Hope for new wood burners - green firewood fully seasoned in 36 days?

Hi guys,

Thanks to websites like this one, I've become a bit of a fanatic about firewood. I love cutting firewood, I love processing it, I love stacking it, I love analyzing it in every way, I love just standing there and looking at it.

I stack by species and date stacked. Red maple CSS in March is not stacked with red maple CSS in May. I stack in single row ricks to be better accomplish this - a caveat is that it also accelerates drying time.

So, I created an Excel spreadsheet where I log the location of my stacks, the species, the date it was CSS, periodic moisture readings, and the date its eventually burned. I was inspired by Butcher thread to share some interesting findings with you.

Here is a picture of some black cherry (foreground) and some red maple (background) that were cut down as living trees. The truck diameter of these trees were approximately 12"-14" and they were processed shortly after being cut down ( a day or 2)

This shot was taken on August 18th, 2014, the day both trees were CSS. Both trees pegged my meter the day I split them. I split them rather small to allow them dry as fast as they could just in case this winter got nasty and I was in need of emergency wood.




Half rick of black cherry (left) and half rick of red maple (right). I had to stack some of the wood elsewhere but I wanted a good half rick of each, didn't have enough for a full rick. I do not top cover my wood.




This part of my yard gets morning sun, and the evening sun is somewhat blocked by my neighbors house and large arborvitae. I live on hilly part of town so I do get some nice breezes coming through my yard. For reference, my general geographic location is the mountainous coal region of eastern Pennsylvania.




I checked the moisture content 36 days later on September 23rd, 2014 by taking a split, splitting it down the center, and burying my probes in the freshly split surface. The red maple registered 29% MC which I thought was rather low in that short amount of time. When I checked the cherry, I really thought my meter had broken. 21% MC on a fresh split. I checked 3 other pieces and got readings 20 to 22% moisture content. I tested the meter on some known green wood and it registered 48%MC and 8% on a 2x4 so I knew the meter was still working correctly. So in 36 days I went from a living tree in the woods, to firewood that was fully acceptable to burn safely and efficiently (in the case of the cherry).

I checked the moisture content again a few days ago on October 6th, 2014 and the cherry is registering in the 19%-21% range on a fresh split and the red maple is now registering 23%-25% on fresh splits. While this is still not as dry as it can be, it is certainly burnable.

I shutter when I hear the stories of new burners being forced to mix in 35% and 40% MC wood with their seasoned stuff just to get by. What my findings revealed is that under ideal circumstances, you can take wood that is near 50% MC and get it down to acceptable levels in 36 days in the case of my Cherry, and 48 days in the case of my red maple.

Factors that I believe led to this result

Both woods are fast drying hardwoods
Both woods were stacked in a single row
Both woods were split small (I have red maple that was split large in July still at 38%MC)
Both woods caught the tail end of a nice warm August, and a full, breezy September. I wouldn't expect the same results during a wet spring or over the winter.

If you need wood to dry out quickly, be smart about it, give it the best possible chances of achieving that goal, and it is possible. I'm not necessarily advocating this, I like to split much larger than this, and leave my wood sit for at least a year. But in an absolute pinch, small, dry, splits are better than large wet ones, or no wood at all.

 

Some good points & tips .
I read the "solar kiln" technique works great too.
I sure notice how well birch 15% moisture & lower burns way better than the stuff in the 20% range

A good w arm feel ing looking at a nice stack of firewood !

Was any of it "dead standing" ?

 

I have some wood in my stacks that was dead standing but the two woods dealt with in this thread were fully alive with full leaf growth at the time they were cut down in mid-August.

 

Razo-thanks for the post and the study. Interesting with step by step and results.
"Location, Location, Location!" Seems to be the primary aid in such fast cure.
You may think that the wood is split smaller, but it looks like many a members stack as far as size goes.

 

Looks like you have it in a good sunny spot, which based on my rudimentary testing, seems to be the key. My BIL and I were playing with my MM this weekend. The driest stuff was either exposed on the south side, or got all day full sun. I guess I lucked out choosing the best location for all of this year's stuff.

The greenest stuff I had was from a maple I knocked down in the back yard this spring. Overgrown multi-trunk beast; wanted it out of there to make a clearing for some new trees I wanted to plant. That's the stuff that was in the full sun spot, and it's the driest stuff I have - 13-14%

 

Razo, you hafta be an engineer, right?

 

The conditions you described are perfect for drying wood, like you've found

Small splits are a big part of it, add in good sun and wind and the MC will drop mighty quick

 

This is a good study, Razo - thanks. I would have thought that the soft maple would keep pace drying or better the cherry, but the numbers show the opposite. Good to know...

 

Razo, thanks for the info/effort. Cherry cut later in the year does seem to dry very quickly, & is a pretty low MC wood on the stump ime. I know some guys that say cut cherry today & burn tomorrow. Not my style, but they do it. A C

 

In my findings cherry, syc,poplar, and maple do indeed dry very quickly..i have some nice
black and pin cherry that has been stacked for 5 or 6 months thats reading 17%

 

I stack some wood in the manner you described but I only have so many primo spots. If I needed my wood to dry quickly I'd try a solar kiln of some sort.

 

Probably the best time of year for seasoning wood, warm breezy days with low humidty