To eliminate a double wood handling for refilling my personal use racks I was thinking about splitting this dead chestnut oak and going straight to my racks. Good to burn this year, or don’t bother?
IME splitting dead barkless oak like that into thin boards, will make it dry enough by the middle of winter, as long as it's top covered with good airflow. I split some long dead white oak back in February-March and happened to check on it the other day. It felt more than dry enough to burn in the outdoor pit already, and should be stove ready by this winter.
What's it measure for MC now? If its still solid, my experience has been it still takes at least two summers heat/breeze to get it there...
I’ve had dead standing chestnut oak get to useable status (below 18-20%) very quickly. Even the heart wood. As long as it isn’t plus 30ish now, I’d say you’ll be perfectly fine burning it this year. It’s been my meat and potatoes for a while now, and will be for several more seasons.
With your hot weather I'd say go for it. Split a little smaller. Worst case it gets used/sold the following year. I have some five year old white oak rounds that I've been meaning to split (procrastination is one my strong points) and sell for use this Winter. The sapwood is shot for the most part but as we know WO heartwood is very rot resistant.
A lot of the wood I am splitting is around 27% mc, and I am hoping it will be ready to burn this winter. If yours is below 30%, it should be ok.
Would you have to seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation if it only made to 23% and you burned it anyway ? Will this become a habit worthy of the wrath of the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League ?
I had a bunch of 36" red oak rounds (and other assorted bits and pieces from the same tree) that had been sitting in my wood lot for at least five years. I finally split most of it back in April, and while most of the splits went into a stack, I did try burning a few pieces (mixed in with some dry wood from the woodshed). The pieces I tried burned fine with no noted moisture escape in the wood stove. I never checked the splits with a moisture meter. These had been bucked into rounds several years ago whereas yours are in log form, however I would say go for it and get them CSS as soon as possible to take advantage of the summer to (hopefully) finish drying off. Worse comes to worse, put them at the back of your inventory for next winter and use them as far out as possible.
If you're asking if the wood will be ready to burn, you probably already know the answer Chud It's about time for Backwoods Savage to pipe in with a remedial course in his wood burning primer! .......or whatever it is called. I've never read it myself!
Like The Wood Wolverine, I burn a lot of dead C oak that is cut in the spring, CSS and top covered in the sun and it is < 20% MC by winter.
I will also avoid things with too many words. I recently split some dead white oak that was incredibly light and on the border of becoming punk. That wood is in the rack for this year. So far the consensus seems to be go for it. This chestnut oak had been standing dead for 5+ years. We have had a record setting drought and 90+ deg days. If the batteries in the mm work I’ll post results later today. Haven’t used that in years.
My MM broke/battery died and eventually got tossed. I used to show it to customers and it was a fun toy for a while. Let us know how it is when you process.
The inability to post pictures is stealing the joy of sharing firewood activities. cropped 3x and I don’t have time for that
It’s a pain to make photos fit on here. The site could automatically downgrade the image to fit iff needed.
Right there with y'all. Not much seems to be what it was before. Some swear things are getting better though.
Shout out to the world champion Canes. The cup is back in the south where it belongs. The boys are getting drunk on buses in Raleigh today. Tried to post a pic of a beauty wo log I’m fixn to dice up.
