I have a pile of firewood, hardwood blocks of various sizes, some are seasoned, some not. I can tell by their weight and what they sound like when I drop them on the asphalt. I'll split some of the big ones so they'll fit in the fireplace. I like to use the big ones when the fire has been burning for a few hours. I like to season our firewood as long as possible. Any suggestions for stacking these? Thanks
If it was me I’d do something along these lines to maximize air flow. That’s the downside of dealing with uniform square pieces. They’re great for end cribbing but terrible for air flow in traditional stacking. I’d also separate the green (wet) pieces from the drier ones, and stack them separately. Again, if it was me.
I bought a load of blocks like that once...only once. The stacking/drying problem made them a no go for me...
Yes, cribbing is the best way to stack these. Also, stack them as soon as you get them because just throwing them in a pile won't get the drying done. Also, what is seasoning in your book? Talk about drying rather than seasoning. You also need to know what each type of wood is to determine what the moisture content is. It is the moisture content of the wood which will determine when it is dry enough to burn good. Guessing just doesn't get the job done. Good luck to you.
Crib stacking as Eric posted would be the most ideal for uniforn shaped pieces like that. You need good air flow to dry. Tightly stacked wont achieve that. Separating out the wet pieces from the dry as well as species type to dry longer is a great idea Do you have a moisture meter Alucard? Check the INTERNAL moisture content to see if under 20%MC. Split a block and poke the fresh split face. If under 20% you're good to go, I rarely use the term seasoned anymore since I've joined FHC and wholeheartedly agree with Backwoods Savage with the used of dried vs seasoned.
Flat/square “blocks” are much harder to get dry than split wood. The surfaces don’t allow any air to get between like the irregular faces of split wood that have pinpoint contact. They might dry faster in a pile on a hard impermeable surface or pallets with a fan at the base. They need air flow to dry, and piled has more open surface than stacked when dealing with blocks. I have had many opportunities to get blocks of wood, but this issue is what prevents me from dealing with them. I have a sawmill and have a bunch of slabs and trimmings that get turned into firewood. They do not dry well where flat surfaces are touching.
I burn a lot of blocks. The ones in your photo are perfect size. Since they are uniform a person has a tendency to "pack an stack", but key is to stack losely or randomly leaving plenty of room between them. I'd use your drier pieces or quicker drying species ike maple or poplar for end cribbing and wetter denser species for the rest. Single rank, top covered I have no problem burning blocks from this spring to burn in winter 27-28. Nice score by the way!
Funny, that's exactly what I thought. This might be dangerous if I set up a real jenga game with these.
You guys are awesome, thank you. This is the way I'm going to go, with some slight modifications. Thank you.
Thanks everyone, appreciate the effort and suggestions. I agree with "drying" is better than "seasoning." But on a website, Facebook or forum with mere mortals, I would use "seasoning" because, if I referred to it as "drying" I'd have ten people hit me with "wood can seem perfectly dry but that doesn't mean it's seasoned and ready to be burned. What you want your wood to be is seasoned." Then I came to my senses after I posted and realized I was amongst the authoritative connoisseurs of firewood.
Seasoning wood makes it fit for purpose and ready for use. Don't over think it. Or, if you really need to over think it, 'seasoning' is from the OLD French word saisonner which meant 'to ripen'. Today, we ripen cast iron pans, firewood and meals. A multi-use word often with implied context .
But people use it like it means the wood is dry, like ready to burn, and many times that is just not the case. Like "that oak has been seasoned all summer"...like that means it's ready to burn, which we all know it's not.
I have a hard time not thinking spices of some sort. Some days I wanna call firewood sellers, that use the term, and ask what's in their seasoning. Is it a proprietary blend or store bought?
Kind of a big difference between seasoned and fully seasoned. Seasoned all Summer is exactly what it is. You're never gonna find a perfect definition of seasoned nor dry as each term can be ambiguous as there is so much semantics in language. "Like that means it is ready to burn" is the logical fallacy of false equivalence. You're headed down a rabbit hole. "We all know it's not " ? Really ? Who is "all" ? Everyone in the world ? That's certainly not true. That statement is a logical fallacy appealing to common belief. Faith is not common, if it were there would only be one religion. There's certainly no shortage of grifters in the firewood world.
I would assume "we all" is anyone half educated in firewood. I'm sure he doesn't mean everyone in the world. That would be a ridiculous assumption. How do you tie religion into this? Truly curious. Are you a religious man?
