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Seasoned Firewood in 4 months or LESS?!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ส.ค. 2024
- I'm testing the moisture content on a number of pieces of firewood from my inventory to see if its fully seasoned and ready to sell. Much to my surprise some of the wood I've cut most recently is ready to go with moisture reading at 20% or less for poplar, elm and maple.
I've been working to grow my firewood business and if I can season firewood in 4 months or less, this opens up a lot more possibilities for me since I'll be able to get good quality firewood to market a lot faster. I now have over 6 cords of wood seasoning. I wish I had more than 10 cords, but this is where I'm at. Now that I know I can season maple and elm much faster, I'll be looking for more of those trees to take down on my property. Don't forget to subscribe and join us on Facebook, too / flatcreekoutdoors
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Moisture meter reads will vary as you show. Here's what we've done for a few decades heating near 100% to check on the seasoning without meters. 1. Stack under cover. No tarps, just hard top covers so the stack can breathe. 2. Give the stacks at least 6 months to dry. 3. Splits should show both end cracks and a gray or dark color. 4. Two splits knocked together should 'ring' like a bat. And of course if the splits sizzle in the fire, you know you've screwed up. Simple. Works. Low tech, common sense.
Most moisture leaves the wood axially, or from the face of the wood, the cut ends. You know what I mean. You can prove this by taking a piece of wood and putting one end in a fire and have the other end out of the fire, after 5 or ten minutes you'll see steam shooting out of the unburning end of the wood, the moisture escapes via the tubes, which run vertically through the wood grain. Splitting firewood only helps reduce the amount of wood between the grain, which is a very low amount of total moisture within the wood.
The key to getting wood dry is to cut it shorter rather than split it. 20" long piece of split wood will have way more moisture in it than a 12" log that has only been split in half. Test it out, prove me wrong (I want to get to the bottom of this, and this is my theory so seriously, test it out and report on it).
thanks for the content suggestion. I'll give it some thought.
My wood has to be cut to 8 inches in length. I have dried red oak from early May to early October with good sun and wind. Your theory is correct in my opinion.
Pine dries very fast once you open it up. Dead oak takes me a few weeks to a few months to dry out nicely in warm weather with a lot of wind. We have a very windy area and the oak is drying out surprisingly fast once its split and stacked. Oak that was at 58% moisture just in September is now ready for sale already.
The green oak is still around 30% though since September. It may be ready yet this season. Time will tell.
Great to see you back in the wood yard!!!
Thanks 👍
Good video Phil! I love looking into how wood dries and how to make it dry quicker. I did a video awhile back about smaller firewood burning better for this exact reason. It absolutely does dry faster. It does take more time to split it smaller, but the payoffs are worth it for me!
My recreational burning customers like the smaller splits. One of the biggest complaints I got from new customers last year was other suppliers pieces were too big. It really surprised me how much difference there was between the red oak and other hardwoods for drying time.
Phil gotta love the smaller splits great for bundles also. Take care, Ben.
thanks Ben! yeah, I'm working on selling some bundles too
I just started my channel and business in November and am already selling bundles. I had a good bit of poplar and ash to start out and it’s all ready to go so I’ve been mixing them in bundles. The cherry walnut maple and beech are all getting real close. The locust and oak need more time. Like you said, I dont think people are real picky about fire pit wood. Take care
Right on! I've been delivering a couple orders a week since I noticed this stuff is dry. I'll be out of dry stuff before I know it. haha!
Beech is some of the best wood....
Holly is another
Hickory
Dogwood
Are all better than oak...
Mulberry is over looked but it's just like oak
Nice vid.
My wife and I have 3 years worth cut and split, plus another 2 years cut and needs to be split. So we are good on cured wood.
Never sold any, but we have given to the needy. I'm thinking about starting to sell some for camp fires like Hometown Acres does.
Popular is my least liked firewood. Locust is my favorite.
Locust is amazing to burn. Slow burning high heat and smells decent. I love when I can get my hands on it.
@@heathenfirewoodservice2021 Yes. I grab every stick of Locust I can. It's to hot for fall and spring. Dead of winter it will last all night.
