Vintage wood

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KindredSpiritzz

Minister of Fire
Oct 31, 2013
798
appleton, wi
Just hit my little pocket of vintage aspen that has spent the last 8 yrs under a tarp drying. I was curious what the moisture content would be after that many years so i split a few chunks open to see. 8 -10% were my readings, by far the driest wood i even had in my stove. They burn so nice and hot. My other stuff thats been in the shed for 2 yrs now is about 12-14%. Never really had decent dry wood to burn til this year and boy it makes a ton of difference. Im finally about 5-6 yrs ahead wood wise so i should have lots of good burning ahead as it all ages out in the sheds. Took me 6 yrs to get to this point but it was worth it. Never truly appreciated dry wood til this year.
 
That's probably about as low as it will go even if you kept it out there 5 more years.
 
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Speaking of old wood I found this in my owner's manual and wondered why...

"You'll enjoy the best results when burning wood that has been adequately air-dried. Avoid burning "green" wood that has not been properly seasoned or cordwood that is more than two years old."
 
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I think they're implying that cordwood >2years would have some "punk" in it likely. Other than that don't know. Kevin
 
Most stove MFGs have built and designed their stoves around an assumed MC of the fuel being in the area of 17-22 MC.

The fact is - wood CAN be too dry. Now much of this depends on the stove, the installation and the operator, but Its very much like virtually all MFGs warning about loading a stove up with kiln dried construction material. What happens is that the fuel will off-gas at a rate that the reburn technology can’t keep up with. It can cause a dirty burn and possibly and overtemp situation.

Keep in mind that for every person on this site - trying to do the right thing - there are thousands that are simply tossing the stove full of whatever fuel they got their hands on. I see most of the folks on this site to be or trying to become educated wood burners. That doesn’t necessarily translate to the real world. The MFGs have to have some stated parameters.