Wet wood..the test!

[Swedishchef]

Hey guys

Well, I learned something the hard way.

I have some sugar maple and rock maple that only dried for one year. By mistake, my FIL stacked a few pieces in my wood shed (mistakenly). I came upon them today.

The pieces are small, perhaps 3-4 inches across. I put them in and they not only hissed but DRIPPED water from them on the ends. The hissing was so bad, it would bubble out and eventually DROP onto the pieces below. Incredible!

Needless to say I will wait another year or two before burning that maple...

Andrew

 

[brianbeech]

I had a similar experience last night with my woodstove. I am a first year burner, but after reading on this site, I've scrounged enough semi-dry wood to get good fires. Last night I grabbed some that was less than ideal and I had to literally fight the stove for at least an hour to get the temps up to 400F The splits I put in also hissed and bubbled water out of the ends. If I wasn't a believer before (which I was), I would be now after having that experience. I CAN'T WAIT till next year and the thought of having truly dry wood.

 

[Swedishchef]

Brian,

Yes indeed you are right. It's too much of a fight to get the temps to rise. When water is bubbling (or any other liquid) there is a flatline in temperature. The heat created is used up by boiling the liquid.

Luckily for me I have lots of wood that is over 3 years old. These were a few pieces put in there by mistake.

Andrew

 

[Battenkiller]

Glad to see you're well stocked with dry wood, but I can't see a situation where hard maple that is less than 3 years old will literally drip out water when burned. One year in the proper conditions should get 3-4" splits of hard maple down to the EMC of just about any region on the continent. Are you sure this stuff didn't get soaked with rain then frozen?

 

[Swedishchef]

They were not splits, they were rounds. Maybe that made a difference?

EIther way, I am glad I am now 3 years ahead on my wood.

ANdrew

 

[begreen]

While you have some good examples of wet vs dry wood, take a little time to learn some easy tests. Compare the weight. You can often feel the difference. Knock a pair of dry splits together. They should give off a nice ring or tone. Try the same with two damp pieces and they will go clunk. Resplit a damp split and put it up against your face. It will feel cool and damp. Compare to a dry split.

 

[DanCorcoran]

They were not splits, they were rounds. Maybe that made a difference?


ANdrew

Meaningful drying doesn't begin until the wood is split.

 

[Shari]

They were not splits, they were rounds. Maybe that made a difference?


ANdrew

Meaningful drying doesn't begin until the wood is split.

Yes, I agree. Then the question always comes up: How small does a round have to be until you don't split it? I split everything unless it is 2-3" or less.

 

[Swedishchef]

I agree, the wood must be split but these pieces were exactly that: 2-4 inches Maybe the Tree Gods are testing my patients. Perhaps those sugar maples wanted to become a sugar tree farm and not firewood

By looking at them, I thought they were fairly dry. Nice ring to them, split on the ends, relatively light. WRRRRRRRONG.

However, I have some small pieces of white birch that are the same size, unsplit and they are perfectly totally dry

ANdrew