They sure can Dave - in my experience, mainly white/grey birch is hard to keep in rounds - yellow and black have done just fine for me if top covered (which I do with all my stacks) - some yellow birch rounds I have in a 3 year old stack are rock solid. Cheers!
Length undoubtedly plays a role in drying time. A 2" chunk is going to dry much faster than your average 16/18" split That being said, does it matter for the average burner? No. Cutting your wood to 14" instead of 16" or 18" will not have a very big impact on drying time. Not big enough to warrant a change in your cutting methods anyways IMO, YMMV, etc, etc
My experience this year for what its worth, I had a large amount of 20" long, large green, oak wood rounds this spring. Some I split but most were stacked open air in the same area. When I came to split them this fall they were still major squeezing out water when split. I was really surprised that it seemed like almost no drying had occurred during those 6 months in 20" log form. The ones Cut into 5" splits at the same time were noticeably more seasoned and dry as expected. I think there is quite a bit of drying going on the split sides too, into the middle of the split piece.
Personally, I would be interested in seeing if there is a difference in drying time between say 14" and 18" long splits that are the same weight. If I get some time I'll try an experiment with some red oak.
That's funny you say that as I dont remember him that way at all, he presented facts both from what he had read and his testing and many hammered on him questioning his results to the point he thought about not posting any more. All he was trying to do was educate those who would listen but some seemed to take exception to his postings.
I know what works for me and I dont have the interest in testing because right now I have more wood and plenty of time for it to dry. I dont know everything but for me my system works so not going to mess with it. If you read through my posts I am receptive to new ideas and like to help people out but not sure its always appreciated.
No doubt, there is a lot of drying when the wood is split. However if you compared the drying times for 5" splits that are 20" long vs 5" splits that are 10" long, I'd bet good money the 10" splits dry a lot faster. I doubt twice as fast but definitely a lot faster.
As I stated in my post there was a person who cut his wood 12 inches long to speed up the drying and it worked well for him, for some it could be added to the list of quicker drying techniques.
Not gonna post back and forth.....not gonna say or respond again to what I am about to say. I really get tired of reading what seems to be bantering back and forth between Old Spark and Sav. Not pointing fingers, not taking sides. Just making a statement, right wrong or indifferent....like it or not. Done now.....
I'm going to give it a shot. I'll take 18 pairs of splits that weight roughly the same, cut 14" and 18" per pair and I'll check the moisture on one pair every 2 months.
He had a point and so did I and I thought we stayed on topic, jeez some times I just dont understand what people want in these threads. Discussions tend to go back and forth.
This is for lumber but I thought interesting and relevant (or not). "Wood dries along the grain up to 15 times faster than across the grain. Therefore, a board will dry at a faster rate from its ends. However, because a board is usually many times longer than it is thick, most of the moisture loss occurs across the grain and out the surfaces of the piece. In other words, the moisture travels across the grain at a slower rate, but it has to cross a much shorter distance and, except near the ends of the board, it dries more through the surfaces. The rate at which lumber dries is controlled both by the rate of evaporation from the surface and by the rate of movement of the water within the piece. As long as the moisture can move from the interior to the surface at a fast enough rate to keep the surface moist, the drying rate will be increased if the surface evaporation rate is increased. This can be accomplished by: Increasing the air across the surface of the wood. As long as the RH is low enough, the air will continue to dry all exposed surfaces of the wood. Increasing the temperature of the air surrounding the wood. Warmer air holds more moisture; by increasing the temperature, the moisture-carrying ability of the air is increased. Reducing the RH of the air. Water evaporates faster into the drier air."
I wonder if that varies, I split some Birch for my niece's husband 2 years ago and it had been sitting around for many years but it was not rotten. It was setting under a roof but cut to length. I have no idea what Birch it was.
All I can tell you is I did test some ash were some of the splits turned out to be 8 inches, splits were very close to the same diameter from the same tree, the rest were cut to 17 inches when I checked them there was a 5% difference in moisture, long ones were 20% short ones were 15%
Should those with a need to quickly dry their wood be doing nothing but chunks and cookies? I'm not sure how that'd work for a stove since I haven't used one yet, but it's a thought...
My stove takes 18 inch long pieces, I have loaded my stove with 8 to 9 inch pieces end-to-end packed tight and it didn't seem to make any difference in burn time but, that is just to pieces in the load packing a full stove with a bunch of shorties is difficult, you just can't pack it as tight and full as with full-length splits
Do like most here did until we got good wood We burned whatever wood we had, seasoned or not, Just clean/inspect the chimney monthly I've burned from 2 month old birch to 2 year oldl punky wood, it was what I had Shorter thinner splits dry faster, stacked or in the stove burning Dead standing of some trees are drier . Burn what you got. (or what you can get) What other choices are there other than not burn ? Then Work to get at least a years worth CSS'd so it seasoned thru one full summer. Then get into the which woods take longer. Get a years supply of wood, CSS'd : ASAP It probably isn't going to season much since you need t burn it now. Most of us have been there, We made it thru the learning curve
In my opinion I think discussing topics is good for the site as long as its kept civil and doesnt degrade to when it becomes annoying.
