Just Asking.... How Long to Dry (mostly oak) Fire Wood Prior to Sale ?

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

I understand that this may be... a dumb question but I just don't know. I have not heated with wood for 40 years or more and just guessing on the  dry time of hardwood. 

I've Lost my Expert on About Everything (Dad passed away 12 Dec.,09)  Last Year.  My Dad Always was on Top of Things and Very Sharp.. even in his 80's.

Anyway, I was going to heat with a  oil fired broiler's in PA and electric heat in FL.  I just learned that the house in PA was Not Winter-ized (moving in 20 Nov.) and the Oil Fired Broiler Jacket is cracked and lot's of copper pipes burst open, etc. .

I have a lot of hard wood in PA and some in FL to cut. I was guessing that it would take about 3 to 4 months for the hard wood (mosty oak) to dry out enought to burn right. The wood would be cut in 18 to 22 inches and split to No Bigger than 4 or 5 inches thick and dried under cover.

I'll have to buy wood that's dry enough to burn in the mean time. However, I might try to mix a couple split sticks in when the fire is good and hot. Also, if I found some standing trees that were dead.. would that wood be ready to go for burning ... and dried out enough ?

I'm replacing the Oil Broiler with a Wood & Coal fired Broiler system. The house is already set up with hot water heat.

[SwampDonkey]

Five or six months would be fine for maple and beech. But oak holds a lot more water so more drying time. Probably 10-12 months at least. If you have your wood stored by your heating appliance it will dry it out quicker to if it's a little green. Red oak and white oak are almost 10 lbs heavier when green, compare to beech and maple. But the same weight when dried to around 12 %. But, I doubt you'll dry it much below 16-20% which is fine. You can test your moisture by oven drying small fresh samples every month to see the moisture loss. Weigh the sample first. Then place in the oven at 300 F. Keep drying in the oven and weighing it periodically. When no more weight loss, that is the final measurement (oven dry weight) to determine the MC %.

MC% = 100 (Inital Weight - Oven dried Weight)
                          Oven dried Weight

[fuzzybear]

The standing dead should be dry enough to burn, depending on when it died. When you drop the tree and start bucking it up you will be able to tell by the weight of the block if it's dry enough.

[SwampDonkey]

Hardwood around here breaks down pretty quick to mush unless your on top of it. A lot of dead beech goes so punky it isn't worth dealing with. Most, including myself won't bother much with it.

[John Mc]

As others have mentioned, Oak takes a while to dry. Also, wood doesn't dry all that well when temperatures are much below freezing. You might lose some surface moisture, but the water won't "flow" from the inside of the piece to the surface when it's frozen. If you are just cutting live Oak trees now, don't count on burning it for this heating season.

If you have any White Ash, that makes decent firewood, is easy to split, and starts out drier than most common hardwoods even right after you cut it. That might burn OK this winter if you get it cut, split, and stacked appropriately right away. However, the best way to go, IMO, would be to buy fully seasoned wood from a reputable seller, and burn that this season, while you start cutting next winters wood now.

There are a couple of good thread on seasoning wood going here on the Forestry Forum right now. Try searching on "Firewood" or "seasoning firewood" or something similar. I and others have made some detailed posts in these threads which you might find helpful. One of the longer threads is Seasoning Firewood in the General Forestry section.

Also, take a look at www.woodheat.org for some good tips on heating with wood (buying or cutting your own, seasoning, storage, burning, etc.)

[H60 Hawk Pilot]

John Mc and Everyone..... Thank's for the Information.  

I did a Search and Checked Out WoodHeat and Up to Speed. I have a fair number of Ash and this is the Info. I was looking for >> to select a tree type that I could cut & split and get some use from this heating season. I have a lot of standing dead tree's that might be of use.

I'd like to select cut a lot of tree's that need to go i.e. growing crooked, bad areas, junk tree's, etc. .

I did a test here in FL, with some Oak that I cut a month ago, that was split down in size to 3 to 4 inch size. I just started burning it in my fire place. The oak burnt without noticeable smoke. I started the fire with other dry wood (good & hot) and then added the one month dry oak to the fire. I have done this for the evening ( 5 days) hours. The fireplace provided enough heat to keep from bringing on the electric heat at night in FL.

I'm smiling because my electric bill for cooling & running the pool pump has been high >> $329.00 for last (Sep.) month. The Elec. stay's around this amount in the summer. I'm looking to bring in a high efficiency type stove/ furnace to heat this place ASAP. However, it will be next year because I'm going to PA on the 18th for the winter. I know I have this backward's but my Mother has dementia and won't listen. She need's overwatch to keep her from injury, she goes outside and locks herself out and may fall and on & on. She live's in the country and I have had a family fall-out with her. I'm an only child & have asked her to wear a emer. alert device but No & Hell No. She is bound & determined to live as she lived all her life and I respect that but have concern's too. I have had her evaulated and that was another sour situation, again, the bad guy for a couple months. The Doc said, that she can (almost) pass the mental eval. and is slipping at a slower rate (dementia). Note: I added this little bit about my Mother to hear from other's by Pvt. message on how you handled your  loved one's  when dementia had already set-in and a hostile situation came about (trying to care for them).  

I've read here on the FF that .. folks are cutting fire wood and selling it and making a buck at it.  I might try this myself and live in a good (Huntingdon, PA) area to market the fire wood. I'd like to recover some of my money from all the (used & new) equipment I've bought in the last two years.

My No# 1 Goal is to cut & process tree's for building my home in the fall of 2011. I could use some of the tree's that were not good enough for building lumber for fire wood. I have a friend that I gave some wind blown tree's away for fire wood. His 18 yo old son did the cutting and sold the fire wood for a good buck, about 50 loads and kicked back ten bucks per load to me. He parked the loaded pick up outside the local market plaza at the Giant Food Store. He put his name, price & tel. on the Fire wood. The fire wood sold like hot cakes and got his name out that way and has repeat business this year.

I'd like to buy a dump trailer or set-in dump bed for my one ton pick up. I'd like to have the dump bed for my own use and wood resale as well. I'm not into ranking  cords & cords  of fire wood. I've read that the  wood  need's to be ranked and covered for the best drying solution. I have three tractor's with buckets and thinking about a prepared area where I can dump the wood, dry it and reload into dump bed.

I'm asking, has anyone prepared a site for air drying fire wood. I'm guessing that the site need's to have air (best drying) get under the wood and free of dampness & open to the sun ? Two miles from me is a Pallet Mill and they run the skag wood right into dump trucks from a belt conveyer.

My thought's (above).... and just trying to fine tune things to work out tomorrow. I freely admit that I've been gone from this business for over 40 years, my ear's & eyes  are wide open; relearning the craft & too old at 62 to make dumb mistake's (so I ask).

So, when I ask or say that ... this is my plan, You ALL... know I'm always Asking for Advice or for  a ... Better Way to Get'r. Done !

Thanks' Again,

Avery