wood burning question

[4nTN]

I bought a load of wood last month off a guy for $45.00.It was oak mostly and seasoned for about 10 years in an old mans barn.Man,did that wood burn hot.Best burning wood I ever had.And it burnt pretty slow to.
Well I`m out of it to my dismay.I bought another load off of the same guy,paid the same price.He said it was about 3 years old and its mostly oak with some poplar.This wood is giving me a time.I can hardly keep it going and the amazing thing is that it hardly gives off any heat.I easily had my house up to 77 degrees when it was single digits outside with a door open.Now its in the 30`s outside and I can`t get the house past 67 degrees.And thats after babying the fire all day!
The wood does feel a little damp,but he did drive it over in the pouring rain.It`s very frustrating,and I`m freezing!
I brought two nights worth indoors maybe that will help,but it dosn`t seem that wet just damp.It does crack a lot when it burns.

[Oldcountryboy]

The woods not to pithy is it? Can you look at the end of the wood and see if there's a solid wood in the middle with a corky type ring around the edge? If it is, this means it's pithy which means it has stayed damped and is rotting on the outside. This will hold dampness and not burn very well. It will smolder a lot.

Can you see mushrooms/fungus on the outer bark of any of the wood? If so it's rotting and getting pithy.

[4nTN]

no it`s not rotting.In fact I just a piece or two in the stove and it`s solid and very heavy.

[RW kansas hogs]

It could be still Green, If its very heavy thats what it sounds like to me. Or maybe the guy sold you some crap wood, It mite have came from the same barn but not be the same wood that you got before.

Thats why i cut my own wood so i know what i have and how long it has cured, I have 3 dump truck loads that have to cut and split for next fall

[ChristieAcres]

Sounds like you got taken, sorry to hear that

DH heated with wood for twenty years and was very careful when he purchased rounds after we ran out of firewood early Spring of 2010. He vowed not to be in that situation again. So, he now has enough rounds for two more Winters (we still have plenty of dry split firewood in our wood shed for this Winter). One way he was able to accumulate that much was to log a small part of our property to increase the sun exposure to our orchard. Also, to clean up the logs the county workers leave on the side of the roads when clearing for the power lines. We got a lot of Douglas Fir, Maple, and Alder that way. The nice thing about being ahead by 2 Winters, is getting even further ahead by staying on every opportunity we get (getting all our wood FREE these days). DH designed/built an Industrial Log Splitter, and with the cost of everything so high, real glad we have that! Yes, agree, pays to cut your own wood!

[haypoint]

Wood that has seasoned will have cracks in the end grain. Unsplit wood dries slowly.
Perhaps the guy streaches the truth, the 10 years might have been 2 years and the 3 year old wood might be more like 3 months.

Buy your wood a year in advance.

[tamsam]

I had some with the same problem. I found that if you get a big bed of coals and keep adding as the wood burns away, [putting the fresh wood in a hot fire] it will slow the fire for a little and then pick back up. Or if you have some you can mix with it. I just threw a hunk of coal in with mine and made it burn that way. Hope this helps. Sam
PS You may have gotten wood from a tree that was hit by lighting. My dad and Grand Dad swore wood was hard to burn after being struck by lighting.

[Ky-Jeeper]

3yr old cut wood should burn fine. That wood shouldn't be heavy unless it is damp. I have burnt wood like that this year. Get it under roof with a box fan on it. After two to three days of drying you mix it with seasoned wood. At lease cover it leaving some ventilation at the bottom. Around this area when wood gets spongy we call it "Doughty"-----lol. Good luck.

[TnAndy]

The first load you bought was seasoned.....I'd kinda doubt the 10 year story, but it was at least a year old.

The second load was cut a few months ago, and is not seasoned.

Now you know the difference.

If you plan to buy wood, buy it NOW for next winter's use......wood sellers are generally folks that couldn't make it in the used car business

[kirkmcquest]

Originally Posted by TnAndy

The first load you bought was seasoned.....I'd kinda doubt the 10 year story, but it was at least a year old.

The second load was cut a few months ago, and is not seasoned.

Now you know the difference.

