Quick-curing firewood

January 25, 2005 1:09 PM

Our next door neighbor offered to split the cost of a cord of wood with us, and we agreed. However, it ends up our neighbor bought wood that is not quite cured yet. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might speed up the curing process? Is this even possible?
posted by terrapin to Home & Garden (10 answers total)

Stack it so that air can get to both cut ends of the logs, and cover just the top of the stack, so that air can flow through the pile. Face one side with cut ends toward the sun. Wait. There's really no speeding this sort of thing up.
posted by Framer at 1:13 PM on January 25, 2005

Response by poster: We were considering leaving some choice logs on the radiator in the hopes of drying out the wood faster. Afterall, my skin is dry and can be :)
posted by terrapin at 1:16 PM on January 25, 2005

If you're just using a log or two in a fireplace, you can bring some of the wood inside and stick it someplace that is warm and dry and NOT near your woodstove/fireplace, perhaps a place with a lot of sun. The downside to this is that bugs and other crap come in along with it. For woodstove-type amounts of wood, I've had pretty good luck leaving it like Framer says and then burning new wood and old wood together when I have hot fires. Watch out when just burning newer uncured wood because in addition to being harder to light and generally giving a more crackly fire, there is also a higher danger of creosote deposits in your chimney, so make sure to get the woodstove fire good and hot once every burn cycle.
posted by jessamyn at 1:20 PM on January 25, 2005

Response by poster: jessamyn: yeah, that is our main concern (creosote) especially since we just spent mucho dinero on fixing our chimney.

This isn't a wood stove. Plain old fireplace.

Thanks. Guess we will just have to let this half cord cure for another season. :(
posted by terrapin at 1:29 PM on January 25, 2005

Believe it or not, you can microwave it. (Buy a second microwave, though; don't use the one you reheat leftovers in.) This is a technique woodworkers use to quickly season green wood. Google will turn up lots of links -- here's one.
posted by mudpuppie at 2:21 PM on January 25, 2005

Well, if your fireplace is big enough, once you've gotten a fire started with better logs, you can actually stand a few less-cured logs on their ends, towards the side walls of the firebox.

That way, you're kind of "quick-curing" the next batch of logs as you're burning the previous set. This really works best if you're doing the "roaring fire all day" thing, so you're continuously replacing the logs, but as long as the logs aren't too green, it works pretty well.
posted by LairBob at 2:24 PM on January 25, 2005

Fireplaces aren't all that efficient to begin with, though, and the reason people tend to avoid green wood has to do with efficiency. Those logs you got will burn just fine, but what happens is that a sizable portion of the energy of the fire is going toward the process of essentially boiling off the water in there, instead of into heating the air. Since fireplaces tend to be first about ambiance and secondarily about heat, this might not be too much of an issue for you.

Besides, wet wood gives off more of those nice, satisfying crackling sounds.
posted by Framer at 4:34 PM on January 25, 2005

Response by poster: Thanks for all the comments. We had already considered keeping a log "on deck" in the box, which is what led me to wonder about the radiator (or next to the boiler in the cellar, for that matter).

This is about ambiance and not about heat, Framer. We like the crackle of greener logs, but we prefer to allow ourselves to be hypnotised by larger flames. However, we don't always want to be sitting in front of the fire, staring and drooling. Hence, a mixture of green and cured is probably ideal, giving flames as well as extending the burn time.

I guess I will bring in a few choice clean logs and see if they will dry out faster in the house. Meanwhile, I will pick up a bundle of dry logs in town when we really want flames.

Thanks all.

BTW, my wife and I aren't fire n00bs. I've just never been in the position of having a neighbor buy wood for me. I'm buying next time.
posted by terrapin at 4:55 PM on January 25, 2005

I vote for stacking an armload inside ... it worked fine for me. I got a 1/3 cord of decently seasoned wood delivered ... ... ... during a torrential downpour, in an open-bed pickup truck. After a week or two of drying in the garage, it's finally reaching the point where it burns decently well without help, but starting it is still kinda painful and some pieces really crack and pop. Of course, my fireplace is apartment-tiny, so that probably doesn't help.
posted by SpecialK at 6:31 PM on January 25, 2005

You might consider buying some Georgia fatwood (for example, here), as kindling. The pieces burn so steadily (and long) that you can actually hold one in your hand for a while (like a tall candle).
posted by WestCoaster at 9:46 PM on January 25, 2005