Beech Trees cut now

Walstib

I'm cutting down some beech trees on my property for firewood. I cut one down last weekend and I will do another this weekend. They aren't in the way once they're down so I plan on leaving the limbs on to suck some of the moisture out of the wood. Once the leaves turn brown, I plan on limbing and splitting the wood for firewood. Will it be too green to use this year or should I let it season until next year? Thanks

glennak

I would think it would take a year to dry but beech is not a common firewood here.

treeshaveneeds

Unless you split the wood really fine, figure on at least a year to dry - wood generally dries at the rate of 1" thickness per year. Firewood need not be as dry as lumber - but either way, faster drying happens with more surface area, and thinner pieces. If you have some decent size pieces, you might be able to sell a few blocks to a woodturner, or someone wanting to make blocks for planes. I believe beech is the traditional wood used. And it is a beautiful wood to work with, if you can get it to dry without splitting.

Walstib

So I guess cutting them down now and leaving the limbs on for the leaves to suck out the moisture is not going to gain me much?

treeshaveneeds

It will make you feel good (belief system), and the outer cells - Phloem and xylem may be dried more, but it won't do much for the inner wood, and just be more work to clean up later.

Walstib

Thanks - so cut and clean now is better. Split ASAP - stack and season. Got it - Thanks

sueann

"Green wood should never be burned. First it really doesn't generate any heat because the fire ends up just evaporating the moisture inside the wood. Sometimes the water weight equals half the weight of the actual wood so the water content is considerable. Also green wood smokes badly and leaves creosote deposits inside the chimney which is a chief cause of chimney fires. Another problem with green wood comes if you try to cut it. It will often cause a chain saw to hang up which can be really dangerous."



Read more: How to Dry Green Firewood Safely | eHow.com How to Dry Green Firewood Safely | eHow.com

treeshaveneeds

I am not sure how any of us are supposed to cut wood from live trees, if we have to wait until the wood is dry. 80-90% of what I cut is green wood, only a very small amount of time is the wood dry. And green wood cuts best. What was the source of that quote?

Garry Brockley

if you cut, split and stack in small quantities covered and off the floor so there is air movement around the wood then you will find it dries quickly, i used to have 48 individual stacks 3 high undercover and on pallets they dried well in three months in lincolnshire uk. air flow is key.

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glennak

How do you hang up a chainsaw cutting green wood? Is it really dangerous because it might fall down on you? Not a good site to quote from sueanne.

sueann

I thought they meant 'hang' as to when the chainsaw finds it hard to bite Glennak? not exactly hanging up somewhere to fall down on you.

We log up green wood ready for the next year, or even the year after, and the guys here don't seem to have too much bother with that, unless the chainsaws are blunt or they are using one of the smaller one's, then they just use the bigger one's.

They don't split green wood though, as they reckon it's better to let it season out first, as dry wood is easier to split with the axe, so they say.

We have cut down a lot of live trees here, when clearing land for paddocks and barns, we block them for firewood, stack it behind the stables on rio, to keep it off the ground, let it dry then split it and bring it up to the wood shed to burn that winter, when we need it.

Some of that stuff in that article is what I thought was common knowledge? re not burning that well, smoking in the house and clogging the chimney. My grandfather used to say stuff like that. He also used to say it was bad to breathe fumes from green wood in a confined space like the house. That was the bit that interested me mostly, as it's what I thought. I just asked my husband though, and he reckoned green wood was easier to cut as it was softer and no dust, he said he was no expert and just a bushman so not to be quoted lol!

I'm happy to find out some of that advise in the article may not be true though!

loggerBOB

The time honored tradition of "well my dad did it this way" will proceed as follows: 1 Kill the tree standing up. early spring
2 wait till the tree is dead. observed by the loss of all leaf (8-12 weeks) and most of the small branches (4-6 months). late summer
3 continue to wait till bark falls off Autumn
4 in middle of winter take Ute or quad bike and small trailer into bush
5 fell the now bone dry tree foot block and load into available vehicle
6 burn wood without double handling product

Note. may need to wait 2-4 years for tree to dry completely
previous information based on small diameter 100-125 mm trees

Cheers logger BOB