Bring a moisture meter and a splitting hatchet, grab a couple random splits, bust them open and take readings. Either he will smile or all hell breaks loose, most likely the latter. Ask me how I know !!!
OK well by now most of you may know I buy quantities of firewood, small or large and have been doing this for about 5 years now. If they are sellers of firewood too, I always introduce myself and discuss with them that I buy firewood and resell it to my customers in the city and it has to be split for sometime before it meets my criteria. They quickly are so proud to tell me they have dry firewood and it was cut "X" years ago but not split then of course. I keep my Fiskars X11 Splitting Hatchet & Moisture Meter in the truck so I'm always ready to make a deal. I'll ask permission to grab a couple random splits and take some readings. Of course 9 times out of 10 the wood is in the 40%-50% range and I tell them I have to pass. Most of the guys are actually interested in the testing process and want to learn about it. Every once in the while I'll get told I don't know chit about selling firewood and to frick off when I tell them the firewood is too wet. They will go on to tell me how if the firewood is too dry it burns up too fast and their customers like their firewood like this. I cannot sell it to my customer's like that & I tell them right back off. It's amazing that people get so pizzed off over firewood cause their Grandpappy did it that way, there father did it that way and they are gonna do it that way. Another guy last year I started talking to about buying firewood from, cursed me out when I told him I had to check the wood with a moisture meter as well before I would take a load of it. Buying selling firewood can be rough business in some circumstances, some of these sellers are far off the road down in a hollar, it's best to carry.
I'd sure like to ask a seller for all his "too dry wood" Take it off there hands ya know...….. Figuring they must accidently have some leftover piles that none of there "regular customers prefer"
Yeah, it is like horsepower..... there is 'salesman' horsepower (754 for example) and then there is dyno. horsepower (same car, 317 at best). My experience with most wood sellers is "seasoned" wood is anything not cut up this week. Semi- seasoned wood is wood that was cut this week. And wood that is not seasoned can still be strapped back together, hit with a defibrillator and it will be a live tree again.... Brian
I went out into the yard today and started clearing a pile of wood thats been sitting for too long. I had some white oak rounds that had been seasoning for 2 years sap wood was all pretty punky. Got about halfway through and gave up, designated whats left for the fire pit. Well, everything but the locust!
