Wood Stoves

[Mabouya]

you may ask yourself well, how did I get here?

Job's not yet over Jorn!

Do a Google image search on "decorative wood pile" and you'll get some good ideas. Here are two of my favorites:

[AngryScientist]

what's the general consensus on how long green wood needs to be seasoned before it's ready to burn?

[monadnocky]

what's the general consensus on how long green wood needs to be seasoned before it's ready to burn?

The answer you're not looking for: it depends. On the general dryness of the area, how it's stacked, if it's correctly covered, and so forth. Of course species of wood comes into play as well. Very generally, at least one drying season (spring through fall), at least for most hardwoods, preferably two. A good moisture meter is your friend.

And an edit: "ready to burn" is in the eye of the behold- er, burner. I've been in situations where I've had to feed my stove pretty unseasoned wood - it will burn, obviously, just won't give out the BTU's that seasoned wood will. And the flue will require more attention. Dryer is better, of course, but sometimes you've just got to go with what you have.

[j44ke]

This is all based on what I've seen so far but each tree is a learning experience.

All the ash I burn is standing deadwood. If it falls or we (me or the landscapers) take it down, then I cut it up for firewood. Some parts of the ash have a wood fungus (or bacteria - can't remember which tree gets what these days) that is like a dry rot, and the wood seems to burn sooty as a result. So I don't burn that, just leave it to rot naturally. But the good wood - which can be in the same tree - is often ready to go right away. Drying standing works pretty well. I'll test burn a few pieces, and if it pops and sputters, I'll put the rest of it aside for a while, though sometimes the popping and sputtering are emerald ash borer grubs.

Black cherry can take a while. I have a lot now that I cut two years ago, and it is still not quite ready. If the tree came down in a storm, the wood seems like it is extra green. We had a big limb was still connected to the main tree by a section of the outer layer of the tree and hung up on a pine, and the leaves kept growing. It actually produced a lot of cherries the squirrels enjoyed all fall. Then it finally jostled loose from the pine and broke off the main tree, so I cut it up. That will take a while to dry. Cherry also grows like a twisty rope, so we split that when my friend Jeff visits with his splitter.

A red maple snapped in half in another storm. I cut the limbs from the main tree and then cut the trunk and large limbs into 4' sections and stacked them to sit for a while. Then a couple months later, I cut the sections into rounds, split some of it and then moved the rest to the palettes (largest rounds in the middle are the maple) until I can split them. Maple for some reason I don't understand seems to rot on the ground pretty quickly, so I try not to leave it on the ground too long. Dry maple makes a ceramic "clink" sound when dropped on concrete and burns bright and clean.

We got so much rain this year, even the seasoned wood is moist, so now I bring 2-3 days worth of split wood into the garage where I have a dehumidifier going. Then I bring smaller loads up from the house from the bunch that's been in the garage. That's made a big difference. I very rarely have to clean the glass on the door.

[monadnocky]

For the common hardwood species on my property, I think like this in terms of drying time:

Like Jorn said above, ash is good to go, in my experience requires no drying time. It's all standing dead around here anyway from the ash borer beetle, so use it before it falls and rots. Some trees around here have been standing dead for years and are still perfect to burn as soon as they're felled.

Maple and oak - at least one good drying season, stacked and covered (just at the top, do not throw a tarp over a pile of wood and expect it to dry!), preferably two. Red oak? Definitely two.

Cherry - two, generally.

Beech - lovely stuff, but you can expect the heat death of the universe before it's ready to burn.

[ides1056]

Beech and Birch, White or Yellow, have to be cut and split posthaste if you want an optimal return, and it's best to let the tree leaf out after it's felled.

[caleb]

Some parts of the ash have a wood fungus (or bacteria - can't remember which tree gets what these days) that is like a dry rot, and the wood seems to burn sooty as a result. So I don't burn that, just leave it to rot naturally. But the good wood - which can be in the same tree - is often ready to go right away.

Just to illustrate what Jorn is on about, I was out in the woods yesterday in a snowstorm working on some ash.

It was something of mysterious tree as I couldn't figure out where it had come from. There was no stump visible above the snow anywhere in the area. There were no damaged ash trees close by that it broke off.

The bottom was totally rotted, but only for <18" or so. The piece the saw is sitting on, that I think was the stump, is all punky on the left, but 100% solid on the right.



My best guess is that it rotted right at ground level, and cracked off cleanly at ground level. Snow then covered up the stump because it was so low.

Also, there was zero rot anywhere else up the trunk.

[monadnocky]

There are several (dead) magnificent ashes along the dirt road I live on - it's the reason for the frequent power outages here - any wind over 30 mph and it's a sure thing due to ash branches raining down. Eversource marked several of them for removal - a neighbor and I were salivating at the prospect of telling the Asplundh guys to just leave the wood - but that was over two years ago. The ribbons are still on the trees but there's been no removal (this is quite typical for Eversource/Asplundh - great at marking trees for removal, not so much for the actual removal - I'm guessing it's just cheaper to fix the outages as they occur but I'd love for anyone who has worked as a linesman [linesperson?] or who has been on a contracted tree crew to chime in.)

Anyway, heartbreaking to see them just standing there, slowly rotting away. My guess is after about 3 years dead standing they will be useless as fuel.

[j44ke]

Just to illustrate what Jorn is on about, I was out in the woods yesterday in a snowstorm working on some ash....

