Seasoning Time of Firewood from Dead Oak Trees?

[chemie]

Hi All,
I’m brand new to using a wood stove and have very little experience of using fireplace from last year .So please excuse my question(s) if they are so obvious. We got BK Ashford 25 fireplace insert installed 2 weeks ago. Haven’t started using it yet because of warm weather.

I live in NYC and have limited backyard to store firewood. I can store about 1 cord of wood in my backyard and 1 cord in my sweet old lady neighbor’s backyard. I have been hunting firewood on Craigslist and was able to to find about 2 cords of seasoned firewood mostly oak, some maple, cherry, and pine. All below 20 % MC. I have a bit more space left to store firewood. I live about 300 ft away from a NYC forest that has a lot of dead oak trees from previous storms. I called and asked to the park department that if I can cut wood from fallen trees and received a positive response.
Yesterday and today, I was able to cut 8 logs with a diameter of about 8 inches and length of 16” from a fell dead tree. I cut the logs from the part which is not touching the ground, hanging in the air. I chose a tree which almost lost all of its bark. Some logs are a bit punky exterior but mostly fine. I took them home and checked their moisture level with my moisture meter before and after splitting. The round ends had about 25% of MC. After splitting , interior also has similar MC contents in all logs varying between 23-27 %MC. My question is how many months would the splits need to go to below %20 to be used in the BK insert?
Thanks!

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

It is a bit of a logarithmic curve. In other words, it takes longer to go from 25% to 20% than 40% to 30%. I have some small cut white oak ~2x3" that was 27% in early spring and now just around 20%. It is top covered in a double row about 6" in between. If you have have a very open single covered row of oak, it might be close to burnable by February or March (4 or 5 mo). Double row or uncovered it will take 6-8mo.

 

[chemie]

It is a bit of a logarithmic curve. In other words, it takes longer to go from 25% to 20% than 40% to 30%. I have some small cut white oak ~2x3" that was 27% in early spring and now just around 20%. It is top covered in a double row about 6" in between. If you have have a very open single covered row of oak, it might be close to burnable by February or March (4 or 5 mo). Double row or uncovered it will take 6-8mo.

I have four 4x8 firewood racks from Landman. I placed them next to each other and back to back with a few inches gap. So 2 rows of 4x8 racks. The three racks contain fully seasoned firewood. I covered them by 8x10 heavy duty , waterproof tarps.
The fourth one is filled 1/3 with seasoned wood. I am trying to fill the rest with firewood I get from nearby forest. I am covering the top for the 4th rack too but am removing it when the weather is not rainy to speed up the seasoning of %27 MC oak that I posted pics above.
I hope by March they go below %20. Or am I too optimistic?

 

[Knots]

In my experience, it still takes some time to get the water out. Less than green wood, but I'd still like a year around here.

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

I have four 4x8 firewood racks from Landman. I placed them next to each other and back to back with a few inches gap. So 2 rows of 4x8 racks. The three racks contain fully seasoned firewood. I covered them by 8x10 heavy duty , waterproof tarps.
The fourth one is filled 1/3 with seasoned wood. I am trying to fill the rest with firewood I get from nearby forest. I am covering the top for the 4th rack too but am removing it when the weather is not rainy to speed up the seasoning of %27 MC oak that I posted pics above.
I hope by March they go below %20. Or am I too optimistic?

Probably depends on some factors like if there is an air gap under the tarp and how much sun and air around the stacks. The 23% might reach 20% by March but the 27% side I'd guess will be into May or June.

 

[chemie]

Probably depends on some factors like if there is an air gap under the tarp and how much sun and air around the stacks. The 23% might reach 20% by March but the 27% side I'd guess will be into May or June.

I have never cut fresh Oak and taken the MC of it. Out of curiosity, what is MC content of fresh cut oak that usually takes about 2 years to season ?

 

[Alpine1]

AFAIK, oak isn’t that much wetter than other wood, but it tends to shrink at the sides of the split, thus reducing water evaporation from the interior. A fellow Slovenian gave me this explanation when I asked him why his red oak stacks (4 feet long splits, to be cut in 3 pieces before use) were top covered with a tarp only 3 ft wide. Rain on the sides would keep the wood channels open. But I have no idea if this has a scientific base, or it’s just an old wives’ tale.

 

[chemie]

AFAIK, oak isn’t that much wetter than other wood, but it tends to shrink at the sides of the split, thus reducing water evaporation from the interior. A fellow Slovenian gave me this explanation when I asked him why his red oak stacks (4 feet long splits, to be cut in 3 pieces before use) were top covered with a tarp only 3 ft wide. Rain on the sides would keep the wood channels open. But I have no idea if this has a scientific base, or it’s just an old wives’ tale.

Let me restate my question than. What is MC content of a fresh cut wood? I haven’t fresh cut oak or any other wood before

 

[ValleyCottageSplitter]

Let me restate my question than. What is MC content of a fresh cut wood? I haven’t fresh cut oak or any other wood before

My Dr. Meter only goes to 40% so I don't know by personal experience, but based on studies I found, oak is on the higher end around 50% when green.

 

[Alpine1]

Depending on tree species and moment of the year, fresh green wood can go anywhere from a low of 34% (fraxinus spp) to a high of 60% or more (alnus spp & populus spp).
A rough estimate of 50/55 % would be an educated guess for most trees cut at end of winter/ very early spring

 

[hickoryhoarder]

My hunch is a year would be good, after splitting the logs, if you can wait that long.

 

[gerry100]

agree with HickoryHoarder

Oak will burn OK before full seasoning but with noticeably less heat out put