Best way to season firewood

[husky455rancher]

I heard the restaurants pay really well for good quality wood. I’d like to get into that more so than straight firewood. I have sold some firewood wood in the past. I’m not against it but my space is limited. I have some ideas to maximize my space I just gotta clear it all out. I’ve been working a ton so my time is limited right now.

 

[sb47]

I heard the restaurants pay really well for good quality wood. I’d like to get into that more so than straight firewood. I have sold some firewood wood in the past. I’m not against it but my space is limited. I have some ideas to maximize my space I just gotta clear it all out. I’ve been working a ton so my time is limited right now.

They do pay more for good quality wood, but you have to always have what they need in stock at all times. If you don't they will move on and find someone that does. They depend heavily on getting exactly what they need, when they need it. You have to have a good consistent source of logs and keep a good inventory in stock. It has to be well seasoned and consistent in quality. You also have to target them specifically in order to land a contract so it does take more leg work and salesmanship on your part. It's a lot of extra work but it's also a guaranteed customer base.

 

[farmer steve]

Great thread. Always good to see what the other guys are doing. I'm behind in firewood making/selling now with the extra long produce season we have had here. We just had our first frost last nite. For the OP's question, I dump my wood onto pallets and top cover after it has been rained on a few times and let it dry that way.

 

[sb47]

Great thread. Always good to see what the other guys are doing. I'm behind in firewood making/selling now with the extra long produce season we have had here. We just had our first frost last nite. For the OP's question, I dump my wood onto pallets and top cover after it has been rained on a few times and let it dry that way.

I have done that a few times. I have put a bunch of pallets side by side so at least the wood is off the ground. The problem with pallets is they do eventually rot and burning them results in a huge pile of nails to pick up. It is much better then leaving it on the ground, that's for sure. I have been playing catch up since I got hurt last year. I'm all better now but it set me back quite a bit.

 

[woodchuckcanuck]

We build our own pallets. Early on I figured out that putting some slabs (waste from the sawmill) under the pallets easily extends the lifespan by 2 or 3 times.

 

[tomalophicon]

 

[sb47]

Even though he pulled pieces from down low it was still on the outside of the pile. He didn't dig into the middle or lower part of the pile, he just pulled one off the outside. He also didn't pull any from where it had ground contact.

 

[tomalophicon]

Even though he pulled pieces from down low it was still on the outside of the pile. He didn't dig into the middle or lower part of the pile, he just pulled one off the outside. He also didn't pull any from where it had ground contact.

Yeah I would never do this. Food for thought.
I imagine the bits on the ground would all be ruined.

 

[jamesmcsparron]

I live in the eastern foothills of the Sacramento Valley in Calif. It gets to be over 100 degrees here for many days in the summer with very low humidity.
I had to cut up and split a big live oak and I put it in loose piles on the ground to dry over the summer and then to be stacked in the fall and covered for the rainy season. I always wanted to know how long it took to dry green oak so I took two adjacent pieces I split off the same round and weighed each one carefully on a kitchen cooking scale. I put one on the top of the stack in the sun and the other buried in the stack in the shade of the wood above it but still getting good air circulation. I weighed them every day and plotted the weight loss which could only be moisture being driven out of the wood by our high heat and low humidity.
The wood had a precipitous weight loss for the first 30+/- days that was pretty much the same for both pieces and then it pretty much leveled out but with a slight decline continuing for the two more months I weighed the pieces. I got tired doing it and thought that I'd gotten the majority of the info I was looking for.
First month is the big drop in our area. The rest of the summer is the finishing of the process.

There's a book called "Norwegian Wood: The guide to chopping, stacking and drying wood the Scandinavian way" by Lars Mytting. Anyone who processes or burns firewood should own a copy regardless of what climate they live in.​

 

[Bearcreek]

Yeah I would never do this. Food for thought.
I imagine the bits on the ground would all be ruined.

Not ruined, just wet. That's how I staged wood for sale. Big piles sitting on a layer of chips and bark. The piles didn't stay there long enough for the bottom layer to rot.

 

[Marley5]

Best way to season firewood is to stay 2 years ahead. Lol

 

[cantoo]

My OWB wood is in these crates I built. 32" long splits.
The 15" splits I sell are run thru the processor and dropped off a conveyor onto last years bark. Of course some of the bottom pieces get dirty or wet. We hand load onto a conveyor dropping into a flatbed bed or a dump trailer so it's easy to set the dirty stuff aside. I usually have a small steel bin beside the conveyor and the dirty splits get thrown into it and used for our campfires or straight into the OWB. I'm not stacking wood for anyone. We compete with Amish as well as lots of weekend warriors ( like us) and no one will pay more for stacked splits.

 

[sb47]

Hello all,

I’m sure it’s been discussed, but what’s the best way to naturally season firewood? Do you leave it in piles off the conveyor? Do you stack it on pallets? Talking about commercial amounts like 50-100 cords.

As you can see everyone's opinion, environment, type of wood, market, labor cost, time and intended use, quality of wood varies. The 3 main things you need are lots of sun and wind and keep it off the ground.

 

[LondonNeil]

Absolutely, and the 4th variable is time.

Norwegian wood is a great read not just informative, I'd recommend it to anyone no matter how much they know, they will likely enjoy it.

Surprised no body has mentioned solar kilns. These can be incredibly effective. Quite a few threads on h e a r t h .com and a guy in Alaska drying wood down to crispy very low MC, in 3 or 4 months iirc.

 

[jamesmcsparron]

Best way to season firewood is to stay 2 years ahead. Lol

"Mytting" reckons if you split and stack firewood outdoors before Easter it will have a low enough moisture content by July for moving into a permanent (not requiring further drying) indoor environment.