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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:
> I just flat don't know. My gut feeling is that split wood after two  
> years will be at the average 24-hour humidity for the last month. How  
> much wetter the unsplit wood might be, I just don't know. Smaller  
> pieces of wood react more quickly to ambient humidity.

I don't know either, but what makes sense to me is that left intact, the 
moisture leaves much more slowly than if the wood were split.  Then, 
later, in the late Spring of this year and then the Spring of 2010 when 
I finally split the wood, it will still have time to dry out for 6 or 7 
months.  I think it will be plenty dry...I am not worried at all that 
the wood will be 'steamy' wet.


> Ron's a woodworker. Maybe he has or can borrow a moisture meter. Or  
> you can do it the hard way: weigh pieces, then cook them dry in your  
> oven, then weigh again, then do the math.

These logs would not fit in the oven.


> Btw, again just for you I have been researching. Some people say that,  
> yes, wood can be too dry to be good firewood. But it seems that too  
> dry means kiln dried or in a desert area with extreme low humidity.

Well, I mentioned before about how I stack my split wood, mixing it 
based on species and such and then use it in a rough order as to how 
cold it will be.  December was really warm, and we did not use all of 
the alloted December wood.  Now, in that December stack, was some oak 
and hickory that was cut for the winter of 2007-2008 that was not used. 
 That wood, now, is about worthless for heat, good only as a punk to 
get the fire started.  If I have any 'good' wood left over after this 
winter, I am certain that it will be very, very dry, maybe too dry, to 
provide any heat next year, so I will use it at the beginning of the 
season before the weather is too cold.

> As with woodworking wood, simple air drying only takes wood moisture  
> content down to about 20-30 percent. That is suitable firewood  
> humidity. Area weather does make a difference. Weather in the  
> Northwest can make wood too wet to burn. Weather here in Phoenix makes  
> wood too dry. I brought back a big chunk of sycamore for my neighbor- 
> friend here and in only a couple months it had already split too much  
> to be used as a cutting block.


Some woods need to be handled a certain way to keep them from checking.

B

--
"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will 
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius 
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the 
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone 
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve 
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge