Splitting and Seasoning Oak

[Honda]

To season oak in one year it needs to be split into one inch slabs and stacked in a dry draughty place. 

[Muddy42]

Some people disagree with this, but personally I like a combination of outdoor and indoor seasoning.  The weathering (rain, sun and wind) effect is always stronger outside.  Then you bring it inside for the final few months.  By the time is ready, I can barely tell what species it is.

[Muddy42]

14 hours ago, Gabriel82 said:

@Muddy42 well ,to each his own 😁

 

But let's face it: that wood has been outside all its life. 

I like to give it "a home" for its final time on this world 🙄 

 

I would force dry it but summers here are hot enough AND lately dry 

As in no rain for weeks and no humidity in air...

 

Now when I see/encounter fog I marvel at it ... 

Nevermind rain. 

Even in winter air is so dry that skin cracks, especially lips/face...

 

If a blizzard catches you outside for too long you will have cracked skin or worse if ut's minus 10-15 Celcius...

 

This is one reason I use tons of wood briquettes: I know for sure they're dry under 15% and I don't have to cut "slices" from a log with the chainsaw or split it.

Just grab a cutter ,a 10 kg bag, slice it open and just cut  wood briquettes in 6-10 cm long pieces. They even light easy .

I couldn't ask for more.. 

 

Of course I use wood for the good bed of coals it creates and helps burn the briquettes. 

 

Price is also a reason: there isn't anything ready to burn cheaper than wood briquettes. 

 

Plus the company I buy from delivers it to your home. 

Driver has hydraulic lift on the truck AND electric lifter that can take a 960kg pallet anywhere you want. 

 

With wood logs is nowhere near as easy. 

A lot more work to be honest.

 

But I prefer wood logs straight from the forest because I know the man selling it for years.

 

Not once he tried to "screw me" .

Got to love the guy 😁

And the logs are rott free, hardwood .

 

There are other options too. 

Before the war in Ukraine you could buy a 40 ton truck full of oak "residue" small parts from wood factories from Ukraine.

 

Almost ready to put in the stove.

All legal, but this was the only condition: they sold only in a 40 ton truck.

 

And you must have the space to store that much firewood. 

From memory  I think one truck had 30 cubic meters of oak in small 10-20x10-15 cm pieces and 5 cm thick.

 

Almost perfect for fire in a ceramic tile stove!

That it's all gone/destroyed today...

 

That's how I got to wood briquettes. 

Almost the same thing,even easier to handle and cut in small pieces(with a knife...).

 

This could be a solution for those who want really dry firewood: a 40 ton truck every 2 years, dry it all in oven type drier and life is good and warm 😎 

 

For lazy people there's always natural gas or fuel heating  oil. 

 

 

 

The ceramic tile stove sounds amazing! I'm afraid I cant think of anything worse than wood briquettes- all that processing, packaging and the cost. I'm very luck to have the space and time to enjoy making firewood.

 

This is a great read:

Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking, and Drying Wood the Scandinavian Way

[Stere]

I don't get why you use briquettes also as are they not  more expensive?

 

Are they more like coal so you don't have to feed fire so often?

 

Id think hornbeam would burn just as long as a briquette?

 

Romania seem to have a lot more forest  area than  he UK thus I assume its a lot cheaper to get firewood.

 

Some Softwood is always handy also to get a  fire going fast,

Edited November 11, 2025 by Stere

[Muddy42]

16 minutes ago, Gabriel82 said:

wood briquettes are eco stuff. 

 

Before that they are just garbage wood dust.

 

Add some energy and technology et voila: you have a product that can heat your stove/house.

 

Same thing for wood pellets. 

Those are good for fully automated central heating.

 

Just make sure the "fuel tank" doesn't run out of wood pellets. 

 

Fire wood is nice ,in theory.

 

Until you realize you have to gas up the chainsaw, carefully cut a big as tree ,watch out where it falls , clean it so that only the main trunck is left clean, cut it up AGAIN to the length/size of your truck trailer, secure it and transport it to processing factory...

 

And I haven't gotten into the chainsaw-it again in slices long enough for your stove...

 

Then split it.

 

Then stack it.

 

Then wait for it to dry up...

😱

First time I got wood briquettes I was amazed shocked and in awhhh 😂

 

"What's that you say mister truck driver? 

You have a hydraulic elevator? 

AND an electric fork lift?! 

Where do I want the pallets placed?" 

😁😎

 

I did nothing that day but hand him the money in cash. about 750 euros. 

 

And the damn things heated the stove just the same as regular wood,wich I had to do all of the above mentioned things...