Here in our part of Virginia the only wood that has more BTU's is Osage Orange. I don't like cutting it because of the thorns and it's very hard on the chainsaw chain.
I got a bit of osage and some locust laying around, not a lot though.
Popple (poplar) is an awesome wood. Grows so fast. Smells awful though and pops in fires, but it's great for kindling and quick campfires. I would hate to burn it for heat though.
@@Tadders Thanks for watching and the comment.
I agree totally.
Poplar is my least liked wood for firewood for heat. It splits easy but you must stay by the stove to keep chunking it in.
We don’t have a problem with season wood here I don’t care how you stack it at 120f in the shade
I've got the same splitting axe. I really like it. If you haven't, you may want to look into purchasing logs from a logger. In my area, it works out to about $33 for a full cord. Some guys sell it about $600 for a full semi-truck load.
I was actually just talking to a guy locally with a firewood processor and he's having a heck of a time finding a logger to supply him. He's got a tree service and processes what he can from his own cutting, but most of it isn't straight enough for the processor.
Back in the 80s I bought pine simi loads for 600 dollars up in the mountains of Colorado. But now the price is crazy high.
Glad to see you back it’s been awhile! This was an interesting video, our weather here has been prime for drying wood and hay. I assume yours has been similar by the results your seeing. Take care and have a great day!
Thanks ... Trying to get back into a routine with videos. It's tough. Haha. The weather been dry. Good for firewood. Tough for growing trees.
Nice, thanks. We burn (mostly) Tamarack, Red Fir, Birch and Pine ; in order of preference but I sure would love to burn a bunch of Maple. I just got my moisture meter. - N Idaho -
Glad you are back great video and you are right the wood will be just fine Phil
Thanks 👍
Appreciate the update on the firewood moisture content! Thanks, -Brad
You bet!
Great firewood ♪ I want it ♪
Just found your channel it’s great.
Welcome aboard! I appreciate you watching
well for maple and pine i can tell you if split in winter early spring itll be ready by fall to winter. been doing that for years. oak is alot trickyer does take longer but split small can hit that time fram.
if you just get a couple years ahead on seasoning wood then you have no worries..im 3 years ahead
I find that you can burn Ash in 4 months and it seems to be seasoned well but Oak and Locust def take longer. Nice wood pile.
That's why I stick to pine for camp fire wood here in Southern Maine. The campers specifically request that I don't sell oak because it's not ideal for camp fires. Ash seems to be the premium!
I keep the pine for myself and our big 6x6 fire pit we have at the farm. haha! thanks for watching
Thanks for sharing the wood testing
No problem 👍
Yeah oak to be seasoned unfortunately takes 2 years to be low 20’s upper teens. Ash, maple, cherry, beech, basically if it’s not a super dense wood it will dry pretty quick once split and stacked to air out. Oak, locust, walnut, take longer due to being pretty dense. Locust and oak take forever.
now I know! haha. This means I still got time to take down some trees and get it dried out for this season
@@FlatCreekOutdoors I’d check the oak and locust with meter first before anything else. I’m just basing my statement off of not having a measuring device so I play it safe for time frames.
@@heathenfirewoodservice2021 I've been keeping the oak separate from others for a while now, so I can start selling what's dry & ready to burn.
@@FlatCreekOutdoors yeah. You can also ask a bit more of a premium for the long seasoning woods as they take longer to earn a profit on.
I was hoping you would summarise what you did differently with that last stack in order to get it dried in only 4 months - kind of like a set of “top tips”
It just came down to the type of wood. The maple, poplar and elm dry significantly faster than the more dense oaks. Thanks for watching!
This year, my wood has been drying super fast. Fresh cut this spring silver maple was dry enough to burn is a few weeks! Some older sugar maple- I'm guessing it was cut 2-3 years ago, and the logs have been off the ground-- tested 34% when first bucked and split. I was burning it within days. It was wet, but not green. The GREEN sugar maple I bought green/fresh cut in November is well on it's way, but will likely be until late fall until it's ready. The cherry I got with that maple? Already half gone!
Hickory and Honey locust otoh, not a chance. that;ll be next spring, at least. I split all my wood smaller, as I burn in a kettle grill, for cooking and enjoyment. Neither purpose is served well by giant king kong chunks that burn all night.
