Seasoning wood in rounds/log form?

[Corners]

Ok guys. I'm trying to buy a little bit of wood here to keep me ahead of what I plan on scrounging in the future. From what I've read here from your guys is that wood should be seasoned in stacked split form for about a year. This makes sense to me, as I thought the whole point of splitting wood was to 1) make the pieces fit in your fireplace, and 2) expose more surface area to the air for drying. The reason for my post is that a lot of wood sellers are claiming "one year seasoned" but when you call and talk to them, they said that the wood has been sitting in log form for a year, and has just recently been split. My last phone call I made, when he told me that the wood is one year seasoned but just now split, I made a comment that the wood still might be wet, which he told me that you always want a little moisture in your wood...I politely ended that call.

Now I'm sure it depends on the wood species, but does anyone have any experience trying to burn some of this "seasoned" in log form, newly split wood?

 

[vwboomer]

Yup. Doesn't work very well. I got a truckload of oak last year delivered. the first 2 loads were ash from down here but the pile got buried so he brought me a load of fresh sawn oak from up north. Didn't burn worth a a damn.
And you do want some moisture - like 15-20% I think. Fresh split will be around 30-35 is my guess

 

[Wet1]

Wood hardly seasons at all in log form, and certainly not in a year. When wood dealers split these seasoned logs, the product is almost always too wet to responsibly burn. The problem is, most wood dealers do these same thing since it means a lot less wood handling and it's much easier to inventory. If you're buying "seasoned" wood from a dealer, you should not plan on using it for a year or so because it will take that long for it to truly season.

BTW, your dealer was full of sh!t, moisture is not good...

 

[Wood Duck]

Don't be confused by the term 'seasoned.' It may mean something to the members of this forum, but it means basically nothing to wood sellers. They always say the wood is seasoned because that is what buyers expect to hear.

 

[Bootlegger]

Last winter I relied on a pile of trees we'd taken down the previous spring. I didn't know any better and assumed that because they were delimbed and bucked into logs they would be dry. All winter long I split and burned that stuff. It would hiss ans spit and eventually catch and burn warm enough to heat the house but I went through way too much wood (surprisingly no creosote buildup, seriously). This year I split early and now have a pile of rounds too that will be split over the winter for next year's wood. If not for Hearth.com I would still be heeding my neighbor's advice that wet wood is good because it burns longer while dry wood burns too fast.

 

[Corners]

Thanks for the replies. Just as I thought; you gotta expose the grain to the air to really get it to dry (figured moisture didn't like to leave through the bark). Like trying to dry a wet towel wadded up into a ball instead of spread out on a line. I'll keep looking.

 

[learnin to burn]

Yup, As said before it doesn't burn well. Went through 7 1/2 cord of mostly red oak last year. Had to leave the air fully open for 45 minutes minimum sometimes up to 1 1/2 hours.

Now if the logs are bucked it can season but I think the general idea around here is it still takes a little longer over splitting.

 

[quads]

Don't be confused by the term 'seasoned.' It may mean something to the members of this forum, but it means basically nothing to wood sellers. They always say the wood is seasoned because that is what buyers expect to hear.

Wood Duck is correct. Firewood sellers want to sell wood and many of them will say what they think you want to hear so you will buy. We all know what seasoned means, and they know it too, but the dishonest ones lie about it.

Whenever buying firewood, always plan on seasoning it yourself regardless of what the seller tells you. If you happen to get lucky and buy some that is truly seasoned, great, but never assume it.

 

[TreePapa]

There is one wood seller in our area (sort of) that sells wood that I can tell is seasoned from 50 yards away. The have piles of oak (at least, that's what the sign says), each the size of a small house, about 8 or 10 piles on the lot. Pile closest to the street is a very nice silver-grey colour. From the colour, I'd guess it's at least two years old. The piles on the other end of the "U" are much lighter in color.

I s'pect they charge a premium price, but one of these days I'm gonna stop by and see what they charge for a Ranger load of that nice, aged oak.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[myzamboni]

There is one wood seller in our area (sort of) that sells wood that I can tell is seasoned from 50 yards away. The have piles of oak (at least, that's what the sign says), each the size of a small house, about 8 or 10 piles on the lot. Pile closest to the street is a very nice silver-grey colour. From the colour, I'd guess it's at least two years old. The piles on the other end of the "U" are much lighter in color.

I s'pect they charge a premium price, but one of these days I'm gonna stop by and see what they charge for a Ranger load of that nice, aged oak.

Peace,
- Sequoia

I bet it's less than 2 years. I split some oak in March that would spit a stream of moisture as the splitter was doing its' job. It has sat uncovered in sun/wind the last 7 months and is already that silver-gray color. Being oak I know it is not yet ready, but I also know it won't take 2 years. The left coast has its advantages.

 

[Cal-MI]

If not for Hearth.com I would still be heeding my neighbor's advice that wet wood is good because it burns longer while dry wood burns too fast.