That's it exactly. Thanks for the illustration! My guess is the dry rot is what causes the fall. If the tree gets cut while still standing, maybe most of the rot is left in the ground. Occasionally I've gotten a section of good wood out of a round that is mostly punky - which might be why some branches keep leafing out when others are long dead. The punky stuff works for burning outdoors, but mostly I just leave it in place to rot. It doesn't seem like what you want in your wood stove.

[j44ke]

There are several (dead) magnificent ashes along the dirt road I live on - it's the reason for the frequent power outages here - any wind over 30 mph and it's a sure thing due to ash branches raining down. Eversource marked several of them for removal - a neighbor and I were salivating at the prospect of telling the Asplundh guys to just leave the wood - but that was over two years ago. The ribbons are still on the trees but there's been no removal (this is quite typical for Eversource/Asplundh - great at marking trees for removal, not so much for the actual removal - I'm guessing it's just cheaper to fix the outages as they occur but I'd love for anyone who has worked as a linesman [linesperson?] or who has been on a contracted tree crew to chime in.)

Anyway, heartbreaking to see them just standing there, slowly rotting away. My guess is after about 3 years dead standing they will be useless as fuel.

The linemen around here seem pretty proactive. They spend a fair amount of time cleaning powerline right-of-ways before March/April and then sometime in the late fall/early winter. Both the utility and the town mark trees on private land outside the utility easement that need to come down and then the land owner is supposed to figure it out. Usually these are trees that are dead and rotten and could fall across a road or hit trees on their way down that would then in turn take out a power line. I think you can give the utility permission to take it down, but it is usually faster to just do it yourself or hire someone with a grappler boom truck to prevent unintended disasters.

People seem very respectful of other people's cut timber. Several times I've had a stack of rounds within easy view of the road and never had anyone take any of it. And I've seen similar piles around from some sort of project and no one touches it for weeks. I think if you were giving it away, you'd have to put a sign on it that said explicitly that it was free for the taking.

[monadnocky]

Yep, these trees are between the road and the parallel stone walls on either side of the road - that's the utility right-of-way, so nobody really wants to spend the $$$ to take down those trees when it should be the utility's responsibility. I've heard that, with ongoing hardwood death accelerating across the Northeast, many utilities have pretty much given up on trimming and dead tree removal - it's just become too expensive for them and too overwhelming of a task, and easier to fix outages as they occur.

Almost every house in this neck of the woods (including mine) has a standby generator. I can't imagine not having one. During power outages when the wind isn't really blowing all that hard, I can look at the Eversource power outage map and it's common that this road, with it's 20 or so houses, will be the only outage in all of New Hampshire.

[caleb]

We must be on the edge of the cherry range because they're uncommon here, but I found a good sized one today that was still mostly solid.





I'm looking forward to seeing how this splits and burns.

[rwsaunders]

Lots of cherry around here…easy to split and it seasons pretty quickly. It doesn’t burn as hot as oak and be prepared for it to spark/pop.

[j44ke]

Most of the black cherry trees on our property have fought their entire life against white pine to reach the sun. As a result, the wood is often quite spiral grained and knotted as limbs disappeared from the lower trunk due to lack of sunlight and got buried in growth layers. But the lower trunks seem able to straighten out somewhat and can split nicely. Cutting the rounds shorter than normal helps. If it gets too frustrating I think it is worth using a gas-powered splitter. The wood smells great in a fire.

[bigbill]

Our retirement home in Wyoming will have a woodstove. The property has a lot of downed trees that should supply us for 1-2 winters before I find another source.

This one time.... We rented a duplex back in the mid 90s in the PNW when I was stationed on a submarine out there. The woodstove was very good at keeping the house warm, the baseboard heat never turned on. On new year's eve 1996, we heard a loud boom and the power went out. We lived at the end of a dead end road so we had to call the power company. They came out and restored the power. Thirty minutes later, another boom and the power went out. The power company came out again. I walked down the road and the guy said it was the second time the power lines were on the ground. He restrung the lines and while we were standing there, we heard a chainsaw and a tree landed on the power lines. A guy was cutting down trees, not knowing he was taking out the power lines, and would have the tree dragged out of the way before the power company would arrive. Kind of funny.

[Mabouya]

A guy was cutting down trees, not knowing he was taking out the power lines

Must have either been an idiot or a liar - how can you not realize that a tree you just cut down took the power lines with it?

[caleb]

Must have either been an idiot or a liar - how can you not realize that a tree you just cut down took the power lines with it?

Lying and idiocy aside, have you ever been to Wisconsin?

[Mabouya]

Lying and idiocy aside, have you ever been to Wisconsin?

Yes, but not in winter. SW corner was beautiful, and I hope to eventually make it back for some riding.

[72gmc]

Must have either been an idiot or a liar - how can you not realize that a tree you just cut down took the power lines with it?

I believe it. There's no test or training required to purchase a chain saw. I'm imagining the background check: photos of vehicles, buildings, and power lines with trees laying on them.

[ides1056]

After cutting a beech tree off the power lines up the road from our farm the fire chief showed up and told me I would have ruined his day if I'd gone up like a roman candle: 140,000 volts in that innocuous looking unjacketed cable I thought was there to keep falling trees from taking all the lines down. One did break the line a few years ago and I showed up to watch it melt pavement like the biggest welding torch you ever saw till the power was shut off. It turned sand into glass.
Never, ever go near power lines, or trees hung on them.