tn firewood burners, how ong to season wood

[Guest 1817ak47]

curious how long people here in tn season there firewood before burning it. I know in the very northern us they let it sit 1 year, but almost half of that year is freezing anyways. I have some that I have picked up about 6 months ago and is burning easy and good. let hears some input:popcorn:

[Guest jackdm3]

My parents built a NICE firewood hut to shelter the wood from rain, snow, and hail. This Christmas they had a fire going until it needed more wood. I got another piece from the side of hearth and it just wouldn't catch. Long story short, that last bit of firewood wasn't burning on its own, but was going mainly on the firestarter on the bottom. Dad said it was wood they bought from Kroger and that it must have been green. Ya think?! I offered to go out to their hut to get a few that had been there for 10 years so we could get that party started, but nooooooo! He didn't want to bring in the bugs. THE BUGS!!!.

[56FordGuy]

Depends on the wood, I try to go a year at least for oak and hickory.

[Guest 1817ak47]

right now all my wood is sitting on treaded scrap 4x4's that are sitting on plastic sheet to stop any potiential termites. most of hte wood I have is stuff like, maple, hackberry, black locust, black walnut, and a few others too that I don't know the identity off. all the wood I have I picked up from sidewalks here in the city of knoxville that was left for hte city to pick up as brush removal. natural gas is to pricey and a block house is not easy to heat.

I know that one way to tell if wood is dried a bit or not is to look at the end for alot of cracks cause wood shrinks in diameter and thickness when it losses moisture, however it doesn't lose lenght. Il earned about this in construction class

[oldogy]

I like to dry mine single row stacked and covered for at least a year. I am just finishing burning some locust, poplar and oak that is two years old and it is burning great. This year I took a massive hickory tree down that had been in decline for a couple years and dead for a year. I have the hickory split and it is burning very well also even though it has been split and stacked to dry only a few months. The heart wood of this hickory will take till next year to be perfect for burning. This tree was 28" across the stump.

I have almost a cord of tulip poplar that I cut and stacked this year that shows no signs of loosing much moisture yet and I can only guess if it will be ready to burn next year.

So far I split all my wood by hand. Great exercise.

oldogy

[Guest super99gm]

One year is a good rule of thumb for seasoning. I have been burning some that has been through two summers of seasoning. Splitting the big stuff really speeds up the drying. I usually split everything over 6 inches.

[Guest 1817ak47]

yeah, I like the exercise, but what do you use on the really big diamter stuff? wedges? I picked up some dogwood, that is lick trying to chop a rubber block! I bought a buck model 81 about 3 weeks ago and modded our fireplace to adapt it as a insert and I ran the stainless flexible liner on the sat when there was all the snow on the roof! I have had temp of up to 76 in our living room, and I am not exactly stuffing it, as I don't have much wood that I feel is "ready" yet

[oldogy]

yeah, I like the exercise, but what do you use on the really big diameter stuff? wedges? I picked up some dogwood, that is lick trying to chop a rubber block! I bought a buck model 81 about 3 weeks ago and modded our fireplace to adapt it as a insert and I ran the stainless flexible liner on the sat when there was all the snow on the roof! I have had temp of up to 76 in our living room, and I am not exactly stuffing it, as I don't have much wood that I feel is "ready" yet

As mentioned by someone else above, when the wood dries it develops cracks. Yep, get yourself a couple wedges and work the cracks that develop. Make certain the wood is on a solid base. I have six pieces from the main trunk of the hickory that I am allowing the cracks to expand before I can split them. When sectioning the trunk of this tree I held the length about 14" and this helps with splitting. I bought one new wedge this year and it has a very blunt tip, not good at all. Guess I'll have to sharpen it some to make it fully functional. I have two other sharp point wedges but one of them is getting mushroomed pretty bad but still work fine. I just wanted another wedge to break in.

I have a large stone fireplace and the dear wife likes her fires just about every night.

My woodworking tools:

2 each 8 pound mauls

3 each wedges

1 three pound wedge type splitting maul

1 five pound single bit ax

1 four pound singe bit ax

1 Echo 4400 with 18" bar

several double bit axes

Enjoy your heat, stay warm

oldogy

Edited January 20, 2010 by oldogy

[Guest super99gm]

A hydraulic splitter is the only way to go. I started out with a Bush Hog brand 3 point hitch mounted splitter that uses the tractor remote hydraulics. A few years ago I found a used trailer type splitter with a Briggs and Stratton engine. It works with the beam vertical or horizontal. With the beam vertical you can roll the big stuff close and flip them up on the base. The hydraulic splitters will split even the tough stuff that you would never split by hand. It seems like they actually cut the wood sometimes when it won't split. I think some of the rental places have units available.

[Guest tnpanscraper]

Burning 6 month old wild cherry right now. It's burning pretty well. Dries out pretty quick. I go about a year on oak and hickory.

[kckndrgn]

I'd go with at least one year of drying. I'm originally from MN, and for 20+ years wood was the primary heat in the house. So yeah, I helped cut, split, & stack quite a bit of wood in my lifetime.

Eventually I will get a wood stove in my house, just not the house I'm in right now.

For splitting wood, I've done the maul/axe thing, the "I"-beam splitter, and a "corkscrew" on a PTO. Of those the fastest was the corkscrew, also the most dangerous.

[Guest GenNBForrest]

I slit and dry stack my firewood(mainly oak) in the early spring. It tends to burn well in my buck stove come December. If the stove did not burn so well...I'd wait a little longer.

[56FordGuy]

On the big stuff (20+" DBH) I rip it in half with the saw. I don't have a hydraulic splitter. I just bought a Fiskars Super Split axe, and I've been very impressed. The handle is a little short (it was designed in Sweden, I think) but it made work really easy on some 12- 16" diameter stuff I had. Barely even had to swing it, just let it fall on the wood.

[owejia]

I have a wood furnace in my basement and I burn both green and dry wood in it.