Hey everyone. Just wanted to put this out there to see what others opinions may be. I burn wood year round. I don't season most of my wood I burn. The reason I don't do this is Im harvesting red elms and white oaks that have been dead and on the ground for a minimum of five years. I have not had any issues. Burn times are good and the chimney stays clean. How do you guys feel about this?
Sacrilege! Just kidding. Most of the stuff I did this year was woods cleanup - fallen and standing dead ash, maple, and black locust. I tested a lot of it, and probably well over half was ready to burn the same day. Stuff that was right on the ground was wetter though. Sent a bunch over to my BIL, because their family needed dry stuff to burn. And I kept over 2 years worth for myself. I like getting ahead just for the "financial security" of it - feels like money in the bank.
I cut around 10 cords of standing dead ash and elm this fall, 5 for me and 5 for the land owner, and I'm burning it now. Some of the stuff down near the stump was a little damp and sometimes punky but everything else is drier than a popcorn fart. I'd be a little concerned about that white oak as I think it takes longer to dry no matter what. I made the mistake of buying a load of black walnut a couple of years ago, seemed like a good deal. Guy said it had been down for 2 years. Turns out it was mostly the left over tops from logging the previous winter. Couldn't get the bark off and it certainly wasn't ready to burn even though it had laid in the woods a year disconnected from the main trunk!
I live in NW Iowa and for me the woods (dead red elm and dead Bur Oak) are not ready to burn right away, some of it might be but not all, cut some red elm a year ago and it does not burn as well as well as I like but that is mainly the bigger pieces so leaving it for the most part for another year. I cut some logged Bur Oak a few years ago and it had been on the ground for years and it was not even close to being ready. Wood drys from the ends so its takes a long time to dry in log form. Hard to argue with results and if you are not having problems thats great but keep an eye on flue temps and the chimney.
If it's dry, I don't see an issue. Lots of dead stuff isn't as dry as you would think though. Do you have a moisture meter?
70% of what I cut every year is standing snags/deadfall.Roughly 2/3rds of that is Red/Black Oak,remainder a mix of White/Bur Oak,a little Shagbark & handful of White/Red Elm,Mulberry.The remaining 30% of my supply I get dumped in backyard from small local tree service,a few CL scores & the occasional paid tree removal job I do here in town. Of the dead stuff everything over 6" diameter is split at least in half,smaller stuff is left whole.Its all stacked for 12-18 months minimum.Though most of the small stuff up to 4" is bone dry & ready to burn immediately. The green stuff from tree service etc is split/stacked for a year minimum,Silver Maple & Oaks are the exception.Around here its quite windy often during the year,Silver Maple is dry after 9-10 months,where as green Oaks I give 2 years minimum for drying.
Ok you guys got me thinking so I got a tester from my dad and went back home to do some sampling. Red elm cut and split yesterday is at 16%. The oak is a little higher at 24.3%. I guess if it is testing like this I should just go with it.
I personally do not like 24% wood, I had some a while back (in that range I believe) and it gave off steam when burnt until the moisture was gone, my wood below 20% does not do that. 16% red elm is prime stuff.
That elm is good to go. The oak will burn alright, but would be better if you stacked it for a little bit first and let it dry more
Welcome to the forum MJ. It sounds to me as if you are burning in an outdoor wood boiler? I'd think so if you are burning all year. If so, most of the dealers we've come across seem to promote burning green wood so it wouldn't matter. But that is one of the bad things about the OWB is some of the stuff people are burning and the resulting pollution.
Actually I'm using a U.S. stove that I built a 30 gallon water jacket for and looped into thehot water heater. The stove is in my basement. During June july and August it's too hot to run but it does cut a lot of the gas charges out. It's not perfect but does ok.
Welcome to the Forum! There's quite a few guys here that regularly get dead standing wood or fallen tree damaged wood and the short answer is that it depends. Sometimes it can be almost perfectly dry and other times not even close. I have had red oaks that were bone dry and others sopping wet even after being dead for years. Being directly on the ground or dead standing makes a difference also. Red oak and red elm both give you a visual ( you can see the moisture in the color of the wood) after splitting that gives some indication of how dry it is along with the weight in your hand of course. A moisture meter used correctly is a better indicator in my opinion for what your trying to do. I personally think red elm and white oak are fanatastic firewood. I have found the red elms to quickly lose all their bark and be very rot resisitant and it doesn't surprise me your finding nice dry, barkless red elms that have been dead for some time. Great firewood! As others have said, I think your red elm is go to go at 16% and the white oak would benefit from more seasoning at 24%. I just cut a dead standing white oak that read 22% and it's in my stack now for a more seasoning, since I know it will come down a bit from there. The white oak I just cut is in the center of this stack and was dead standing for a few years, already starting to develop a little punk in the sapwood.
