Drying rates for various northern hardwood species

[joe4str]

Hi all,

I have about six cords, log length on my driveway and have about 4 split dry that I will bring into the basement shortly. I am about 1 cord short of my needs for the winter so I was going to cut and split another cord for late winter early spring.

The load is mixed white ash, black birch, hard maple, with some hickory and oak mixed in.

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for what I should split for use this year? I will take the ash first of course but I don't have enough of that for my needs. What next: birch? Maple?

Thanks.

 

[Bowtie]

find dead wood to burn this year, and get yourself a year ahead on firewood. Cut this year what you plan to burn next year. You gonna just have to find dead wood this year. The ash might get ya a start, but green ash isnt totally ideal, only more forgiving than harder wood.

 

[MR4WD]

Birch. It'll season the same in 2 months as it will in 6 months. Unless it's literally on the banks or in the bed of a creek, then add 2 months to that.

 

[Lignum]

find dead wood to burn this year, and get yourself a year ahead on firewood. Cut this year what you plan to burn next year. You gonna just have to find dead wood this year. The ash might get ya a start, but green ash isnt totally ideal, only more forgiving than harder wood.

What he said.:agree2:

Worst case scenario go and find a few larger pallets and mix them in as the winter progresses, or use them solely when the days are not that cold. My first year heating with my stove all the wood I had and used were skids. If that idea sound stupid, there are worse things, like trying to get an unseasoned piece of wood to take off at 3 in the morning...:censored: .

 

[Mkarlson]

I know this will get flamed but last year I took a guys advise. He told me to cut some Osage orange (hedge) after it got below freezing a few times and it would burn green. I tried it and it works pretty good. Also noticed hackberry does a good job after only a month or two of seasoning, actually tried the hackberry day after I cut and split it. Now I wasnt using only these woods but mostly as filler once getting a fire going good. It got me through!!

 

[coog]

I know this will get flamed but last year I took a guys advise. He told me to cut some Osage orange (hedge) after it got below freezing a few times and it would burn green. I tried it and it works pretty good. Also noticed hackberry does a good job after only a month or two of seasoning, actually tried the hackberry day after I cut and split it. Now I wasnt using only these woods but mostly as filler once getting a fire going good. It got me through!!

I hadn't heard that about hedge.Interesting!

 

[KsWoodsMan]

I hadn't heard that about hedge.Interesting!

Coog, a cord of hedge green weighs 5,120 pounds , seasoned to 20% MC it weighs 4,128 pounds. It only has to lose 400 pounds of water to be considered seasoned.

To bad the King didnt know about hedge or he would have had it imported to wrm his slippers by.

joe4str, depending on how long those logs have been there there isnt much you can do other than apply heat that wil get them ready sooner. Firewood does most of its dryig from the ends. Cut both ends of the logs off and those will be the closest you have in whats laying there.

It isnt recommended but I have brought in green firewood and left it stacked near the stove to dry out for a day or two. During the winter the humidity in the house is pretty low and heating the wood helps it dry much faster. Stacking it to close to the stove is a fire hazzard and there is the possibility of bringing bugs into the house. You do what you have to do to keep warm.

If you can find a standing dead tree to harvest this is your best chance at dry wood in the middle of winter, next to shipping pallets or skids. When cutting dead trees they still can fight back by dropping branches on you. The hinge wood also doesnt hold much , it just snaps off like a dry twig turning the tree loose to go where it pleases.

 

[ericjeeper]

Coog, a cord of hedge green weighs 5,120 pounds , seasoned to 20% MC it weighs 4,128 pounds. It only has to lose 400 pounds of water to be considered seasoned.

My math and yours vary a little. 5120
-4128
= 992 pounds of water to lose.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Eric, you are correct, the second weight should have been 4,728. According to the weight charts at http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/epublic/live/g1554/build/g1554.pdf

My apologies , still working on the first pot of coffee this morning. Thanks for pointing that out to me.

