Mine swore that I said something that was slightly different than what I said, and was certain about it. I'm cutting firewood at Matt's on Friday, because that's when he's available. I'll deer hunt at Matt's at separate times because I have the 24-the 1st. She's certain I said it they other way. Nope. Whatever. I'll vent here. Y'all understand. She's making dinner right now. I won't pizz her off.
3, maybe 4 years ago now, I scored a pretty good amount of fresh cut green HL. It was heavy as hell, but split nicer than most other species I’ve dealt with before, and had a pleasant smell. I built a Holzhouzen with it on the outside and black walnut and the chunks, nuggets and uglies inside. I’m pretty sure this is year 4. Never really had any top cover but I tried it “shingle” in with thin cedar pieces which mostly blew off. It has some frass from powder post beetles but not terrible. I’m burning quite a bit of it this year because I want it gone so I can do some rearranging in my stacks. It still seems quite heavy, and the ends aren’t checked very much. But I’m sure it is quite dry, although I haven’t re-split any and checked with a meter. It burns pretty well and seems to put out some good heat, but it seems like it wants a little bit more air to do so. Does it live up to the hype? I’m not sure! But I was unimpressed with my limited experience with oak also. Would I take more? Absolutely! All just my opinion and thoughts. Your experience may be different
Similar here. I’ve had oak that burned long and steady, for 12 + hours. But I’ve also had some that burned up fast and didn’t coal well at all. Plus some that didn’t want to burn altogether despite going through 3 summers of drying. I’ve had black locust that burned like anthracite coal and other times it burned fast and disappeared like red maple. From my limited experience with honey locust, it does take a lot of air to get going but once it’s going, it’s going for a while.
In my humble opinion and in my limited experience checking is an indication that the wood is starting to dry from the ends toward the middle. The more rapid the drying the more pronounced the checking as the ends are trying to shrink while the middle is still full of water. Then as the split continues to dry, the checks (gaps) close because the center part of the split shrinks as moisture is lost..Curious what others think or have observed.
Yeah HL needs more air than most woods, and it's especially slow to start. I still like mixing it on with other kinds of wood. It doesn't check too much on the ends, not does it lose much weight, it's just a dense hard wood.
Wouldsplitter sorry your HL is not burning well. I'm with others and love it, but I know it's different for different people. Get what works for you and keep up the good work.