Maybe in the Sahara Desert.
Flat creek outdoors by any chance are you in the greenville area in mi..good video
😊thanks
elm is excellent fire wood
I guess around here there are plenty of other more dense hardwoods, so nobody really bothers with it for firewood, from what I've seen.
Oak will be ready in 2 years maybe 3... poplar, birch, and maple won't dry till split 4 to 8 months depending on the weather
Plenty hot and dry here in the summer so I think we have pretty good drying conditions. I'm working to get more maple so I can have it dry for the big Fall selling season
HOW TO FIND NUMBER OF CORDS IN ANY SIZE RELATIVELY SQUARE STACK OF FIREWOOD
Use a calculator.
1. Measure the stack in inches.
Inches Wide or Deep X Inches Tall or High X Inches Long = a big number.
Example: 36 in wide X 69 in tall X 156 in long = 387,504 cu inches.
2. Now divide 387,504 by 1728, (cubic inches in a cubic foot) = 224.25.
3. Now divide 224.25 by 128, (cubic feet in a cord of wood) = 1.75 cords of firewood.
fire-wood sellers hardly ever sell truly seasoned wood....they keep it to themselves...in my experience they sell whatever they can get
away with....almost green to dried for a couple of months is standard....seasoned wood takes seriously at least a year and a half or more
sellers can't wait that long for the $money$...you will never get a full cord...and the wood you will have to season yourself! true story here
I tend to agree with you. I only sell it seasoned. I have some oak now I'm selling that was cut back in the fall of 2021. Yes it takes time, but I'm starting to get a good number of repeat buyers and referrals who know what I'm selling is good.
Question in in Florida but I have a wood rack and and I always keep my wood covered with a wood cover that is made from grill cover material. I always keep the entire rack of wood covered top and sides . Would my wood season better if I only cover the top of the rack and keep the sides open, my concern being in Florida is during the summer months the humidity and rain which is why I always kept the entire rack covered. Thanks for any info you can give me
Cover only the top. The wood needs the air
Well....all fruitwoods are sap light and easy to season, whereas red oak is sap heavy and usually takes 18 - 24 months to season.....this is a given and have known this since I was 10 yrs old......you must have lived a very sheltered life!!
I've had oak season in 60 days if the rounds were sitting for 2 years
sounds about right. thanks for watching
Hi what meter do you use
Is sycamore any good for firewood?
It's in the middle of the pack looking at the BTU output per cord. It's about the same as silver maple or about 20% less than red oak. Here's the chart I've been using for a while to compare firewood weight and heat output forestry.usu.edu/forest-products/wood-heating
This better not be clickbIt
Sassafras seasons in 30 days
wow! impressive. We don't have much of that around here.
cant dry wood well when it's exposed to water like that
Might be different in your area, but that's not true here in my climate. Wood will easily get in the teens on the moisture meter stacked out in the open like this. Thanks for watching
In my area, if I stack wood exposed to rain, it will all be musky, mildewed, and nasty with bugs and rodents. The stuff deeper in the pile will be worse than on top. The worst would be on the ground. I guess if you then stacked it in a shed to dried out the moisture from the rains, it would be considered seasoned, but it still nasty and not something I’d personally want to buy since plenty sell nice looking clean firewood. Leave it like that 1-2 years and it starts rotting and the bark is a sponge especially if it’s down. This is North Carolina…awful humid summer, constant spring thunderstorms, murky muddy wet fall, though winters tend to be mild and dry…would be the only time I’d see stacking exposed would work.
@@nickeckemoff7631 do you pile yours,…or do you stack it?
Just because the logs are dry doesn't mean it's seasoned.
What does that even mean. If it’s under 20% you’re good to go.
Poplar isn’t good firewood
Popular is stinky wood. No hotdogs cooked on that wood.
Needs a year mate. Four months is nothing.
Not sure how much of the vid you watched. I tested wood cut 3-4 months later in the vid and it all tested 20% or less. The point here was less dense species of hardwood dried much faster than the oak.
@@FlatCreekOutdoors still needs a season. The BTU output is 50% more. Chop more wood.