IMO I think the most important part of drying firewood is to get it cut into at least 2 foot lengths and stacked and covered, splitting it doesn't help drying by much. I figure I can split it at my leisure, the main thing is get it cut. If you are in a pinch to burn green wood not having enough drying time, cut it into short 1 foot lengths or shorter will greatly improve drying time. Wood drys from the cut ends, just as you see the water boil out of it from the ends when you burn green wood. Think of the grain in wood like a piece of celery.
I was on the net last year looking for info on wood drying times and found this info from Firewood Ratings and Info
based on data from: U.S. Forest Products Laboratory
There are people who insist that wood should be dried (seasoned) for at least one or two years. Experimental evidence has established that this is nearly always unnecessary, as long as the pieces of wood are cut to length and stacked. Natural airflows through the stack, and particularly through the end cut cells of the pieces of wood themselves, dries them sooner than that. Experimental evidence has established that one-foot long cut pieces generally dry to acceptable levels in just two or three months. Two-foot long cut pieces take about six or seven months for similar acceptability. Four-foot long cut pieces DO require at least a year. Split pieces of wood tend to dry slightly faster than full diameter logs, but again by minimal amounts.
Associated with this, covering the woodpile with a tarp slightly improves this, but probably not enough to make the expense of a tarp worthwhile, except in a climate where rain and very high humidity is common.
There appears to be no value in drying firewood more than about nine months.
If wood is stacked in four-foot or longer lengths, the drying process is greatly slowed. In other words, if wood is cut to four-foot length and stacked, for nine months, and then cut to shorter burning length just before use, it will probably not burn well because it is still to wet (green).
Read my post again #16. There has been tests done. If you want dry wood fast cut it to short lengths asap.
Oh , in post #16, I didn't see any mention of felling it and letting the leaves wither, drawing moisture from the trunk. I guess I missed the part too where you provided a link for refference to
based on data from: U.S. Forest Products Laboratory
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I recall reading an article along these lines, possibly even this same one, where the findings were posted, but not their data. I would liked to have seen some Moisture Content charts Charts showing the weekly measured differences over a 1 year or 2 year period for each of their test samples.
Not all wood is equal. Some is straight grained, some cross grained and others are twist grained. On wood that isn't straight grained when it gets split it would expose more capilliary ends for faster drying. With straight grained wood, some ripping and tearing occurs as it is split which should also expose more capillary ends for faster drying. How much faster ? There is not data to indicate. You did mention that it is marginal. races are won and lost over the difference of thenths or hundredths of seconds. I'm not going to split hairs over seconds or minutes difference over the course of 3-9 months.
Trees transpire water through their leaves during the course of the day. The first time I read this the figure was 40 gallons or more per day.
A quick internet search showed this amount to be low by todays standard. A few sites showed A mature Beech tree to transpire 70 gallons per day. Some other species on different sites showed upto 140 gallons per day of water lost to transpiration. Lets just use the Beech as an example. 70 gallons per day over 3 days while the leaves wilted is approx 200 gallons of water. That is 1,600 punds lost from a tree that might produce one cord. From
this site A green cord of beech weighs 4900 pounds. From
this site a seasoned cord of Beech weighs 3,757 pounds. If it needs to lose 1143 pounds of moisture to be considered seasoned and it could lose up to 1600 pounds in 3 days, by my thinking letting it set 2 days at 560 pounds lost per day and this puppy is prime for the woodstove.
We All should know this isnt true. At some point the tree shuts down and stops the flow to the leaves during stress. Whether it is an hour or a day or 3 days I havent a clue and don't know of anyone that actually does. But If it lost 70 gallons in the first day before it reacted to its stress half of the seasoning time is already done. On day 2 if it lost 1/3 as much we are getting closer to being halfway there in less than a week. The laws of diminishing returns comes into play quickly here. The leaves shut down and drop off. The capillary action stops. The trees design is to carry water up the trunk and sap back down holding moisture in the wood. After the capillary action has stopped processing it into firewood exposes the ends allowing the drying process to finish.
I'm a skeptic. I want to be convinced by someone or myself, instead of just accepting a statement as fact. A recent blowdown processed into firewood 6 days after it fell was ready much sooner than expected. It was in good health and produced over a cord and a half of good firewood. Nothing I could think of before this thread could be attributed to it seasoning out in half the time. I'm not conviced entirely but the evidence as I see it is pointing to the leaves being on and fully process after day seven.
For reasons already stated, I do think the wood will be dryer with the leaves left on for 3 -7 days before processing it. Dryer than it would be seven days after if it was felled, cut, split and stacked in one day. I'm not saying this is a fact, just my opinion.
I dont think that felling a tree and coming back a year later to get seasoned wood is going to be a realistic expectation. The trees design is to store and transfer water. If it has no place to go .... it stays wet inside.
This is not how I cut firewood. I cut it early and process it as I go along. I cant leave trees laying for days at a time along the fenceline or they disappear.
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