If you plan to buy wood, buy it NOW for next winter's use......wood sellers are generally folks that couldn't make it in the used car business

I agree, it shouldn't be heavy like you say. Its heavy because of moisture content and if thats the case there is no way that wood is 3 years old. At one year( or less) the wood should be dry and ready to burn

[just_sawing]

Dealing with wood every day TNandy is correct. The other part is if you had poplar that was 3 months old it would burn fast and hot. Also the 1 yr poplar would be light. I imagine that you don't have Oak as you think but something like Gum. Green Gum will give more heat carring the wood in than burning. My avise would be purchase more somewhere ealse and let this dry.

[4nTN]

no it`s oak, and poplar and yes I imagine it`s just wet.Actually the couple of days worth I have here in the house is burning better as its had a chance to dry out a little.

[davel745]

We cut only red oak and I try to select trees that are not lumber grade. Dried red oak lasts a long time. This is the first year we aren’t burning really green wood. I plan to start to cut as soon as the weather clears enough. Maybe May and it takes me a few months of working two to three hours a day to get it done. I can only work about two hours at a time (bad back and older than the hills).

Dave

[countryboy84]

If the wood is Tulip poplar and was was not dried in open air is can case harden just like in a kiln. We had about 80 2x6s do this. We put them in the loft of the barn hot up there little air flow the lumber felt dry in about 9 months and acted like it when trying to nail it up but we kept the scrap to burn in the shed as cold weather was setting in. Even though it had been sawn and put up for at least 9 months it still boiled a larg amount of sap out when we burned it.

I have never really burnt season wood. The house that I growed up in was a normale 2 story house about 2000sqft. We cut wood in September for the winter and at time you would have to open the front door even if the temp out side was in the single digits. 90% of what we cut was cheastnut oak the rest was red oak or black oak. One thing though is that we had a AIR TIGHT stove. That thing put out more heat then any other I have ever owen. Tried to get Dad to sell it since the went to LP and a small wood stove upstaires but he wont.

[Beeman]

A green piece of oak will have a winey smell and usually a shine to it. Green wood will burn if the coals are hot enough and it will burn slower but not hotter. Trying to buy seasoned wood now is almost impossible. If you watch most people around here don't cut wood until they need it now, it's really odd but what can I say. Few have wood piles drying them like you see other areas. Almost everyone around burns green wood, what can I say it makes them happy. $45 for a pickup load of split oak delivered is not a bad price even if it's green. You should be buying wood now for next year. This is the time of year for cutting and buying wood, once spring hits you won't find many selling wood. For next year I'd suggest finding a logger now that will deliver you a truck load of logs for firewood. This way you can cut,split and stack at your schedule and have dry wood for next year. You do have to cut and split it now so it dries for next year.

[texican]

Growing up, no one, repeat no one, ever split, stacked and dried out their firewood. If you ran out, you went and cut down a tree, most likely on some timber companies property (they wanted their 'trash' trees... anything but pine, removed), and hopefully it didn't need splitting. As long as you could roll the chunk into the house and get er up on and in the fireplace, it was good. The poor tree'd still be screaming about some texas chainsaw murderer... it's cries fell on deaf, yet warm, ears. Green wood would burn all day, or all night. If you somehow found a dried up log, cutting it would kill your chainsaw blade. If you threw some of that dried out wood on the fire, it'd just burn slap up in no time. Everyone had fireplaces. Don't recall anyone anywhere having woodstoves, except barrel stoves in deer camps. Sure, they'd flame off and burn the soot out of the chimneys once or twice a week. Throw some fatty pine knots on green wood and it'll burn like a kiln.

As to the OP... sounds like you learned a lesson, caveat emptor. I think TnAndy was being very kind to the stereotypical wood chopper. Even if the wood is free, it takes a lot of work to get a cord of wood processed. Each chunk is picked up twice, then split, then stacked on a trailer, then unloaded and stacked again. That's lifting over a ton four or five times. Not dissing anyone that does it for a living, but it's a hard way to make a wage. Consider the hours, the fuel, supplies, and your talking sub minimum wage.

If you don't cut your own, you don't know what your getting. It's all about trust.