 

My Makita EA6100 will get used only once every two years 🥳 

 

And I had "prepared myself" with another 7 tooth sprocket a new original 20"  blade plus an Oregon .325 chain... 

 

I'll be old and senile before I destroy both blades/chains and chainsaw on fire wood if that driver keeps doing that thing with the hydraulic elevator and electric fork lifter... 😁

 

 

 

Chainsaw?  I only use that for storm clearance. The majority of my firewood gets stored as lengths then in June every I process it with a hired grab and a 12 tonne splitter with conveyor belt. I burn the splitter offcuts and sawdust myself.  The only manual handling is carrying it to the stove from the grain sack. I cant think of anything worse than briquettes - packaged, expensive, unnatural and un cosy.

 

[sime42]

Real wood briquettes are stuck together solely with the inherent Lignin I think, which melts under the high pressures and temperatures involved in the manufacturing process. So there shouldn't be any glue in them at least. 

I've been burning some of those little cubic pallet separator blocks recently. Hopefully they're made the same way as the briquettes, as I normally use the ash from the wood burner around the garden. 

[openspaceman]

37 minutes ago, sime42 said:

Real wood briquettes are stuck together solely with the inherent Lignin I think, which melts under the high pressures and temperatures involved in the manufacturing process. So there shouldn't be any glue in them at least. 

I've been burning some of those little cubic pallet separator blocks recently. Hopefully they're made the same way as the briquettes, as I normally use the ash from the wood burner around the garden. 

My boss in 2005 had a 2" briquette maker and that only used sawdust and the theory was as you say, same with pellets but the friction only causes a thin skin of plasticised lignin, so the larger diameter briquettes tended to fall into wafers if miss handled. You could somehow increase the pressure but this would get so hot they would blacken and produce acrid smoke. Incidentally he was involved with making a machine that made straw "pucks" for burning, it was so mechanically stressful that it was always breaking so they gave up with it.

 

On the smaller pellet machines, which were basically feed cubers, a by product of semi chemical pulp making was used to make up for the lower pressures. It was something like sodium lignosulphite from dissolving the lignin from the pulp.

 

I think those pallet blocks are basically a form of chip board, as such they will be about 7% formaldehyde glue, the smell of which is fairly characteristic so you should be able to tell.

[sime42]

49 minutes ago, openspaceman said:

 

 

I think those pallet blocks are basically a form of chip board, as such they will be about 7% formaldehyde glue, the smell of which is fairly characteristic so you should be able to tell.

 

On closer inspection, I think you're right actually. The blocks do look more like coarse chipboard, without the shiny surface of melted lignin. That's a shame.

 

Do you mean smell the formaldehyde before putting on the fire, or during burning? I can't in either case. Though I'm not surprised at the latter as it's in a closed wood burner. What are the products of combustion? Its simple chemical structure suggests not much, but it's been too many years since I've thought about chemistry. 

 

One of my jobs as a teenager was to go up on to the roof of a barn that my parents used as a large workshop, multi vehicle garage and general storage place, to clean the numerous sky lights. I had to scrub them with a formaldehyde solution to get rid of the moss and algae that built up. Don't think I'll ever forget the smell. I can smell/taste/feel it now when I think about it. Oh, and the roof was composed of asbestos cement sheets. Nice.

 

 

[openspaceman]

12 minutes ago, sime42 said:

Do you mean smell the formaldehyde before putting on the fire, or during burning?

During burning.

 

I can generally tell if someone is burning chipboard, mdf or plywood as I walk past, by the smell. Though if you burn it hot enough there should be no smell, as if you walk by a crematorium you won't notice a mdf coffin burning by the smell. This is because everything has to reach a temperature of 1200C for 1.5 seconds before being sent up the chimney. Event then is has to reach a ejection velocity at the top of the stack ( I can't remember how many metres/second ) that the hot gases carry on up a long way before they are diluted and dispersed.

[sime42]

11 hours ago, openspaceman said:

During burning.

 

I can generally tell if someone is burning chipboard, mdf or plywood as I walk past, by the smell. Though if you burn it hot enough there should be no smell, as if you walk by a crematorium you won't notice a mdf coffin burning by the smell. This is because everything has to reach a temperature of 1200C for 1.5 seconds before being sent up the chimney. Event then is has to reach a ejection velocity at the top of the stack ( I can't remember how many metres/second ) that the hot gases carry on up a long way before they are diluted and dispersed.

 

Thanks. For the esoterica!

 

Crematoria are probably more concerned by certain "culinary" smells than formaldehide .....