The other day I was over to Dennis house and he was showing me a nice pile of ash on his property. If I remember correctly it was over 1 year old ! Well he put some in his stove and it sizzled a lot to his surprise. It was bone dry and totally grey looking too ! He asked me to take 2 pieces and check with my moister meter at home so I did. The results where funny to me. The first piece looked and sounded bone dry and was 9% the second looked and felt the same totally grey and no cracks and tested at 10% so all normal RIGHT ? Well here is the getter I split them in two and tested the insides of the two pieces and got a surprise. The First one was 29% on the inside on Ash ! The other was 10% MC from the same pile setting on top next to each other. When I tossed them in the stove the 29% inside sizzled away and the 10% burned great. The lesson here is wood does not always dry on one year and defiantly not in under one year.
Pete I'd challenge the under a year theory - I've been running some Leyland cypress(about like cedar) cut green in January -Early Feb 2013, and some black gum, occasional piece that feels right out of the sweetgum fence and all have burned without issue and all cut green. I will vouch for the same stack though as that sweetgum is hit or miss one piece feels & burns right the others I just stick off to the 8' section on the right. Did just throw a couple splits from a willow oak I c/s/s August 2012 and it's burning without hissing - did take longer to light off than 3+yr red oak that I can't remember when I cut
In the 20 some odd years of being around stoves I have cut green, cut dead and burned both. My experience has been that less then 1 year and I get occasional hissing more than one it's usually good to go for most wood. After having a big supply 5 years or so ahead I can say without a doubt in my mind under one year will not be fully cured ! At the 2 year mark it is an amazing difference and lights right up burns great and keeps coals forever. Oak is the one exception around here it takes forever to dry out. I will admit there could easily be a regional difference in drying times however.
Yeah the caveat being regional drying time - though it was like a rainforest here this summer, we had some really nice dry and warm temps in Sept&Oct. Normally I wouldn't burn the other stuff but I stacked it on top of my tail ends(~1-1/4cords of 3yr oak &hickory) from last year and need it out of the way - it feels dry and burns just fine. The rest of the sweetgum is sitting through next year maybe spring shoulder season, I figure try a piece here and there just to see what it burns like
This post is interesting. Some of the ash we stacked got black mold on the ends and didn't dry as fast as usual. This only happened a couple of times. A wild guess is that the mold sealed the wood somehow and kept more water inside.
I have had 2" diameter pieces of wood that have been "curing" for over 3 years still bubble out sap while burning. I have learned to split anything 2 1/2" or larger if I need it to cure in a year & a half. (I normally cut/split in the spring & then expect it to be ready to burn the second winter.) This gives it 2 summers of Missouri heat to dry. It works with all types of wood I cut. However with this said, now than I have built my hydraulic splitter I am actually 4-5 years a head.
I have just started to become a wood snob, this Saturday was my first day. I am now taking nothing, except maybe mulberry and locust, that isn't big enough to be split. Just seems to take longer to get those little rounds to dry and I don't have the yard space to wait for them.
I've had saplings(1-2") when I was clearing an old logging trail that I stacked and cut for kindling only because it was chitload in a small area that spit water after 2 years of being stacked. Don't bother with the small stuff is my opinion after that waste of time. Way too many limbs from blow overs for kindling around my property - fill half a 55gal drum in 10mins with enough for a few weeks
I have found even on the little 2-4" that it well not dry well if not split or the bark skined off, somewhat dependent on species as always. Birch is one that will rot rather than dry unless you get bark off or split. Got a bunch of Linden that has quite a garden of fungus on the ends even though it is split. fairly wet summer here though also.
