Beech question

[Wood Doctor]

if you split it now you can burn it in 6 months tom trees

+1. Dries about like ash, soft maple, and cottonwood. However, I like to let the big rounds sit for a couple of months before I split them and then burn it in 8 months or more.

Beech has very thin bark.

 

[Wood Scrounge]

I left a few rounds unsplit from april, I split them yesterday and they seem to be starting to go punky already. They still are very solid but a few more months sitting out and they would be no good. The morale here I believe is beech needs to be split and put up right away. Does any one disagree or expiernce anything else from beech?

 

[woodfarmer]

everything i cut down is dead standing, usually already starting to go punk on the outside. cut,split and piled in the woodshed in march, good to go by now

 

[slofr8]

Most of the Beech around here (Northern Maine) was hit with Beech bark disease years ago so I burn a lot of it. Cut and split now it will be ready by next fall. Most of it splits well with a maul, especially when it's cold.
Dan.

 

[4seasons]

I think that the tight beech bark holds water in better than oak, so if it isn't split soon, it starts rotting. Splitting it when green and fresh it is so full of water that I find it sponges up the blow from a maul and is hard to get to crack. If you don't have a hydraulic splitter you almost have to let it freeze to bust it. You can let it sit for a few months to dry before you split it to make it easier but don't let it sit for a year before you split or it will be rotting. Once it is split it dries much faster than oak but you wont notice any difference in the fire between it and oak.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Beech Similar to Birch?

I left a few rounds unsplit from april, I split them yesterday and they seem to be starting to go punky already. They still are very solid but a few more months sitting out and they would be no good. The morale here I believe is beech needs to be split and put up right away. Does any one disagree or experience anything else from beech?

Hmmm, it may be similar to birch with that tight bark. I cut some green birch last April and it was stringy to split until last week. Everyone said split it soon after cutting, but it took forever to dry out. Birch is nasty stuff with internally stressed branches, curved, and tough.

Beech may be the same.