Does this need splitting again?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Here are some homemade steel pallets that were put together from scrap. They dried well. Got heat for about a month.
20151203_175526_zpsq2o982ic.jpg
...

20151203_175513_zpsbgsga2yz.jpg


This was stacked tight and no problems burning. Granted it is Silver maple, some say it sucks, but hey, I heated house for a month.
 
Im splitting white oak.. About 14-16 inches in diameter.. I end up with 4 pieces about 6-8 inches wide and tall.. I'm not concerned about having small wood so I can cram my heater full.. Just wondering if these will be fully dried by next winter.. Or do I need to runnem through again?
For my indoor wood stove I would not resplit the piece that has the triangle on it but would re-split the piece to its left.
 
General consensus is that the smaller you split, the quicker wood dries. However, where and how you stack can have a bigger factor - if there is sun and wind blowing across the end grain of the wood, you will get more drying than if the wood is in a closed-off IBC tote, like I see in your background. Just food for thought.

The smaller you split it, the faster it burns.
 
White oak is a pretty slow seasoner. The stuff i'm burning now is 4 years old since I cut and split it. It sat outside in a stack outside of the wood shed until last summer. I would figure 2 years on white oak unless you split it real small. Think bundled firewood small.
You do live in TN which will help as your ave temp is higher but your ave humidity is probably also higher than mine.
You are going to want to put those totes outside in the sun and breeze to get them to dry. I've had no luck drying wood in an open front pole building with solid sides. I probably moved mulberry around in the past in my wood shed because it was too wet to burn for 3 years before it was ok. (I do have a catalytic stove so it has to be dry) where as mulberry wood on top of the hill in a pile will be ready in a year.
 
you got to have a moisture meter to burn that 12 year old wood also, test it every year and let everyone know but don't even think of burning untill year 10 at least!!!!!!
 
Im splitting white oak.. About 14-16 inches in diameter.. I end up with 4 pieces about 6-8 inches wide and tall.. I'm not concerned about having small wood so I can cram my heater full.. Just wondering if these will be fully dried by next winter.. Or do I need to runnem through again?
Oak usually takes two to three years to properly season. If you throw one in next winter and it sizzles more than burns, then you'll know it needs another year or two.
 
If your OWB is not an epa gasser one year would be fine. I usually wait 2 for oak, but am ahead. I have a neighbor with a Heat Source One that cuts 100% bur oak in July and burns the next winter. He goes through a lot more wood than I do and I burn a lot of junk wood.

My Heatmor works best with big splits like you have and about 25% moisture - 2 years of drying for bur oak.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top