Selling firewood and seasoning

[Kafinlayson]

You guys that sell, either a bit or a lot, of firewood......I keep seeing on here about you seasoning your wood for 2 or 3 years. My gosh....do you have a 40 acre lot to keep it all on?

We just moved to the country two years ago and started burning wood. I generally cut all that I think we will use, and a few other family members, in the winter and early spring. I have always kept it outside in full sun and in the wind. We live on a hill so it is always quite windy. Then in the early fall I would get a splitter and split it all in a week or so. Part of it then went to the shed and the rest stayed outside. It is generally a variety of oak, maple, and apple. It has always appeared very dry to me in the 9 months to 1 year that it seasons.

I can't imagine having wood season that long if you were using any volume at all. I am thinking of selling some next year but according to most that I read on this site, none of my wood will be ready.

Are you small time firewood dealers seasoning your wood this long?

If you are seasoning wood for 2 or 3 years.....

a.....do you keep it separated by year?
b...do you keep it separated by species?
c.....how much space do you have to keep this all in

 

[groundup]

No way I could season wood that long and stay in business.

My wood gets 8 to 12 months and is sold. MC is always under 20%. If the customer is not happy with that they can shop around.

 

[Hinerman]

^^^^^+1. We have very hot, windy summers in OK so one summer of seasoning is all my wood gets. People around here will buy green, most don't care. Right now everybody is desperate for wood. I turn down customers every week. I tell them I have wood but it won't be ready until next year. Some want it anyway but I won't sell it. I don't sell much because I don't have the time to cut as much as I would like. This was my first year and my customers were very happy.

 

[Patrick62]

I season my wood with black pepper and a dash of sweat

In a perfect world I would have 300 cords stashed, and another 300 cords ready to go, and another 300 cords for two years down the road.
In a perfect world.... on 3 1/2 acres this ain't gonna fit!

 

[leo58]

If possible the earlier in the year that you can split the rounds the better. Wood dries to some degree in the rounds but much faster split. Red Oak doesnt dry very much until split.I have had large(28"-30") Red Oak pieces from logger cut-off that had laid for 2 years and when split were still 45% moisture. Every species has a different rate of drying but the quicker any wood can be split it will burn better which will put more BTUs in the house and not as much up the pipe and greatly the risk of creosote.

 

[3fordasho]

If I am understanding your process, you are leaving it in rounds until fall, then splitting?

Split it as soon as you can, it doesn't season as fast in the round.

I generally cut all that I think we will use, and a few other family members, in the winter and early spring. I have always kept it outside in full sun and in the wind. We live on a hill so it is always quite windy. Then in the early fall I would get a splitter and split it all in a week or so.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I am buying oak logs, cutting, splitting, stacking, seasoning 18 - 24 months. I mark the date on those little flags for marking under ground utilities and staple it to the racks. Yes it takes some room for 20 cord load of logs, for processing, for stacking, for loading the truck, and the truck is always in the way where ever it is parked. Just ordered five truck loads of logs so it's going to be an interesting spring. Most I've had in here at a time is two. This is one load.

 

[mr.finn]

AS others have said the quicker you get it split the better off you are. Oak takes a bit more time to season than other wood. I have been splitting 95% oak now. It will get stacked on pallets to dry and sell next fall.This way it sits all summer exposed to maximize drying.

 

[shokidq]

I do 12 to 18 months for most timbers and 24 for oak

 

[Kafinlayson]

If I am understanding your process, you are leaving it in rounds until fall, then splitting?

Split it as soon as you can, it doesn't season as fast in the round.

Yes, yhat has been my process as I do not have a splitter and had to borrow one. So I tried to do it all at one time. This spring I am going to get my own so I will be able to keep up with the splitting. if I cut a few loads, I will split a few loads.

 

[CTYank]

First, "seasoning" really has no meaning. Think "air-drying" unless you have a kiln. Seasoning is for edibles.

"Appeared very dry" means "I am lost here." Honest. A moisture meter will tell what it is, and you use that meter after splitting some sticks so you can check deep inside a piece. All else is arm-waving. 20% MC dry-basis is still pretty wet, IMHO. (Stack off the ground, too.)

Lumber processors know well that oak takes twice as long as other hardwoods to air-dry. That means to me that a stack of oak will be set facing south for two summers until it gets used. This is not an academic exercise- it just keeps getting better. Well worth the effort.

 

[treecutterjr]

I've never had anything set for over a year unless it just got over looked.
I try to split all I can In the summer & it will be gone by October-December.
I sell a lot of "ricks"/face cords. I wish I could get about 300 ricks split in advance ams I would be GOLDEN!

