Splitting and Seasoning Oak

[Gabriel82]

@sime42 yes ,it smells weird. maybe it is oak. it was easy to split. decided to call it a day. 3-4 hours of continous splitting wood is the limit for me. there are new days to come for sure. Unless Putin throws a few nukes around here 🙄  I want a hot shower and a warm sleep in my comfy bed (1-2 hours at least). I"ll carry/arrange in stacks what I split today and cover the wood with plastic sheet ,just as much to stop most of the rain. forgot to take a photo of the shed full of dry wood(1 year and counting 😂 ) but I'll be in there or around it tommorow! one last photo 

[Steven P]

Looks like oak, or very similar, slow grown - lots of close growth rings = lots of energy.

 

Splitting should be reasonably easy just now - still fresh, straight grain, and very few branches. I find the small branches are what slows me down the most. Something like that I'd be doing some splits one handed just because it will.

[Gabriel82]

@Steven P I didn't bothered to count rings... Hope it will stay as is/split for at least 1 year or preferably 1 year and about 6-7 months. Basically, 2 summers+ 1 winter to dry up and then into fire with it 😁  

It's my first ever contact with oak ,be it by chainsaw or axe. Even acacia was more difficult to cut , by chainsaw from standing tree(have cut about 10 acacia from a friend, about 25 years old and 10-15 meters tall). Splitting that acacia freshly cut was also more difficult that this oak. Hell, I struggled more splitting that 70 year old tilia tormentosa tree wich a neighbour basically helped me load in a van and unloaded it in front of my house 😂  it was very twisty,grabby, nasty wood logs. Made me more tired in a whole day than this oak did in 3 hours! 

Nevermind few birch and hornbeam "log slices" forgotten in sun because I didn't had time to split them.and at night I like to sleep,not split logs... 

Those birch and hornbeam slices needed a 10 kg hammer plus "other steel things" to get them to split...

Will not repeat that again in future...

Even so, these oak slices have been sitting for two weeks until today...

Last week I wasn't even in town,but in Constanta port... 

Yes it can be split by one hand but my axe weighs around 10-15 kgs... I'm out to split as many and as easy logs I can with as little effort . If I had 5 cubic meters of hardwood split and stacked allready , I would try to fool around too. But I'm running out of time, next week might rain, and I'll be away again for some time too... So it all must be split quick and now! Saw some condensation drops under the plastic sheet when I got home. And nobody touched the 5x6 meters plastic sheet covering the logs... Except some curios cat from neighbours... But this wood is THAT wet and freshly cut... Even with the dry climate and hot summers around here, I doubt it will dry good enough in 1 year! Although I had in one year some birch that fresh and wet that water will gather around the axe when stuck in some big log slice... It dried up well enough in 1 year. But it was birch not oak... 

Good thing I didn't told the man delivering me the wood logs "yeah ,bring me a truck full of hornbeam logs,no rotten pieces please!"... 

Those things don't want to split easy at all... But are good for cold winter nights! And leave little ash too. 

Will see how this oak burns. If not good as hornbeam, I'll have to switch back to big hornbeam logs... With all the downsides and work included  🤔 🙄 even the chainsaw burns about 1 liter more gasoline when cutting about same 4-4,5 cubic meters of hornbeam... These oak logs took exactly 3 liters to cut/slice. 

First time cutting hornbeam I thought the chainsaw had broken 😂 but it didn't... Just drinks up more gasoline...

[Steven P]

Never split acacia but it looks very twisty - a tricky one

[5thelement]

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

Never split acacia but it looks very twisty - a tricky one

Acacia splits surprisingly easily, it can be cleft for post and rail just like Sweetchestnut, turns well, has great colour and burns better than most European hardwoods. 

[Gabriel82]

the shed full of 1 year old wood. was even fuller, 2 meters tall stack and up to the door 😂 

made me think twice: why not double the storage capacity and just fill it with oak or hornbeam?! that way the split wood will definitely stay in place for 2 years for seasoning/drying  

[Mik the Miller]

Oak is my favourite. Yes it takes a while to season (2 years minimum here in Scotland) but it really is the best for my woodstove. Spliting is easy when fresh and I make up a stack of 30mm square pieces as well as the 100/150mm chunks. The smaller pieces are great for rejuvanating the fire and the bigger pieces for a long burn.

[Rob_the_Sparky]

To dry wood you want a lot of air flow (to get rid of the humidity/evaporating water), can't see a lot of that shed but from the photo it looks quite enclosed so drying might be a bit slower than an ideal situation, unless it is more open than it looks.

[Gabriel82]

@Rob_the_Sparky I agree, it should be more "airy" but I never thought about that about 10 years ago when I built it... 

Good thing is the temperature inside at the slightest clear sky and sun... 

Very hot and dry. Unbearable if the door is closed... I couldn't stay 10 minutes in there on a july day,around 11:00 AM... clear sky 😁 

Problem is, around here in winter time, we sometime get blizzards with lots of snow that gets in EVERYWHERE. Even in the attic after a night of sustained winds ,heavy snow I found snow...

So I built it with that "issue" in my mind. 

Even so ,I got snow inside it... 

And in 2012 winter I barely got out of the house... It was THAT much snow... It was around that time I decided a reliable  energy source and heating system was needed! I lost electrical power for about 16-18 hours while outside were minus 11-16 Celcius... Was heating with natural gas central heating... Only thing that actually saved me from freezing was an old ceramic stove still present in the kitchen plus some construction wood leftover forgotten in the attic... 

Nobody could get out of house, electrical team service/maintenance guys couldn't be in all places at once. Even if I had this shed full of driest oak+hornbeam possible back then ,I must have shovled my way to it. Around 15 meters... 

Since then I keep in house about 1-2 days worth of wood for heating and in a big hall that exits straight into the public street the wood briquettes(1 europalet,960 kg) . 

As is the shed has hold up well all these years and the firewood is dry enough! Nothing to clean in chimney although I get up there with the brass round broom every spring/summer. Si far so good 😁 

If it were up to me I'd store the firewood in a solarium using clear plastic sheet with solar panel artificial ventilation. But ,believe me, these things don't survive a normal/proper winter around here... 

Even the roof of a historic political prison wich is 30 meters from my shed got completely ripped off years ago... Almost demolished a few walls too in a winter night... I just got the shed door ripped off from its hinges plus some small damage to the roof of my house... 

I can take pictures with the destroyed ex-prison's roof if you don't believe me... It was in a rehabilitation process ,and after that winter storm it got abandoned like that... 

Except a solid build as you see in the shed ,nothing survives a winter or summer storm here... 

Was thinking if painting it all black 😎 for the 50-70 degrees Celcius temperature gains. But am worried it might burst into flames in full summer sun day...

[Gabriel82]

Forgot to mention: this oak will be stored outside for the next 18-19 months. Have no other choice or place... What I managed to split so far is stored next to the shed ,right near the lateral wall you see in the last picture of the shed. What is left(quite a lot...) will be stored/stacked outsids in the back wall of the shed. And wherever I can find free place. Covered with plastic sheet UV resistant and that's it... Some free space under the stack and lateral one side for some ventilation and easier drying. Will see next 18-19 months if there is any improvement!  I'll try to prolonge starting to burn this oak as long as possible,mixing the allready dried wood with wood briquettes(a mix of beech+oak sawdust) but very dry stuff!  It worked so far, that's why the shed is still full 😁 I know I'm cheating using hardwood briquettes ,even drier than any well seasoned firewood