I've still got about twenty chunks on the back porch, cut off a red oak limb that fell last summer. It'll stay there as long as the free gas keeps whizzing in.

[highlands]

If it was left as logs for three years it could be still fairly wet. The poplar simply isn't good burning wood.

[4nTN]

Beeman,your right about it being shiney and winey smelling..so maybe the guy meant 3 months or maybe I misunderstood because it is pretty green I`d say.I`m not complaining about the price $45 is a decent price for delivered and stacked wood.
I know he`s telling the truth about the first load he brought me.It was his granddads barn he got it out of,and it has been sitting over 10 years.It was dirty but worth every penny.I wish there was a never-ending supply of that!
We have bought a load of logs that the local sawmill will deliver for $200. My husband and son`s split,and it`s lasted two seasons.Nowdays we don`t have much time to do it ourselves,It`s still cheaper than electric or heating oils.Solar or geothermal would be ideal...maybe oneday.

Oak that is stored in the open will not dry out completely. Wood that crackles when it burns is not dry. The cells exploding from the boiling water make the crackling sound. Bring several days worth of the damp wood inside and pile it where it's warm. Put 3 or 4 logs close enough to the stove so they get warm to the touch but not so close they catch fire and they will dry out some. Use them next and replace. Try to burn cured wood mixed with the wet. The local lumber mill sells hardwood slabs and they cure fast if they are cut to stove length and stacked where they are sheltered. Leave about an inch of ash in the bottom of the stove. This helps insulate the stove and you will get a better bed of coals that last longer. Popple burns just fine provided that you split it so it can dry out. The bark seems waterproof so I have seen popple logs that rot rather than dry out.

[haypoint]

Originally Posted by texican

Growing up, no one, repeat no one, ever split, stacked and dried out their firewood. If you ran out, you went and cut down a tree, most likely on some timber companies property (they wanted their 'trash' trees... anything but pine, removed), and hopefully it didn't need splitting. As long as you could roll the chunk into the house and get er up on and in the fireplace, it was good. The poor tree'd still be screaming about some texas chainsaw murderer... it's cries fell on deaf, yet warm, ears. Green wood would burn all day, or all night. If you somehow found a dried up log, cutting it would kill your chainsaw blade. If you threw some of that dried out wood on the fire, it'd just burn slap up in no time. Everyone had fireplaces. Don't recall anyone anywhere having woodstoves, except barrel stoves in deer camps. Sure, they'd flame off and burn the soot out of the chimneys once or twice a week. Throw some fatty pine knots on green wood and it'll burn like a kiln.

As to the OP... sounds like you learned a lesson, caveat emptor. I think TnAndy was being very kind to the stereotypical wood chopper. Even if the wood is free, it takes a lot of work to get a cord of wood processed. Each chunk is picked up twice, then split, then stacked on a trailer, then unloaded and stacked again. That's lifting over a ton four or five times. Not dissing anyone that does it for a living, but it's a hard way to make a wage. Consider the hours, the fuel, supplies, and your talking sub minimum wage.

If you don't cut your own, you don't know what your getting. It's all about trust.

I've still got about twenty chunks on the back porch, cut off a red oak limb that fell last summer. It'll stay there as long as the free gas keeps whizzing in.

I have heated in a northern climate for over 30 years. I know about firewood.
I was just about to call BS on the claim about burning wet, freshly cut firewood, but when you said "fireplace" I had to back off. A fireplace can have all the air it wants, no way to shut it down. Most of the heat gets sucked up the chimney. Under that condition green wood could be used.

That screaming you hear from those fresh cut unsplit logs is the moisture turning to steam. It takes a lot of the wood's available heat to turn a lot of water to steam.

I get a lot more heat from dry wood, but, as you said, an uncontroled fire will burn up dry wood, poof! Without air intake control, moisture in wood is about the only way to control the heat output, I call it smoldering.

20 years ago, a window and sash company opened up near here. They would cut out all the pine knots and finger joint everything. I got a pickup truck load of four by four scraps with a big hard knot in the middle. Was easy to get the cookstove up to temperature with a few kiln dryed pine knots.