Anyone else splitting logs smaller due to wet weather

[cessna]

As my log stacks are outside, uncovered, I am splitting wood down in to smaller logs due to the extremely wet October/November weather, so that logs will dry out quicker in customers log stores, I was wondering if any one else is doing the same. A lot of my wood is smaller diameter (100/160mm) and although it dried out really well through the summer it seems to have reabsorbed moisture.

Not the sort of logs to go customers that say "Can you please drop them into the cellar!!!! So much for a nice bit of breeze and sun to keep the logs aired.

[arniecardigan]

Worth just covering the tops.... bung a few pallets on top and secure a tarp on top of them so its off the logs.....mine are outside with just the tops covered and down around 20-23%!!

[coppiceer]

Worth just covering the tops.... bung a few pallets on top and secure a tarp on top of them so its off the logs.....mine are outside with just the tops covered and down around 20-23%!!

 

I do the same thing. I only cut wood for my own persoal use, but, after considerable experimentation, I have found that splitting wood when green and stacking in this way is the quickest system to get the moisture content down to a "safe" percentage. The ends which were exposed to the rain eventually recorded the lowest moisture content once those logs had been in the house for a few days. When I say "safe" I mean a lot less problems with tar build up in my woodburner/chimney and a lot fewer lectures from my chimney sweep.

[ThrustSSC]

I do the same thing. I only cut wood for my own persoal use, but, after considerable experimentation, I have found that splitting wood when green and stacking in this way is the quickest system to get the moisture content down to a "safe" percentage. The ends which were exposed to the rain eventually recorded the lowest moisture content once those logs had been in the house for a few days. When I say "safe" I mean a lot less problems with tar build up in my woodburner/chimney and a lot fewer lectures from my chimney sweep.

 

An interesting point there: "The ends which were exposed to the rain eventually recorded the lowest moisture content once those logs had been in the house for a few days".

 

I had some 'rails' that a delivered load were stacked on. The field was very wet in 2012 and they were utterly soaking by the time I'd cut up the wood stacked on them. I cut them up and put them aside for my own use some time in the future after what I expected would be a loooong drying process.

 

They dried remarkably quickly and were some of the driest logs I had that winter. While initially this appears counter-intuitive, I wonder if soaking the logs does something to the internal structures that enable them to then dry quicker - e.g. by 'jamming' the internal water transport tubes open?

[woodrascal]

I wonder if soaking the logs does something to the internal structures that enable them to then dry quicker - e.g. by 'jamming' the internal water transport tubes open?

 

I've noticed this too. We cut and split around 4 cubes of oak and then stacked them in a large covered, but well vented store. Later in the year we got another 3 cubes of oak (from the same massive tree) that were cut and split but left in the wood for several months. We then stacked these very wet logs in a store and a couple of months later they were much drier than the previous batch that had been 'optimally' stored for longer.

[cessna]

Worth just covering the tops.... bung a few pallets on top and secure a tarp on top of them so its off the logs.....mine are outside with just the tops covered and down around 20-23%!!

 

 

Thanks for that Arnie. I must do that,a bit late now but winter has a long way to go. I will try and put some pallets on top of sheets as well as stack in a very exposed site as wind and rain comes from the west. I am north of Cirencester. Thanks.