Ash Die Back wood as firewood .

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Paul in the woods said:

I have often found ash takes a long time to season though, it may be one of the drier woods when felled but then takes along time to shed it's moisture.

I feel the same but have not measured the difference on split pieces when I did tests. I am likely to run short of dry logs, so while I was restocking a bay in the log shed for next year I measured the moisture from a 10" ash cheese I cut in the autumn and it gave 36% moisture content. I was surprised so have weighed it and will dry it by the stove.

 

The wood that is only a bit higher water content than ash is sycamore, it seems to dry fast, perhaps as it is diffuse porous??

[Teddy Leas]

18 hours ago, Paul in the woods said:

 

Have you tested the split face of a freshly split log and pushed the pins in a good depth?

 

I've burnt some ash with obvious dieback and not noticed much difference. I have often found ash takes a long time to season though, it may be one of the drier woods when felled but then takes along time to shed it's moisture.

Yes, always split and measured from a fresh face.

 

Luckily we have some dry birch and Sycamore to see us through this year, so hopefully the Ash will benefit from another 9 months of air drying (hope so, have 9 IBCs full of it)!

 

I'm in the process of building a solar kiln (more for fun and an experiment, than anything else), so will give it a good roast in there in the spring and if it still doesn't burn well i'll be able to build lots of log piles for nature 😆