Coalpail.com Forum

I had an oak log that dried for one year in log form. Then I cut and split it and stored inside attached garage for a year. After those two years I weighed two pieces and each was 5 pounds when I brought them inside the house. After two weeks drying inside the coal heated house, each had lost another one pound of weight.

So nosmoke's practice of house drying at least partially seasons the wood he uses. And those woods dry a lot faster than oak. A very dry house makes a big difference.

For a few years I was using a mix of hard wood in the range for the shoulder months. It was cut down only a few months before. I'd split anything bigger than 4 inches. Then it got stack it on the covered back porch.

I'd bring in about a days worth from the porch and stack it around the stove. Some was stacked on the back mantel shelf and the water reservoir end of the range as the next wood to be used.

As the wood on top of the stove was used up I'd move more wood from the indoor stack onto the stove and then bring more wood in and stack it near the stove. By the time the wood went into the stove it was noticeable lighter and dryer. I had no problems with creosote buildup, even though the range was so good at extracting heat from the flue gases.

To be fair, it was all cut to 15-16 inch lengths and because the range firebox is small, I split it to a smaller size than I would have for a larger firebox stove such as an Oak, or wood stove.

That being cut to smaller size helped some to dry it sooner, but being indoors near a hot stove did the most drying. Some of it dried so quickly that it had splits in the end grain by the time it went into the stove.

Paul

I suppose i need to update my old computer...
It somehow interpreted dry house dried wood as green wood in several of nosmoke's posts...

I guess that makes me look pretty silly...
For believing the words my computer printed in this thread...
I will try to better interpret words like this next time.

WH, he said green--=top of previous page--your computers fine.

freetown fred wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 21, 2017 11:25 am

WH, he said green--=top of previous page--your computers fine.

I am guessing your computer may be a few yrs old too... lol

Green wood - just one more thing for Cookin' With Coal .

Paul

I burned green slabwood my first year here, straight from an Amish sawmill, but it was mostly burr oak with some other hardwoods mixed in. it was a little tough to burn right off my truck but given a week to dry inside my house it burned alright. The most interesting fact was I burned 13 very full pickup loads that year, and 9 the next year when it had some time to dry outside. I dont remember a soot problem but I let her rip good once a day. I had a good chimney though.

If your trying to save some handling steps and if you have a few old wagons throw the firewood in those to cure for a year, cover them in the fall when its dry, and take the wood off the wagon into your house. It saves handling it once or twice and no bending to get it. I like doing it that way.

windyhill4.2 wrote: ↑

Tue. Nov. 21, 2017 11:22 am

I suppose i need to update my old computer...
It somehow interpreted dry house dried wood as green wood in several of nosmoke's posts...

I guess that makes me look pretty silly...
For believing the words my computer printed in this thread...
I will try to better interpret words like this next time.

I was thinking of that today, it was rather contradictory!

The other guys are right, it goes into the house green, right next to the stove and I always have three piles going. Dried for awhile, drying, and then just brought into the house. The people that said the wood was often checked from drying was right. Keep in mind my wood is fora pot bellied stove so it is 6 inches long mostly, 4 inches in diameter, and so VERY small. Cedar, fir and spruce dries pretty fast, but I do call it green wood because I cut it right off the stump. You really would be surprised how light the wood is when it goes into the stove.

I was never offended by what you said, and I can see why you were confused.

NS, i wasn't confused. I was using sarcasm to respond to franco saying that your wood was house dried & yet i read a number of times that you were burning it green.
When my wife was still living,she would tell me that no one gets sarcasm,once again she proved to be right.

Oh well,i have gotten several laughs out of it.