Your neighbor is/was correct, but 20-30 years out-of-date. Modern efficient stoves are air-tight enough to control the burning of dry wood. And they do not supply enough air to burn any significant amount of green wood.

 

[Tony H]

Some of the dealers around here think any wood outside is seasoning even the tree's with green leaves .
The best bet is to find and season your own wood or if you buy it get logs and process them a year ahead of time.
I was just cutting a one year standing dead oak that just fell down and all the stuff I cut from the upper 1/3 of the tree measures 30-35%

 

[gpcollen1]

wood does season a bit in rounds but not fully - especially oak. I had 2 year old oak rounds and they needed about 5 months to get the moisture all the way down.

 

[edthedawg]

I ran into all of this over this past summer. Had 4 cord green cut/split dropped in Feb, got 2 cords up around May/June, didn't get the rest stacked til August. Wettest summer in years. Sat on the ground, with the barn roof dumping runoff right on it, and very little sun, for a long time - lotsa mushrooms and mold. Now it's all up and dried out nicely. still too "heavy" to burn, but it'll be ok. I could burn it if I hadda. But it was bought on the anticipation that it would be 2010-2011 wood.

So once the shed was done, I had 4 more cords c/s/d ordered - fella said "it's been sitting a year and a half." I got home to a tiny (0.7 cord) pile that stank to high heaven - you could tell it'd just been split. Awful stuff. When he brought the next truckload (an actual cord this time) I confronted him. Still stunk, and he admitted it was in log form for a year+ but just split in the last few weeks. I reminded him how I had very meticulously asked his wife - three times - how long it had been sitting since split. Kinda started sinking in, but this chump was so far out of his league in the game, I just paid him, canceled the future delivery, and sent him on his way.

So then I got hold of a real seller - a guy with better'n half a brain. he had 8-9 month split, plus photos of the pile, plus said "I won't drop it til you check it out and you're happy with it." One glance told me the wood was good - had spent a lot of time in the sun, the pile had been moved around a bit. no stink, mostly de-barked, all gray and checked... stacking this wood next to everything else in my shed - it was obviously much better wood. Nice "klink" even in the pouring rain. 4 expensive cords later, the shed is fully stocked.

Technically it should be too green, but it's the best I've got. I've been burning it exclusively and it really is pretty decent. Lights right up like no tomorrow. will run past 400F stovetop / 1000+ flue gas temps easily. I throw the occasional BioBrick in with it, just to really boost the firebox temps and burn out any unwanted nasties. Worked last year and it's cheap insurance + better heat, so whatta I have to lose, right?

and as for bark holding moisture - i had a big pile raked near the shed. all the extra bark that was in and amongst all 10 cords that were dropped over the year. A few leaves in there, but 90% bark. I moved it out this weekend. damned if it wasn't dripping, soaking wet right down to the very bottom of the pile. Completely sponge-tastic. I'm avoiding bark at all costs now. No sense throwing wet blankets into my fire...

 

[karri0n]

It's true that most wood sellers will keep trees downed for 1 year+, then split. I'm not sure at all why they do this. The wood does not dry at all other than on the ends when in log form. Rounds dry a very small amount, but only wood that is split will be actually dry.

I had one seller who was very honest, but very much misinformed. I asked him when the wood was split, and he informed me that the wood gets split as he loads it onto the truck, because wood that is already split will absorb moisture from the rain and from the air. I didn't give him further business.

I would imagine if three wood dealers in any one area would actually start splitting wood, drying it one-two years, then selling it at the normal price, it would either force prices down on the ones that sell wet wood, or force them all to start selling actually dry wood. unfortunately, there is an ill-informed consumer base, and no dealers are willing to bite the profit for the two to three years it would take to set the trend in motion.

 

[edthedawg]

you nailed it karriOn. consumers will largely pay whatever is asked, regardless of how much effort the seller puts into it. so the good guy loses his shirt by having to step down his price to match the slackers.

the guy i bought from - his brother is another seller right nearby. I went to see his stuff first, actually. big pile of 6-months split, and 4 huge piles of logs. The oldest logs were dripping wet - no way I wanted to buy those and have him split and dump 'em. and the split pile - once you got a foot or two into it, past the graying/checked stuff, you could smell the sweetness of the resins and feel how "heavy" the splits got. Nope - glad to have the chance to look at it, but I was outta there.

(this was near the police barracks in Willington, btw)

 

[Cal-MI]

I'm avoiding bark at all costs now. No sense throwing wet blankets into my fire...

Depends on what you do with it. Bark is probably NG for an airtight stove. But I found it a good substitute for coal when I was blacksmithing. Of course, a blacksmith forge has available a great excess of forced air.

 

[Tony H]

ilI found one old timer that has been running his tree service 30+ years that cuts and piles it for a year or two then splits it and sits another year until hr sells it . Works out because it's a family operation and he keeps his crew on to split in the fall / winter until around thanksgiving.
I bought some wood from him a couple years ago and it was a pretty nice load.