 

[Mkarlson]

I'm going to assume that the reason it has to be cold out for the hedge is that the majority of the sap will be in the tap root and not in the trunk. I know hackberry in summer cuts really wet and in the winter dry. I dont think its because the sap is frozen either.

 

[cord arrow]

Maple burns early as well...my stove likes maple seasoned three months or better...kept dry, of course.

Green hedge burns well...we have a lot of it here...by far the designer firewood in these parts..it's like it has an accelerate when green. Weird.

 

[Bowtie]

Maple burns early as well...my stove likes maple seasoned three months or better...kept dry, of course.

Green hedge burns well...we have a lot of it here...by far the designer firewood in these parts..it's like it has an accelerate when green. Weird.

Boy green hedge burns like crap in my insert. Are you using an outdoor stove? Anything seems to burn good in them. My friend throws green fresh cut Siberian elm 18" diameter chunks in his and it burns them, but that would never work in my insert.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

Heartwood is it

Split everything and separate out the heartwood. Heartwood is dead fiber and in some speices is DRY, ready to burn....

 

[KsWoodsMan]

I'm going to assume that the reason it has to be cold out for the hedge is that the majority of the sap will be in the tap root and not in the trunk. I know hackberry in summer cuts really wet and in the winter dry. I dont think its because the sap is frozen either.

Green Hedge sap has the consistancy of half dried Elmer's Glue-All. In the winter months the sap isnt flowing and doesnt gum up the cutters or chain. It is still hard to cut but the thick sap doesn't compound the problems.

When it is that cold out you are generally in a heavy jacket or wearing more protection from the sharp thorns.

 

[Mkarlson]

:agree2:

 

[husky455rancher]

what teh hell is hedge? when i think hedge i think of a bush lol.

but i would also score some free pallets and mix them with your regular burn all winter long. that wouldm help stretch your wood supply a decent amount for one season anyway.

 

[Crofter]

I would make sure to save some of the driest wood to burn in the spring when you are burning smaller fires and doing more fire starting; green wood is a real pain under those conditions. In the colder months when you have a roaring fire going anyways, it is a lot easier to live with the greener wood. Split finer burns easier when it is on the green side and dries faster too. I agree that the EPA stoves dont like green wood at all.....!

 

[KsWoodsMan]

what teh hell is hedge? when i think hedge i think of a bush lol.

but i would also score some free pallets and mix them with your regular burn all winter long. that wouldm help stretch your wood supply a decent amount for one season anyway.

Hedge is Osage Orange. Other woods will get called the same depending on the area. But in the central plains it is Osage Orange.

It was planted on the plains as a living fence to hold in cattle, horses, pigs or any livestock. "Horse high, pig tight and bull strong !" It was tended much like a privet or hawthorne hedge. It makes a tough , dense , imprenatrable thorn hedge row. If you ever burn it in your wood stove you would swear you just loaded it with coal. It burns hotter and longer than White Oak or Hickory and grows like Mullberry.

 

[J.W Younger]

Green Hedge sap has the consistancy of half dried Elmer's Glue-All. In the winter months the sap isnt flowing and doesnt gum up the cutters or chain. It is still hard to cut but the thick sap doesn't compound the problems.

When it is that cold out you are generally in a heavy jacket or wearing more protection from the sharp thorns.

ks we don't have any bowdock here anymore i remember it as a kid. sure was some snarley ****. what i call huckelberry grows a lot like it and burns pretty good its just not ever very big. wonder if the spieces is related.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

ks we don't have any bowdock here anymore i remember it as a kid. sure was some snarley ****. what i call huckelberry grows a lot like it and burns pretty good its just not ever very big. wonder if the spieces is related.

The Huckleberry I see here along the riverbank just don't get big enough to make firewood. I must be thinking of a different plant.
Second growth thorns are by far worse than first growth. I'm glad they dont continue to grow like a Honey Locust thorn does.

I do know that Mullberry and Osage Orange are closely related. I've wondered about grafting Red Mullberry to a Hedge root to see if the berries would get to the size of grapefruits. My luck, if they did, they would just taste like glue.