White oak is my bread and butter. Sell six to seven times W.O. over all else combined. My logger charges more for hickory and cherry, but I offered to pay the same for W.O. He has really come through for me the last week by having a mountain of it processed. It is all fairly dry after sitting in his woodyard for 6-9 months and will be ready to sell by Halloween. Don't think he knows white oak is the most demanded premium firewood in the region. On CL and FBMP I am the only one listing 100% W.O. Believe what helps me do well in the area is that I have a decent quantity of all the good hardwoods such as Ash, cherry, hickory, sugar maple, red & white oak and a few face cords of black walnut. And I'll provide a fraction of each if desired. A 50/50 mix of W.O. and cherry is very popular as well as 50/50 cherry and hickory.
Am I reading that right, ready to sell White Oak in two months from being split? If it was sitting in his yard in log form for 6-9 months, I can't imagine it losing much moisture.
Seems pretty quick, but I know from following the thread that nothing leaves his wood yard that’s not seasoned.
Yes, not very much of large base trunk wood and limb wood does dry faster. All the big white oak gets sold to barrel makers. I bought his six to nine month old stuff last September and it was well below 20% in a few months. I don't go by time for seasoning, the moisture meter does the talking. I see very fast drying when it is in the mid nineties, low humidity and pure sun beating down; what the weather has been for over a week now and no break until Monday. And I split my firewood smaller than most people which also speeds the drying process. I wouldn't have the repeat customers that I have if it didn't burn well. I currently have over 70 cords of inventory and the stuff I am buying now probably won't be sold until next early Spring.
I believe all these followers of "it doesn't start to season until it has been split" have never cut <petrified> dead standing or logs that have been in a pile off the ground. They probably haven't done much of anything beyond repeat what they've read online somewhere. Although, for some, counting from the day has been split isn't exactly a bad idea. There are worse things to believe.
I’ve posted a few times about how I dry my large inventory of hard woods. I appreciate most of everything on FHC, but dread the feedback on this subject. I will not rehash all the pains taking things I do to speed this process along. I make major bank as a one man band and throughly enjoy what I do. I only share what I do so others can take tidbits from me as I do from others.
Thank you very much for your comment. I’ve cut everything from live standing trees to dead stuff that has been on the ground for years. A moisture meter or just igniting firewood are the two best methods of testing firewood for moisture. However, I am fairly good at knowing burn ability by seeing and holding splits. I have been doing this my way 12 hours a day 52 weeks a year for just four short years and will hit 1ook this week on my next scheduled cord delivery since 1 Jan 2022. $$$ talks, everything else walks. Again, 60 year old me, some chainsaws, a splitting maul, a hydraulic splitter, bad ash diesel truck, trailer and 300+ acres of timber property and middle Tennessee’s top producing logger four miles down the road. He wants to cut my property, but won’t happen as long as I can buy his firewood.
I've been cutting dead standing lodgepole pine the past few weeks. In 3-4 spots on each side of a 20" base up to 6" in diameter, it is split to the center. I'll have to check moisture but I'm betting below 8%. Makes you think about how quickly these forest fires take off from the dry fuel.
I can appreciate someone that uses a moisture meter! One of the big issues in the west is that firewood logs get cut, they sit in the woods for a year on the ground (through the snow), they get bought and guys try to sell "seasoned" firewood to customers. Although our humidity is low, they start gaining moisture on the ground. It's almost worse than starting with green logs standing.
I like to cut freshly blow down trees. They are usually rot and bug free. The splits are then stacked crisscrossed on pallets and top covered with water proof roofing underlayment. I then restack six to nine months later in my 300’ ready row for further moisture reduction. Just my method.
I sell a lot of hickory and have learned that it has to be CS&S quickly to reduce infestation. In general, pests avoid or leave dry wood.
If I’m counting right, you stack your firewood four different times. The initial crisscross, then for your ready row, then in your truck/trailer, and finally at your customers house for delivery. Any I missed? I don’t question your methods and your stuff always looks primo!
Whether cutting or buying firewood, it gets hand loaded into my truck and then unloaded into a pile next to my splitter. Then the splits are loaded into multiple wheelbarrows and moved to the end of a row. Wow, I do touch my wood a lot! What is time to a pig?
And another. I wheelbarrow probably 75% of the time to the customers storage spot because of not being able to get my truck or trailer close enough. So there is the loading into the wheelbarrow and then removing to stack. I've lost count. This past weekend the customer wanted his firewood stacked on two different levels of his lake house. So I laid down old carpeting, put a layer of wood on top of that to further cushion the impact of tossing it from my truck and trailer over the railing. And filled his firewood ring on the upper level. Twelve steep steps.
Zack it's a good point you make about forest fires taking off from the dry fuel.Reminds me of the time I threw some thought to be out ashes on the ground out back one January.Some of the coals were still lit and set the undergrowth on fire.I had to run my hose from the cellar out the back cellar door to hose it down.Even in the winter it was hell to put it out.No wonder these forest fires burn for days.Never again.
Sounds like a southern problem…. Ashes go on snow banks. Snow banks are notorious for being hard to catch fire
