What is seasoned?

[Nick B]

Most of my wood is around the 20 - 25% I would sooner not sell the wood if higher

[skyhuck]

Never risked that, the saying was fell on Xmas Eve, transport on Xmas day and mill on Boxing day.

 

Oak was often felled in late winter, left at stump and extracted after the hay harvest and then milled in the Autumn so that initial drying in the stick was not too fast.

 

AJH

 

I was talking about trees that had to be felled in summer , trees that are being removed to make room for development etc, but which are of furniture grade.

[Tom D]

The tar isn't soluble in water Dean, it will readily burn though if there is enough air,hence stoves recommending that they are burned full bore after each re-fuelling,to burn off all the tar. It is vaporised tar that gives the flames, once the tar is gone you're left with carbon which glows rather than flames.

 

Water can not pass 100 degrees until all of it has been turned into a gas, so a wet log will stay at 100 deg until all the moisture is gone. The boiling point of tar is much higher and theoretically won't be reached until all the water is gone, (in reality the edge of the log will be burning while the centre is still cold) and so as the wet log burns the moisture and tar is slowly released and the flue stays cold, with a dry log the log gets hot quickly boiling the tar more quickly too.

 

The flue needs to be above the condensation point of the tar for its full length in order for all the tar vapour to pass right out of the top, dry wood will make this easier to achieve.

[Johny Walker]

checked these the other day,i dont think ther going any lower with the amount a damp in the air ,

[openspaceman]

I was talking about trees that had to be felled in summer , trees that are being removed to make room for development etc, but which are of furniture grade.

 

Sorry I missed that point.

 

BTW felling trees in leaf in order to cause water loss is known as sour felling.

 

AJH

[Tom D]

Just googled this up..... there's a lot of chemicals in wood!

http://burningissues.org/pdfs/tablewoodsmokeweightnov02%20.pdf

[StephF]

I was told some time ago by a proper old-timer that the trees they used tu cut were always felled in late spring/early summer and then left for a month or so before snedding and processing further.

 

The reasoning was that the trees in full leaf would desperately try and stay alive and pulled much of the moisture out of the wood as they were just in full leaf. They'd then cut them after the leaves had died off.

 

I don't know how much moisture would be removed but I'd guess a fair bit?

 

Anyone tried this?

(sorry for the derail)

 

Worked with a french guy a few weeks ago, he told us where he came from, a bark remover is used late spring to ring bark trees destined for firewood (thinnings I presumed), and then the tree is left to die and season on the stump,(at least 1-2 years I think), when felled it is ready to split and burn, would save a lot of problems with storage space needed to dry out stacks of timber.

Anyone heard of this?

[moses123]

i done delivery today and customer had tester it read 38 some 25 i told her shes a lucky girl

[Cookie]

I think there's to much paranoia involved with mc, aided by the fact unless you have a very expensive meter its never going to be too near the mark anyway!? nether is it something you can put a time scale on as said before every bit of wood is different as are the drying seasons. If it looks dry and feels dry then its seasoned in my book and it works for me.

[Crazy Cutter]

Worked with a french guy a few weeks ago, he told us where he came from, a bark remover is used late spring to ring bark trees destined for firewood (thinnings I presumed), and then the tree is left to die and season on the stump,(at least 1-2 years I think), when felled it is ready to split and burn, would save a lot of problems with storage space needed to dry out stacks of timber.

Anyone heard of this?

 

I said about this a few weeks ago but nobody thought it was a good idea as beech would be too brittle for a processor! My best wood is squirrel killed i just struggle to kill the trees no matter how deep i cut?