The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

[Garbanzo62]

Large Dead Standing Ash came down a few weeks ago. Got it cut up and with the help of my sons, hauled it out of the Ravine. Been splitting (By Hand) a few rounds at a time. Heart Wood looks great, Surrounding that is some wood that is starting to decompose, then the really ugly stuff comes.
Any thoughts on the best use for this less than desirable wood? I am thinking Fall Fire Pit, but I was wondering if I could use some for shoulder season, assuming the MC gets down. This stuff seems like a sponge so I am not too confident on if it will dry or actually adsorb water.

 

[TomMcDonald]

Fire pit or bury in your garden beds for a nutrition boost.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I have split Ash sitting in a pile without a cover from last fall and it easily is below 20% MC. It's fine to burn. I burn ash all the time mixed in with other stuff. It's the wood I use on the bottom on top of ash if I let my ash get too low, so that my full load restarts wont take forever.

 

[Simonkenton]

Too rotten. Dump it.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Since I need to expend the energy to get to that good heartwood, I'm thinking of putting that bad stuff into a pile and burn it in the fire pit. MC wont be an issue. If I throw chunks into a well established fire. Some of the really rotten stuff I've been taking off with a hatchet.

 

[Ashful]

I stack anything less than primo on a separate rack, to be used as fuel in the fire pit. I burn a lot of hedge and flower bed trimmings, so I always need wood to keep the fire hot and smoke headed skyward.

 

[shortys7777]

I burn a lot of my junk stuff outside. already had my first fire last weekend. They'll be many more coming up

 

[Woody Stover]

I've burned quite a bit this year, of the quality in your "bad" pic. This is some hard Maple that I let sit in rounds too long, in a driveway...like 2.5 years. I ended up pitching about 20% of it. The "bad" that I kept (covering a range of good-bad to bad-bad) 😏 is OK for nights when I don't need a ton of heat. Bad-bad is great for starting fires since it catches and burns fast. I mix a couple in with a load of primo dense wood to get that harder-to-start stuff going.
I'm feeding three stoves--not going to just throw everything that isn't perfect back into the woods, as Mr. Kenton suggests. 😣
I don't cut live trees that are still producing wood, I harvest dead ones that are done, so perfect wood isn't something I'm going to see often except in a blow-down.
Lotta times I'll leave dead Oak standing until the sapwood starts falling off. Now I've got a little top-handle saw that makes it a breeze to skim off punky sapwood. The heartwood in these is still 99%.