Seasoning oak....

Exactly my point. All the trees these guys have taken from the recent storms I’ll all but guarantee it’ll be for sale in the fall as seasoned wood

 

This really is a great thread. I have close to 2.5 cord of red oak. Majority of it was c/s/s in Feb 2017.
I'm curious on how it will look in 2019. If it's not quite ready to burn in my fireplace I will wait another year.

 

I’m curious to get a moisture reading when my unit arrives, and then see what a years time reading yields

 

I have the Stihl moisture meter, works well.
Welcome to the club....

 

I agree with anyone that says most oak takes 3 years split & stacked as a rule of thumb. For the last 5 years or so I have burnt everything that was at least 3 years in the stack......it's a real joy. The only way I see it getting any better is I may stack some in a dingle and see how it does.....

 

Sometimes one year down here if we have a hot dry summer. I usually go 2 though regardless cause I can

 

I have tried to burn Oak before it’s time and it wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Currently, my stove doesn’t get any Oak that’s less than 3 years seasoned, sometimes 4 years. It’s a long game but worth the effort.

 

If you do a shrink wrap kiln it can take an entire year off seasoning. I've actually done it with red oak. I do it in the summer and the temp inside the shrink wrap gets very high. A lot of moisture gets pushed out initially. Then the drying rate slows down. I know from experience that it works very well.

 

I did a search. My shrink wrap kiln was hitting 140 daily and was getting to a high of 165.

 

I’m going to try for the 3 year plan on my oak. I got more coming to cut split stack in the coming weeks. Sadly I’ll be short on wood for next winter though and will likely have to buy a cord to get my through winter....maybe I’ll try kiln dried if I can find it

 

You can kiln dry it yourself but what you have said in the header post is that it’s not quite in the sun so much. This does better in the sun.
There’s a great handful of these ideas on the forum using the title search and “kiln”
Hopefully you can find a way around the shady area if you wanna try this road. Personally never done it but maybe with a tarp I could do it here in Washington state. The rule here is one year seasoned but they seem to lump all woods together in this area generally because its not often as cold so wood grains are not as tight or densities as such.
Hillbilly solar kiln.

Homemade Indoor firewood Kiln

 

Im burning 3 year old rt now, sooo worth the wait

 

Out of curiousity I took moisture readings on last weekends haul. I don’t think the wood could be any more green as it was a recent blown, red oak, and readings were taken from various areas from different logs. Highest I got was 26.5 but average prob was around 20. I can’t imagine this is correct for I at least assumed the mc to be much higher. Perhaps I’m not probing deep enough....

 

How cold was wood when you tested? If moisture in wood is froze it does make a difference, not sure if the difference would be 10% but when it's cold I take splits in to warm up before I test


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Take a reading of a freshly split piece on the side, not the end. That should give an accurate reading. As the poster above said, take it inside for an overnight in order to unfreeze any trapped moisture.

 

I had some large rounds that I split Saturday just to make easier to carry, so I tested several of the splits as well as the ends
Tested this morning and temps were low 30’s, was in the low 50’s this weekend so I can’t imagine it was cold enough to freeze and trapped moisture

 

I wouldn’t think so either. I wonder if the tree was standing dead, which could contribute to the low moisture content; because 20-26% on fresh, green oak is pretty low. I’ve got oak that’s been stacked for a year that hasn’t hit that yet, but this summer should sure help with that!

 

Were you testing on the splits that were made this weekend, or did you resplit some to test it?

 

Green oak fresh from the stump is about 80-85% which is far beyond the range of a moisture meter. If you see moisture on a fresh split's face or it oozing as your splitter's wedge goes through its way up there.

 

classicdmax, there may be a fellow hoarder close by that may be interested in a swap? Some unseasoned oak and a six pack for some seasoned firewood. If you were nearby I would happily trade you that oak for some really well seasoned eucalyptus.


This was one of my stacks on a hot sunny day in January, air temp was 108F and a relative humidity of 10%,




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