Season your wood before you split it?

There is a local seller who stores entire logs (oak, possibly 100% red oak) and also large rounds for quite awhile before he ever splits it. He does not split any wood unless an order comes in and it goes right from his splitter to be stacked on his trailer right beside the splitter. So, he never stacks splits to season them. From the looks of the logs/rounds, looks like these logs/rounds are 2-3 years old prior to splitting. The bark is falling off and some of the sap wood is punky. His claim is that he sells seasoned wood. He sells quite a bit of wood, so, it works for him. What do you think about this. It's less work.

Some on here have said that wood will not season until it is split. Maybe so, but maybe it seasons enough to burn! Seems that buyers around here are fine with wood if it will just catch on fire and burn, lol.

FWIW, I felled a red oak two years ago that was struck by lightning and the log has laid in the woods all that time. I recently hauled it out of there. The wood looks like this seller's wood, the bark falling off and punky sapwood. The bulk of it, other than the sapwood, is outstanding, beautiful wood. Splits crazy easy. Upon splitting, the wood measures 35% moisture. Wonder what it will be after it sits, stacked, a month or so.

 

I pulled out an 15’ long 18” dia. Oak log that had been laying for over 15 years. The outside 1” or so was punky but the heartwood was in great shape. I split it & it was averaged 35%, I split & stacked it, 1 year later it was still 25%.

 

This is the moisture % in fresh splits from So Red Oak I cut down a few weeks ago. The tree had been dead for at least 3 years.

 

Typical "seasoned" firewood scammer...I mean seller...well, no, I had it right the first time.
What the heck do people think seasoned means anyways?
For me, I might season my dinner...as for my firewood, I dry it...for 3 years, at least...and that time for me only starts after its split and stacked.

 

34.99%
Oak is very greedy with its moisture...

 

I believe it will dry much sooner when cut, split and stacked. I will also say I haven't been able get to some of this pile of logs for two years and now the bark is falling of what's left of it. I don't believe when I get to it this spring it will be dry but it will be dryer than green for sure

 

Rounds do dry- moisture does leave via the end grain. I've stacked rounds in the pole barn in preparation for eventual splitting and they for sure get lighter. Probably not as fast as if it were split, but they do dry. Logs don't have enough end grain to volume ratio to dry in any appreciable amount in a year or two. Oak takes a long time to dry under the best of circumstances; even cut, split, and stacked for 4 years in a pole barn, I will still get some sizzles. No way in hell what he is selling is dry. Perhaps it is "seasoned", whatever that means but it ain't dry.

 

I don't think it is either. I suspect his wood is 30-35%. BUT... it WILL burn at that moisture content, so, should one care if one only has a fireplace and not a finicky stove? And, of course, it loses moisture every day once split, so, it's perpetually improving!

When I was in college decades ago, my landlord bought red oak that someone brought her and this wood was really heavy and "green." I would load the wood because it was so heavy and she was elderly. I bet it was cut that year. It was def premium firewood, there were no pieces at all that had any bark and all of it was very straight grained. I swear, it burned just fine. Had a natural gas lighter like I have here in my fireplace.

 

All that moisture is still going up the chimney, along with the smoke, which is all it takes to make creosote...and an open fireplace is the worst kind of chimney fire...no restriction of air at all, so those are the ones that sound like jet engines and then the firemen come and save the basement!

 

There is no way that an oak log is going to be dry after sitting in a barn for 2 or 3 years.
The fellow who sells it does not know what dry wood is and neither do the buyers.
Moisture meters do not lie.

 

It will burn, sure. But it won't burn like properly dry firewood. In a world where 35% firewood is the norm (along with chimney fires, smoke, etc), I'm not surprised the builders put in a natural gas lighter.

One's view of how wood burns and how much effort (or gas) it takes to light it changes once properly dry firewood enters the equation. 35% moisture content oak does not burn just fine, full stop.

 

Truth!

 

Logs don't season period, only splits stacked off the ground.

 

I scored some elm logs/trees last week. The guy who gave them to me said they were standing dead when he cut them down “a couple years ago” some of it still had loose bark that would fall off at the touch almost. I split it up on Black Friday and most of what I checked was over the limit of my meter.
When I first looked at it, I was guessing it was all gonna be a lot drier

 

The only wood I’ll purposely leave in the round to “season” before splitting is elm. Even then, that’s only to make the wood less stringy before I split it. AND after it’s split it’ll still need well over a year before it sees my stove. Two woods I wouldn’t leave in the rounds more than a week or two before splitting would be apple and hickory. Split ASAP or you’re going to be making a lot more work for yourself.

 

33% if it's dry weather.

 

Yep…1 year in the round makes a huge difference in splitting elm that was taken alive. But around here it still needs 2 more minimum after splitting.

I just remembered…. Cottonwood is the same, the times are much shorter but splits better if aged in the round a while. ( but who wants to waste much time with cottonwood)

 

Hmmm. I’ve got a face cord of dead barkless elm that’s been split and stacked since March, and was thinking of using it come February or so... I have plenty of other wood so I guess I’ll let it go another year. My only experience with elm was last winter when I burned some I got from a buddy that was dry two years when I got it.

 

Split a couple splits and check it with a meter if you have one…. I’m curious

 

There s a local firewood processing place that describes their firewood as “seasoned in log form”. I had to educate a guy at work who bought a house with a wood burner.