Wet wood?? try these methods to dry it for faster use.

Harry Nutczak

I have a few cords (full cords) of Oak that was cut last year, it is still not dry enough to cook with and we are fast approaching our busy season and the DPP-70 loves to have a steady diet of fuelwood at 15% moisture content or less.

So I am doing a few experiments on how to get my cooking wood ready t use in a faster methed than the usual 12-14 montsh need to season Oak. (Oak takes extra long for the moisture to leave, sometimes 2 years is not long enough)

I have experimented in the past with a clear plasic tent suspended above my wood stack ends left open for airflow, and sides staked to the ground so the condensation travels to the ground instead of being redposited onto the wood. The results were good, But I want better!

the Holzausen method of stacking, Instead of building the normal holzhausen that requires 6+ full cords of wood, I built a few smaller one that fir nicely onto a shipping pallet, If you decide to build a holzhausen, make sure every layer your splits are tilted towards the center of the pile, if not, you will experience a blow-out and all that hard work gets scattered on the ground. been there, done that!

Solar kiln for wood drying;
A shipping container would be a great start, but for maximum heat absorption you would need to cut it apart to get the proper angles to get the most sunlight channeled into it.
A hoop-style green house with a ventilation fan to remove the wet air would be good

You could build a DIY solar wood kiln from plywod and plans on Mother Earth news website for a few hundred dollars too, I may go that way to see what it does for me in a few weeks.

here are the current plans, erect a wire fence around one of my mini hozhausen stacks, warp the fencing with black plastic, and cover the top with clear plastic, add some vent holes to the bottom and the top for airflow so the moisture can escape, but the precipitation stays out.

I will post my results as I check my wood moisture contents with a guage to see my progress against an uncovered control pile.

Moisture leaves the wood from the cut ends, split wood will dry faster than unsplit becuase heat is able to penetrate the wood easier the thinner it is. When felling a tree, leave the crown intact and the leaves on to facilitate more rapid drying of the wood through the normal siphon system and evaporation by the leaves. This alone can reduce moisture content by 10-12% in as little as 1-weeks time.

heat and airflow are good things, plenty of each will decrease the amount of time needed to dry your cooking or firewood.
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

Char Grilla · Posted: May 05 2009 Post subject:

Hey, would cutting the wood into chunks work faster? Let's say you have a bunch of 4-6" thick logs. Cut 'em down in about 4" sections, so that the chuck is 4" long, and 6" thick. I have some greener wood I just did this with, but I don't know if it will expediate the drying process.

Harry Nutczak · Posted: May 05 2009 Post subject:

From my research and trials I have found "The shorter the length, the quicker it will dry".

The grain of the wood runs lengthwise, and this is also the direction of water traveling through the tree from the roots to leaves, and Moisture exits through these same passages. so the shorter the distance between ends, the quicker it can migrate and evaporate. And the smaller the chunk, the more area exposed to heat to drive evaporation out.

I found that there is a company building kilns to dry firewood now, due to several travel bans on wood, these kilns are able to heat the wood to 160 degrees internally and kill any insects so they can legally move this kiln treated wood over state lines now. They are finding 20 hours from fresh cut 80% moiture wood taken down to 20% or less at 220 degrees kiln temperature. it is not economically feasible for wood that is not traveling, but for the big firewood brokers it has saved their business.
_________________
Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

Char Grilla · Posted: May 08 2009 Post subject:

So I cut some ash into small chunks last week. I didn't know they were green (about 4 mos since cut). They are 6" wide, and about 4" long. How long would you estimate for them to dry out?

Harry Nutczak · Posted: May 08 2009 Post subject:

Hell Fire Grill · Posted: May 08 2009 Post subject:

Harry Im not familiar with holzausen method or the solar kiln. Can you post links to that information if its not to much trouble? Thanks

Harry Nutczak · Posted: May 08 2009 Post subject:

This is a case study done by the USFS on drying fresh cut split red-oak
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fplrn254.pdf
A temporary solar kiln could be compared to a greenhouse, you just need something to trap the sunlight and hold the heat to get that water to evap out quicker.
Some people have experimented with using a dehumidifier in a closed building with good success (I think electric costs would outweight any benefit though)
others build a wooden box with a glass top at a 45 degree angle, I did 2 smaller holzhausens with wire fencing around them, wrapped in clear plastic with an air gap at the bottom and top for airflow, I rely on the convection currents from the heat generated by the sun to create a draft and the moisture to be carried away.

here is a link to a holzhausen being constructed with pictures
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/pat3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/holtzhausen.htm&usg=__MHnoJLZTYa1A1Y0ULufQ-itQuvE=&h=432&w=576&sz=61&hl=en&start=14&sig2=otEeMzm2PKK36hTl1fu5ww&um=1&tbnid=QQR5sv4lp_tgaM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=134&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dholzhausen%2Bfirewood%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1T4GGIC_enUS311US311%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=1rQDSszVMZLIM4flsOME
_________________
Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

daddywoofdawg · Posted: May 26 2009 Post subject:

why couldn't you build something like a burn barrel laid on it's side with a stove pipe going into a "shed"with the wood in there to kiln dry it use the trash wood to fire the burner.

zangler · Joined: 22 May 2009 Posts: 5

i am not sure this is helpful advice...but in Hawaii, they bury it in sand for a few weeks...comes out nice and dry.

Harry Nutczak · Posted: May 27 2009 Post subject: