If a snake oil salesman of a firewood seller cuts wood on March 19th, sells it on June 22nd, and throws salt and pepper on it is he technically wrong advertising it as having gone through 4 seasons?
Lol!! Just my take... seasoned is let set for several seasons (fall, summer, etc.). In that aspect, 1 day does not count as seasoned. I always took it as someone saying it is to the proper dryness for burning. I've never bought firewood, so I've never had to deal with the issue. I've learned almost all I need to know from here (about wood hoarding and burning).
I liken this to “curing” in terms of preparing herbs to become ingredients in the kitchen- we “dry” them for a period, then “cure” them so they stabilize and their particular qualities become more available. What I mean by likening seasoning to curing is just what you said about cell structures changing, billb3 Under suitable cover, I think wood undergoes some curing, but the cells can definitely reabsorb ambient moisture fairly easily. Then again, in a large enough body of water, wood can become waterlogged and sink, right? So definitely capable of reabsorbing lots of water... but I digress.
“Seasoned” firewood means cut, SPLIT, stacked. So firewood cannot be “seasoned” UNTIL AFTER that occurs. What that firewood seller has is just dead and down wood that was recently split. If I bought from him I would still give that wood at least another year stacked to season. Sure it will burn but so will a live tree. Burning unseasoned wood is what makes creosote in your chimney or stove pipe. That in turn sets you up for a chimney fire. Seasoning does not start until you get your wood cut, split, and stacked. That’s why I try to get mine c/s/s ASAP . Otherwise, any delay is just wasted time.
I moved some wood from the old house wood shed to the new house back earlier this year, some was split, some in rounds. Wood was from back in my selling days, which for the most part ended about a year after my daughter was born in late '15. Pic of wood on the trailer is and indication how dry it was/is....that trailer would bust with that much green/high mc wood. Haven't run the splitter in a while, been meaning to. No fuel cut off, don't remember if I ran it dry last time, so wasn't sure how starting would go. Put in some gas...choked and put on rabbit, pulled and pulled. Sounded bad. Then remembered on switch haha. Fired right up. Had a piece of hickory from above on there, figured it may be past punky due to age and how hickory can go. Didn't measure but it was about 16" and 18ish inches long. Split in half, still good and solid. Went in house and got my moisture meter. Split another piece and tested. Phone said temp was in high 40s. Sorry about pic orientation, but easy enough to see. In the correct conditions and with enough time, bucked rounds can and will dry in the whole.
Unfortunately the vast majority of ppl who buy firewood can't tell the difference between fresh cut and dry, hence the huge market for scammers.
The few people that I have sold wood to knew the difference...and they were willing to pay my slight premium for it too (compared to the "seasoned" wood sellers) but many people just look at 2 or 3 things when buying firewood 1.The price (and not the price per cord...they usually just want a price quote per XYZ brand/model "truckload") 2. The species of wood (maybe...as many here sell as "mixed hardwoods")
I used to find that a lot of people didn't know what good wood was, till they got it, then they realized the difference...
Yes…and if under those same conditions the wood was SPLIT, it would have taken half the time, or been twice as dry.
Oh for sure, no doubt it would have been ready a long time ago. I'm not saying it's the smartest use of time or space, but rounds will eventually dry (at least some of mine have over time in good covered conditions). Also could depend on characteristics of the species of wood....some may deteriorate more than others if left in the round.
