How long do you dry your firewood before burning?

[Cody]

The Hard woods typically 1-2 yrs. 3-4 yr seasoning is optimal but impractical up North here . Any wood after 5 yrs loses it btu,s too dry actually . Softwood I cut and split in spring and burn in the fall usually . I always have a cord or two as back up in the wood shed lol.

I think oak stands away from that 5 year rule, the longer that stuff seasons the better.

 

[North by Northwest]

I think oak stands away from that 5 year rule, the longer that stuff seasons the better.

Well it depends on your climate and storage criteria Cody . I like my moisture content around 20- 25 % . I can meet that easily with Ironwood and Hard Rock Maple which have the same density & btu values of common oak up North here in 4-5 yrs of proper storage . Common oak normally up North here , will have less than 10% moisture content after 5 yr seasoning . However I do not cut oak for firewood I believe oak is much better left for furniture , flooring and cabinetry usage . lol. Having said that. , you could be very well correct in many regions that have high humidity yr round !

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@Broken I agree with saving oak and walnut for the finer things, but with my situation I get some of both from time to time, I try to sort out the good logs that can be milled and get them to a friend with a mill, I do every no and then end up eith some of either species that is just to crappy to mill, I've found that even here in Iowa that oak takes forever to dry out, I have some 18 month CSS that if resplit is still damp feeling on your face, have not tried a moiture meter on it but.....

 

[North by Northwest]

@Broken I agree with saving oak and walnut for the finer things, but with my situation I get some of both from time to time, I try to sort out the good logs that can be milled and get them to a friend with a mill, I do every no and then end up eith some of either species that is just to crappy to mill, I've found that even here in Iowa that oak takes forever to dry out, I have some 18 month CSS that if resplit is still damp feeling on your face, have not tried a moiture meter on it but.....

Cummins , Walnut love the smell of fresh cut walnut . Yeah as Cody and you have mentioned some species of hardwood season at various rates dependant on storage protocols and ambient relative humidity . There is an abundance of Common or White oak in my area Red oak not as much . I really like Sugar Maple , Mountain Ash & Ironwood for my hardwood of choice . They all are abundant nearby and season within my 1-2 yr seasoning requirement .In a pinch I mix in Silver birch & Red Maple that seasons even quicker . I usually cut 5-10 cord annually for my various firewood needs on the homestead ...

 

[cumminstinkerer]

@Broken I have a couple of local tree service guys that bring their logs, I take whatever they bring, lots of soft/silver maple, ash, hickory, mulberry, Siberian elm, some oak red and white, some walnut, some red cedar, and various stuff that I am not really sure what it is, I think decorative type trees but hey it all burns and makes heat. I am not picky nor is my frankenboiler, wood is wood, and they bring the logs right to my house, all I have to do is buck them and split them. it is a great deal, one saves the really good logs for his mill, but otherwise I get whatever they dont chip, they have to pay to dump the logs somewhere so by me taking them it works out good for them and I get free wood.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Cutting for winter of 23-24. Wood crib is full for this year 20-21 burning.

 

[Mustang71]

The ash drys really fast. An hour after its cut it starts to crack in the middle of the logs. It definitely does not need 3 to 4 years. You could probably burn it after 6 warm months. It has to be off the ground though or it absorbs the moisture and never drys.

 

[motorhead99999]

It depends on how much I want my wife to burn lol. She likes to get the stove cooking with dry stuff so I mix it so she doesn’t burn as much

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I just got done burning almost a cord of Manzanita that had been cut a week and it burned so well. It is easy to get fresh cut Manzanita to burn eight to ten hours. I have a neighbor that lives a few hundred feet away that was cited as having a fire hazard. So the county workers came by and cut about fifty bushes that ranged from six inches to fourteen inches. After they had a large pile I suggested that I would haul it away for free. At that time we had no snow on the ground, but thought it might save me a trip to my wood ranch. They piled it on my pickup at least four feet higher than the cab and left. Poor owner was billed six to eight grand for the work. Last week I finished burning the last of it. It is one wood that only needs one week to season out just perfect, however when green it takes a few minuted to get started. Thanks

 

[woodchuckcanuck]

From green, 7 days. This is day 6. Should be done tomorrow.

 

[SS396driver]

Really depends . If its spirts out water on the splitter like some of the oak I have 2 to 3 years. But if it looks like this its cut and burned the same day

 

[SS396driver]

Or I make something like this . Made 8 similar units sold every one . Sold 4 to a local brewery $ 2400. Much better than selling firewood

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I really like your application very impressed. We have a large amount of Manzanita around here where which might be a promicing application. Thanks

 

[Chris Cringle]

After retiring four years ago I have slowly got ahead of my firewood needs and I’m now burning wood that has dried for three years. I am in Virginia, not in the great White North, so I only burn about 2 1/2 cords a year. Have been burning mostly ash, elm and maple, trees my farm neighbors gave me, with the occasional white oak, walnut, cherry, cedar, pine, sweet gum, tulip, and Black locust. But the last two winters have harvested almost exclusively oak, probably 80% Northern Red Oak and 20% white oak, blown down around here when the remnants of hurricane Michael came through in October 18. Even though I am four years ahead I am continuing to bring in the oak, most of it fairly green because it was live when blown over, not standing dead. So I am on track to be burning oak that has aged four, five, or six years.

Because the open field parts of my property are not really the place we want to store our firewood, we store it in the edge of the woods along a powerline easement. It is stacked on rails of PT lumber, with roofing or scrap plywood nailed to the top. Not optimal, but since I can let it sit there for three years, it works. No punk, mushrooms or rot. By the time I am burning it is rare for me to split a piece and have the moisture be 20% or greater. 14 to 16% is the norm.

 

[TheDarkLordChinChin]

I have ash, noble fir, western red ceder and eucalyptus as well as some other stuff mixed in that has been sitting on hard concrete at the bottom of a pile for 16 years.
A load of trees were cut around the house back then and the wood was all stacked in a shed. The bottom of the pile has never been reached, it just keeps getting new wood added on top of it every year. About half the pile gets burned every year.