blocks from a pallet company. the blocks were of a very dense conifer variety. Scared the s... out of me as at the time i was in a mobile home. flue was around 10ft. the double wall inside was glowing dull red with the lights off. melted the top of the fire box in the stove.