Splitting and Seasoning Oak

[sime42]

On 14/01/2024 at 12:51, Gabriel82 said:

@sime42 I've talked with the guy who works in forest and is responsable/decides things in a big forest area up in the "hilly"/mountain area. Will have those oak logs in february,if weather is good of course. No more soaking wet for me . The offer is around 500 euros(2500 RON) for a 4 cubic meter truck. Small load. Usually the wealthier people buy a trailer truck 30-40 cubic meters. But those ones also have big 500-600 square meters villas. So heating for them means either quality hard wood logs or bituminous coal,maybe with some wood briquettes too... Never understood the "attraction" of big houses or expensive cars! But I wouldn't say NO to a 7-10 days vacation at Vama Veche Black Sea or even Greece islands! Man has to relax too ,not just work like a slave from dusk till dawn until we die off at 70-80 years old. Although I know people that stood on their feet and worked from 4 AM to nightfall untill they the day they died at 85 years old... 

I burn this wood in ceramic tile stoves, traditional around here in Romania. Cheap to build too if you ever should need one. About 400-500 euros the cost of work if you find a good experienced builder(they are hard to find lately, too old or allready died...) plus the materials cost(another 500 euros or at most 1000 euros if the stove is big and with fancy with granit parts). I like them hot and working, don't care  much about fancy rocks 🙄😁 

As for Makita EA6100P ,I think I bought the last one in the country... It was that hard to find... Makita no longer makes gasoline chainsaws for about 2 years now... Was so mad about it that I was almost about to get a XP395... But same guy that sells me the wood logs told me to calm down ,that chainsaw is for forestry professional experienced men. Not hobby. I might hurt myself or cut my legs off. I agree with him now 😁 I did butchered some trees anyway with this Makita  anyway. In summer hot weather it exhausted me but I was a bit too dark dressed for 38 degrees celcius...  And I cut all day in direct sunlight... was helping a friend with his firewood, he is working too much all the time and didn't had the time for this,not even saturday or sunday... this is how things are around here: work nonstop just to stay alive  🙄 

 

I know those ceramic stoves that you mentioned, they're nice. I spent a fair bit of time in Romania a few years ago, Transylvania. I always admired them, some are really ornate, and they seem to be very efficient - kick out a lot of heat from not much wood fuel.

[sime42]

i got this lot at the weekend. Quite a bargain i reckon: £50 for prime Oak rounds. Nice and clean and still green so splits lovely. Its the first load of firewood I've ever had to buy so glad I didn't pay through the nose for it.

 

[Gabriel82]

@openspaceman there you go: you allready got half of a traditional ceramic tile stove! 😁 All you need now is an experienced guy ,mud,sand,ceramic tiles,refractory bricks(thin ones) and some steel wires( 3-4 mm thick ). 

Jokes aside, it's cold in there... 

P.s. now that I think well ,if you can plug/put a lid on that chimney after the burning ends ,you could keep it warm for longer since no convection air gets moved around it anymore! 

 

Edited January 17 by Gabriel82
Forgot something

[Gabriel82]

@sime42 looks more or less 1 cubic meter . If it is 1 m3 oak you paid half what it costs even here in Romania 😁 

No splitting or stacking included 🙄 

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Gabriel82 said:

if you can plug/put a lid on that chimney after the burning ends ,you could keep it warm for longer since no convection air gets moved around it anymore! 

Yes I think that is done with purpose built masonry stoves but impractical in my case as there is always some air passage open to my stove and even if I could plug the top of the chimney there would be an increased risk from carbon monoxide.

 

Here is a picture from the same spot in the morning, before the fire is lit and some 8 hours since the stove was left to go out.

[Gabriel82]

@openspaceman No, not close the lid when fire is still burning. After it's all done, of course. I start with dry small birch, add some hornbeam, let it develop a good thick coals then continue with wood briquettes that burn hot and relatively fast. After all is done burning ,I pull what's left on the cast iron grate so the draft can go through it(those blue flames are there because of this) ,and just empty everything from the burning chamber and the ash chamber(2 separate things). While I take that semicoals stuff out in a steel bucket ,I air out the room (5 minutes) and then close the connection between main chimney and stove. Since draft is powerfull all the time there is no chance of CO to remain in the room. The result is a warm to hot stove(around the top and main burning chamber is hotter). Next 1-2 hours after the chimney connection is closed the whole stove gets even hotter uniformly everywhere ,even the corners.  Stays like this for 10 hours or more! 

I couldn't find a decent experienced man/builder at the moment this ceramic tile stove was built, but I wanted a russian type masonry refractory stove. Money for work or materials was not an issue 10-11 years ago ,when this stove was built. Until then whole house was heated with natural gas central heating. Still is in place but new radiator and a new Motan KPlus 24 installed about 5 years ago. Wich hasn't been used for heating at all, only instant hot water. But heating with dry birch ,hornbeam is much cheaper (about half compared to natural gas for a whole heating season) and by God a lot hotter in house... Like underwear environment when outside is minus 5-10 Celcius... 

Not even a match or close compared to gas central heating...  To heat the house like that with natural gas I think I would have to pay 3 times more than with dry wood...  And it's an insulated house with 10 cm insulation... With good windows 3 layers of glass, etc... 

Can't complain or say a bad word about heating with wood 😁 

Next best thing to try would be coal, think I still have a 20kg bag of coals somewhere in the shed...

Read this for more info on masonry stoves ,of course if you're interested 😁 

Tiled Stove Renovation: Revival of the Masonry Heater | Vitcas

SHOP.VITCAS.COM

[Gabriel82]

I got the 4-4,5 cubic meters of oak today around 12:00. Driver unloaded in front of my house and from there is my job to slice the logs in manageable pieces and carry them inside the yard.Since its a narrow property I had to wheelbarrow 1-2 slices because this thing /OAK is heavy,kind of like hornbeam.And hard to cut. But it's done ,cleaning the public domain in front of my house  included. As for seasoning I'll split the whole lot in about 1 month. The split oak will stay in the open covered barely with a transparent plastic sheet ,just to keep the rain off(if ANY...) I'll post more but now it's about  23:00 around here in Romania. I'm so tired but still tommorow morning I have to wake up around 4:30-5:00 AM.So if you all will  excuse me I'll go sleep for few hours and I promise I will chat more in week-end(saturday, sunday). As is romanian are obliged by unwritten rules to work almost non stop. So good night, cheers and thank you all for answers! 

[Gabriel82]

after some busy time ,I managed to find a day to "try" to split this oak. so far is easy for me. feels more like birch. but softer than hornbeam. I'll try to split it fast before any hint of drying up. as for seasoning... only time will have the answer to that! cheers

[Gabriel82]

oh boy, I "switched into high gear" and now the yard is a mess 😂 this oak is either too soft or I'm too fit ,plus the axe is too much of a steel beast. I thought it would be a nightmare to split but so far it's more like one hit one split. Is this really oak?! or what is going on here? can anyone with more experience tell me from pictures if these logs are indeed oak? It's my first time "around oak" and so far is easier to prepare than hornbeam or birch that had sit too much in the sun while still beeing a slice if a log.(dried up).  if weather is good I'll have it all 4 cubic meters split and arranged in the yard ready for the hellish hot sunny romanian summer(35-40 degrees celcius...). 

[sime42]

Good work!

That looks like Oak to me. If it was in front of me I would smell it to confirm. It has a quite distinctive aroma, reminiscent of vinegar to my nose. What can you smell?

Oak can split really easily like you've found, if it's fresh, straight, clean stems. I had some recently that was like that.