I like maple the best personally. Its easy to split, dries fast and customers love it. Most of my deliveries are for recreational burners anyway, SO they aren't that picky as long as it burns.

2 "ricks". Bam!

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

[Circle B MN]

I advertise when the product was cut and split and let the buyer determine if it is seasoned enough for them. "Cut and split Spring of 2013", "Cut and split yesterday", etc. I do tend to stay a year in advance though.

 

[motorman1]

I cut and split all different types of wood, from oak to yard trees. I have a cheesy Harbor Freight moisture meter, but usually resort to the tried and true method of banging two pieces of the wood together. If it pings metallic, rather than a dull thud, then it's usually good enough to burn. If in doubt, I test it in the burn barrel, or pile. I've not sold much wood to date, but that is in the forecast.

 

[haveawoody]

In general most species of wood stacked in a windy sunny location are good to go at 6 months after being split and stacked.
Only a few dense wood species like red oak, locust, hop hornbeam, osage orange, rock elm etc are not.
Those take anything from 1 to 3 years to season properly with red oak and locust being the longest in the bunch before they burn properly.

For me sales wood tends to get a year seasoning and that is good for everything other than locust and red oak, they get left in separate stacks and mixed with sales wood at 3 years so really only those stacks are longer term taking up room.
I split and stack everything ASAP, sooner it's done the sooner it's dry.

 

[groundup]

Another thing to add is that if you are cutting and selling standing dead wood, which is nearly all I cut, your dry time can be less than standing green timber.

I still give most standing dead 6 months to a year c/s and piled

 

[H-Ranch]

The hardest part of getting less moisture content is making the time it takes to cut in advance. While it may not be as important for selling wood as for personal consumption, I'm amazed at the number of guys who have time to cut 25-50% more wood every year, but not enough time to do it once and be a year ahead. Unless you are severely restricted on space such as on a city lot, it usually isn't that difficult to find space to stack 20+ cords even with less than an acre of land.

First, "seasoning" really has no meaning. Think "air-drying" unless you have a kiln. Seasoning is for edibles.

You may want to get yourself a dictionary (they are even available on-line now). It's ridiculous to continue to insist that words have a single, narrow definition as the meaning of many words can vary by context. "Air-drying" really has no meaning either. A better measure would be moisture content - "air-dry" tells me nothing.

From Merriam-Webster:
season
verb
: to add salt, pepper, spices, etc., to (something) to give it more flavor
: to make (wood) ready for use by slowly drying it

 

[autoimage]

I know what its like to buy wood that just isn't ready to go like these so called "mixed hardwood" cords around here. if they contain oak or locust its never ready and once you know what its like to burn oak and locust that is there is no going back.i only sell wood for extra money and in this area I cant get red or pin oak to dry in one year or at least be able to look someone in the eye and know the wood I just sold them is going to burn great. I separate all oak, locust and hickory give it 2 yrs sell it for a premium and after the first year you wont have to advertise. going big and selling firewood for a living is a whole different story

 

[esshup]

If possible the earlier in the year that you can split the rounds the better. Wood dries to some degree in the rounds but much faster split. Red Oak doesnt dry very much until split.I have had large(28"-30") Red Oak pieces from logger cut-off that had laid for 2 years and when split were still 45% moisture. Every species has a different rate of drying but the quicker any wood can be split it will burn better which will put more BTUs in the house and not as much up the pipe and greatly the risk of creosote.

My experience has been the same. Cut/stacked 24"-30" rounds that are 16" long last Spring. It was too wet to burn good.

 

[coog]

The hardest part of getting less moisture content is making the time it takes to cut in advance. While it may not be as important for selling wood as for personal consumption, I'm amazed at the number of guys who have time to cut 25-50% more wood every year, but not enough time to do it once and be a year ahead. Unless you are severely restricted on space such as on a city lot, it usually isn't that difficult to find space to stack 20+ cords even with less than an acre of land.


You may want to get yourself a dictionary (they are even available on-line now). It's ridiculous to continue to insist that words have a single, narrow definition as the meaning of many words can vary by context. "Air-drying" really has no meaning either. A better measure would be moisture content - "air-dry" tells me nothing.

From Merriam-Webster:
season
verb
: to add salt, pepper, spices, etc., to (something) to give it more flavor
: to make (wood) ready for use by slowly drying it

And let's not forget the process of seasoning our cast iron stoves.