seasoning oak, who would have thought itđź‘Ą
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kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
By small pieces, I mean regular pieces for the stove, say 5 x 5 inches wide or even larger. I have some large logs that I haven't split and there are many more openings on them in proportion to the pieces described above, I don't understand if it's just a coincidence, it seems that the wood is being pulled from all directions and opens much more when whole🤔
Woodsplitter67
Minister of Fire
The outside will season faster then the inside. Actually if you leave the oak in rounds it will start to rot. This is the main reason we ask people to split a pice open and check the MC on a freshly split face.. the checking you see is not speeding the process if Im reading this correctly.
Thank you,
that's what I was trying to understand,
but I have to split one to see the differences with eyes,
then despite many cracks inside the MC should be higher than splitted wood
before the summer
which on the contrary has few cracks
paredown
Burning Hunk
It seems like the growth layer especially. Around here if a downed oak gets left, the bark will be intact, but the growth layer will decay pretty rapidly. Sometimes it seems easier just to knock bark and mush off when splitting--what's left will dry faster and is less messy when bringing it into the house.
The larger the piece the more likely it's going to develop cracks. Wood shrinks as it dries. Cracks form because of stress in the part. Wood dries from the outside in. With a large piece, the outside will dry and shrink while the inside which is not dry does not shrink (or does not shrink as much). This creates stress in the outside of the piece. Wood is somewhat elastic but if you stretch it too far it will crack. A large piece has more area on the outside that's shrunk and more on the inside that hasn't, so it's got more stress on the wood. Hence more cracks. I don't see many cracks on dry splits but often see cracks on logs I've stored for a few months before bucking and splitting. They're still wet inside.
Split as soon as possible. I don't even count the time that wood's sat in log or round form as drying, because the amount of drying that happens is so minimal. Everything that isn't within an inch or two of the outside will still be wet.
A rule of thumb is that wood dries an inch a year. That's an inch from any exposed surface. Now that will vary with conditions and the species of wood (the denser it is the slower it dries). But the idea is that wood dries from the outer surface inwards. When it's in log or round form, most of the wood is no where near the outer surface.
A rule of thumb is that wood dries an inch a year. That's an inch from any exposed surface. Now that will vary with conditions and the species of wood (the denser it is the slower it dries). But the idea is that wood dries from the outer surface inwards. When it's in log or round form, most of the wood is no where near the outer surface.
